Although most Americans have heard of sugar plums thanks to the famous holiday poem A Visit from St. Nicholas by Clement Clarke Moore, many have likely never have had the pleasure of tasting one of these luxuries, or even know what they really are (hint: they are not sugar-dusted plums). This is because sugar plums are one of the Gilded Age era holiday sweets that got eclipsed as America moved into the twentieth century. But The Gilded Age Christmas Cookbook will bridge the past and present, bringing back sugar plums and other confections not typically found in modern cookbooks, while revisiting some beloved favorites. 

With origins that date back to the nineteenth century and even earlier, the recipes in The Gilded Age Christmas Cookbook have been adapted for today’s ingredients and appliances, allowing cooks to recreate them in their own modern kitchens. Each recipe will provide a colorful glimpse into the era, featuring the fascinating history behind each cookie, its ingredients and baking methods. There will also be sidebars throughout, offering tidbits of Christmas lore of the era. 

A perfect gift to bring sparkle to the holiday season for anyone who enjoys food, history, culture and Christmas traditions, The Gilded Age Christmas Cookbook is a unique way to revitalize any baker’s holiday repertoire while looking to past foodways for inspiration. With all the opulence and enchanting allure of the Victorian period, this nostalgic book is chock-full of delicious holiday treats. 

Love comes home for the challah-days in this sparkling romance.

Snow is falling, holiday lights are twinkling, and Abby Cohen is pissed. For one thing, her most annoying customer, Seth, has been coming into her café every morning with his sunshiny attitude, determined to break down her carefully constructed emotional walls. And, as the only Jew on the tourism board of her Vermont town, Abby's been charged with planning their fledgling Hanukkah festival. Unfortunately, the local vendors don’t understand that the story of Hanukkah cannot be told with light-up plastic figures from the Nativity scene, even if the Three Wise Men wear yarmulkes.

Desperate for support, Abby puts out a call for help online and discovers she was wrong about being the only Jew within a hundred miles. There's one other: Seth.

As it turns out, Seth’s parents have been badgering him to bring a Nice Jewish Girlfriend home to New York City for Hanukkah, and if Abby can survive his incessant, irritatingly handsome smiles, he’ll introduce her to all the vendors she needs to make the festival a success. But over latkes, doughnuts, and winter adventures in Manhattan, Abby begins to realize that her fake boyfriend and his family might just be igniting a flame in her own guarded heart.

A Very Vintage Holiday celebrates the joy and sentimentality associated with all the major holidays on the calendar, from Easter to Halloween to Christmas—and many more. Vintage decorations, customs, history, and lush images offer up great comfort, connection, and continuity in this fast-paced world. Each holiday is opportunity to slow down and connect. There’s a mindfulness associated with carving pumpkins, dying Easter eggs, or stringing popcorn and cranberry garlands that helps us to bond with loved ones in ways that both conjure up good memories and enable us to make new ones. Coupled with beautiful photographs, tips on collecting, and secret shopping haunts, A Very Vintage Holiday offers a 360-degree look at all the traditional and joyful ways we celebrate holidays and gives suggestions on how to make family heirlooms, vintage finds, and holiday activities work for today’s audience. Each chapter is focused on a different holiday and there is a common thread that runs through them all: the love of beautiful holiday decorations as well as an interest in their history, preservation, and relevance in today’s world. Now, more than ever, we need holidays to connect us. A Very Vintage Holiday helps the everyday collector and enthusiast make the most of what they’ve already collected and build upon it for future generations to enjoy.

Midcentury America was a wonderland of department stores, suburban cul-de-sacs, and Tupperware parties. Every kid on the block had to have the latest cool toy, be it an Easy Bake Oven for pretend baking, a rocket ship for pretend space travel, or a Slinky, just because. At Christmastime, postwar America's dreams and desires were on full display, from shopping mall Santas to shiny aluminum Christmas trees, from the Grinch to Charlie Brown's beloved spindly Christmas tree. Now design maven Sarah Archer tells the story of how Christmastime in America rocketed from the Victorian period into Space Age, thanks to the new technologies and unprecedented prosperity that shaped the era. The book will feature iconic favorites of that time, including:

* A visual feast of Christmastime eats and recipes, from magazines and food and appliance makers

* Christmas cards from artists and designers of the era, featuring Henry Dreyfuss, Charles & Ray Eames, and Alexander Girard

* Vintage how-to templates and instructions for holiday decor from Good Housekeeping and the 1960's craft craze

* Advice from Popular Mechanics on how to glamorize your holiday dining table

* Decorating advice for your new Aluminum Christmas Tree from ALCOA (the Aluminum Company of America)

* The first American-made glass ornaments from Corning Glassworks

Midcentury Christmas is sure to be on everyone's most-wanted lists.

Bring the merry festivities from the screen right to your own table with The Christmas Movie Cookbook with more than 65 scrumptious recipes inspired by scenes from your favorite Christmas films.

Do you ever yearn for roast turkey while watching National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation? Or, for the more cynical, do you wish you could taste the roast beast from How the Grinch Stole Christmas? Well, top up your mug of eggnog and don your coziest ugly sweater: ‘tis the season to recreate the dishes from all of your favorite holiday movies with the help of The Christmas Movie Cookbook.

This season you can indulge alongside your favorite Elf characters as they make special spaghetti and get tipsy with the Bad Moms crew while they imbibe their spiced cider. Just crack open The Christmas Movie Cookbook and discover sixty-five mouthwatering recipes to add joy to any holiday gathering.

Recipes include:
-Old Fashioned Meatloaf from A Christmas Story
-Chicken, Broccoli, and Cheddar Cheese Soup from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
-Christmas Pudding from A Christmas Carol
-Breakfast Strata from The Family Stone
-Really Rich Hot Chocolate from Polar Express
-And much more!

Complete with tips on entertaining and menu ideas for your merry gatherings, The Christmas Movie Cookbook is the perfect companion to your holiday season.

Christmas has served as a fertile background for mystery fiction for a very long time, perhaps because it has the appearance of a time of peace and love while being so at odds with violence, crime, and even murder.

This delightful seasonal anthology includes holiday tales from some of the greatest Golden Age mystery authors. It offers such giants of the genre as Ellery Queen, Mary Roberts Rinehart, John D. MacDonald, and John Dickson Carr while introducing lesser-known writers such as Norvell Page, Meredith Nicholson, and Pat Frank. With chronicles that range from truly chilling to heart-warming to hilarious to puzzling, this volume highlights a variety of subjects and styles as each author brings their own approach to the most wonderful time of the year.

Featuring fourteen outstanding stories of Yuletide mystery selected and introduced by Edgar-winning anthologist Otto Penzler, Golden Age Christmas Mysteries offers hours of cozy reading, best enjoyed on a cold, snowy night, in a comfortable chair near a blazing fire.

A critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling author explores the Christmas holiday, from the original festival through present day traditions. 

Christmas has always been a magical time. Or has it? Thirty years after the first recorded Christmas, one archbishop was already complaining that his flock was spending the day, not in worship, but in dancing and feasting to excess. By 1616, the playwright Ben Jonson was nostalgically remembering the Christmases of the old days, certain that they had been better then.

Other elements of Christmas are much newer – who would have thought gift-wrap was a novelty of the twentieth century? That the first holiday parade was neither at Macy’s, nor even in the USA?

Some things, however, never change. The first known gag holiday gift book, The Boghouse Miscellany, was advertised in the 1760s ‘for gay Gallants, and good companions’, while in 1805, the leaders of the Lewis and Clark expedition exchanged–what else?–presents of underwear and socks. 

Christmas is all things to all people: a religious festival, a family celebration, a period of eating and drinking. In Christmas, bestselling author and acclaimed social historian Judith Flanders casts a sharp eye on its myths, legends and history, deftly moving from the origins of the holiday in the Roman empire, through the first appearance of Christmas trees in Central Europe, to what might be the origins of Santa Claus – in Switzerland – to draw a picture of the season as it has never been seen before.

Some people are Christmas people, but Jill Jacobs is most certainly not. She hasn’t been ever since her hometown love broke her heart on Christmas Eve three years ago. After that, Jill moved to L.A. to pursue her dream of becoming a screenwriter. She hasn’t been home in years to avoid her ex, but this winter she finds herself back in drab, suburban Illinois for the holidays.

After one very hazy night, Jill wakes up to a hometown that's filled with jolly neighbors, covered in pristine white snow, and seasoned with the smell of peppermint. She realizes that this is more than just a bad hangover... she's stuck in a Heartfelt movie. One set in her town, starring real people from her life, including her family, her high school crush (uber perfect, owns a bakery, and definitely a Christmas Person), and of course, her ex —handsome as ever and now exclusively clad in plaid flannel.

The only way out of this bizarro world is to complete the plot of the movie, including a holiday bake off and a cookie-sweet love story. To get home in time for Christmas, Jill must act out a picture-perfect holiday romance with the one that got away, all while her ex watches on. Fa la la la freaking la....

From Rosh Hashanah and Passover to Hanukkah and weekly shabbat dinners, this joyous celebration of all the Jewish holidays offers a treasury of 130 recipes gathered from 30 influential chefs and food professionals around the globe, whose shared stories illuminate the diversity of the Jewish diaspora and its cuisine. As contributor Mitchell Davis puts it, the meal is the holiday. Whether it's the Seder plate or a cheesecake for shavout, Jewish holiday foods tell the story of what it means to be Jewish and cook Jewish food. Author Naama Shefi, founder of the Jewish Food Society, introduces readers to 30 influential Jewish chefs and culinary professionals who share their most beloved holiday recipes, with stories of their family histories. For Hanukkah, pastry chef Nir Mesika recounts how her Egyptian and Moroccon grandmothers competed in a donut duel, with one's sfenj challenging the other's zalabia. Ron Arazi, owner of New York Shuk, shares his grandfather's recipe for a fava bean and harissa soup that he serves during Sukkot under the sukkah he builds in his Brooklyn backyard. Chef Beejhy Barhany offers her recipe for dabo, an Ethiopian bread that her family enjoyed every shabbat, even while they fled their country for refugee in Sudan. The Jewish Holiday Table illuminates the common Jewish story of seeking a home-through exodus, immigration, or simply moving on-and finding it in the food traditions shared across borders and generations.

The highly anticipated new Dream Harbor romance from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Pumpkin Spice Café!

As owner of her beloved Gingerbread Bakery, Annie Andrews should have a love life to match her business; sugary and sweet. But instead, she's locked in a game of words with the irritatingly upbeat bar owner down the street.

Mac Sullivan has everything he wants, except the girl he dreams of. It's easier to argue with Annie than get her to talk to him but with Jeanie and Logan's wedding coming up, they're about to spend a lot more time together.

As the snowflakes fall and with romance in the air, will Annie see that the one she loves to hate might just be her perfect match after all?

The Gingerbread Bakery is a cozy romantic novel with an enemies to lovers dynamic, small-town setting and a HEA guaranteed!

From the award-winning author of High on the Hog—inspiration for the “energetic, emotional, and deeply nuanced” (The New York Times) Netflix series of the same name—comes a new and updated edition of A Kwanzaa Keepsake, another important exploration of African American culture, food, and family, featuring recipes and stories to help this generation create unique holiday traditions.

Now with a new introduction by award-winning writer and iconic culinary historian Jessica B. Harris, a foreword by chef and television personality Carla Hall, revised recipes and stories, and a fresh new package, A Kwanzaa Keepsake offers proverbs, ceremonies, family projects, inspirational biographies, blessings, and of course, wonderful recipes. Structured around the seven days of Kwanzaa and the virtues each day represents, Harris shares a themed feast for each night, designed to reflect the principle of the day. Some of the menus include:

-Umoja (Unity), featuring dishes of multinational origin such as Seasoned Olives, Mechoui-Style Leg of Lamb with cumin, mint, and chili, and a classic Caribbean rum punch, and reminds readers of the union of all peoples of African descent.
-Kujichagulia (Self-Determination), composed of dishes from the African continent including Sweet Potato Fritters, Grilled Pepper Salad, and Piment Aimee, a hot sauce from one of the author’s friends.
-Kuumba (Creativity) is a healing supper and communal meal that opens the gates of remembrance through food. The repast is centered around a heritage recipe and includes others for Pickled Black-Eyed Peas, a fish dish from the the Ivory Coast, Spicy Cranberry Chutney, and a killer pecan pie with molasses whipped cream.

Interspersed throughout the book are spaces to record family memories, sayings, and recipes. Rich in culinary history, and a source of inspiration for treasuring and recording family traditions both old and new, A Kwanzaa Keepsake is a book to cherish, and one that families will turn to again and again.

Six people with connections to the world of crime writing are invited to participate in a Christmas-themed mystery game organized by the enigmatic Midwinter Trust. Set in a remote Yorkshire village soon to be isolated by snow, the players must solve the fictional murder of a crime writer to win a life-changing prize. As the game progresses, tensions rise among contestants and organizers, and it becomes unclear whether everyone is following the rules.

Create beautiful Christmas embroidery for colorful holiday decor and festive, handmade gifts!

For fun, festive holiday décor and homemade gifts, look no further than Handmade Holiday: Festive Embroidery Patterns and Techniques for Christmas Crafting! With this book of lovely Christmas embroidery scenes, designed by professional needlework artist Aly Ploof, you can add a touch of holiday spirit to napkins, towels, garments, and other textiles.

Embroidery is an age-old needlework skill that has been entertaining crafters and makers for generations. There's nothing more relaxing on a frosty winter evening than painting with thread, so grab your cup of cocoa and settle in by the fire. Handmade Holiday offers 16 patterns to make your Christmas crafting merry and bright--as well as chapters on techniques for beginners, and a stitch library for easy reference.

Whether you're a beginner interested in learning a new craft, or an experienced embroiderer looking to create one-of-a-kind handmade gifts, this book has patterns you'll love. Celebrate the season with Handmade Holiday!

"A tender second-chance romance bursting with Jewish joy." --Amanda Elliot, USA TODAY bestselling author of Love You a Latke

Can these exes rekindle their love this Hanukkah?

Evelyn Schwartz has the perfect Hanukkah planned: eight jam-packed days producing the live-action televised musical of A Christmas Carol. Who needs family when you've got long hours, impossible deadlines, and your dream job? That is, until an accident on set lands her in the medical bay with one of her chronic migraines, and she's shocked to find her ex-husband, David Adler, filling in for the usual studio doctor.

It's been two years since David walked away from Evelyn and their life in Manhattan, and his ex-wife is still the same workaholic who puts her career before everything else--especially her health. But when Evelyn begins hallucinating "ghosts" tied to her past heartbreaks, and every single one leads to David, he finds himself spending much more time with her than he anticipated. And denying the still-smoldering chemistry between them becomes impossible.

As Evelyn revisits her ghosts of Hanukkah past, she and David both begin to wonder if they can have a Hanukkah future. But with a high-stakes production ramping up the pressure on Evelyn, and troublesome spirits forcing them both to confront their most difficult shared memories, it might just take a Hanukkah miracle for these two exes to light the flame on their second-chance at love.
 

A new holiday story set in the Scottish Highlands to warm booklovers’ hearts by Jenny Colgan, New York Times bestselling author of Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop.

Mirren Sutherland stumbled into a career as an antiquarian book hunter after finding a priceless antique book in her great aunt’s attic. Now, as Christmas approaches, she’s been hired by Jamie McKinnon, the surprisingly young and handsome laird of a Highland clan whose ancestral holdings include a vast crumbling castle. Family lore suggests that the McKinnon family’s collection includes a rare book so valuable that it could save the entire estate—if they only knew where it was. Jamie needs Mirren to help him track down this treasure, which he believes is hidden in his own home.

But on the train to the Highlands, Mirren runs into rival book hunter Theo Palliser, and instantly knows that it’s not a chance meeting. She’s all too familiar with Theo’s good looks and smooth talk, and his uncanny ability to appear whenever there’s a treasure that needs locating.

Almost as soon as Mirren and Theo arrive at the castle, a deep snow blankets the Highlands, cutting off the outside world. Stuck inside, the three of them plot their search as the wind whistles outside. Mirren knows that Jamie’s grandfather, the castle’s most recent laird, had been a book collector, a hoarder, and a great lover of treasure hunts. Now they must unpuzzle his clues, discovering the secrets of the house—forming and breaking alliances in a race against time.

A treat for booklovers and treasure hunters alike, The Secret Christmas Library serves up a delicious mystery with a hint of romance, and plenty of holiday spirit!