As I was leafing through my stash of Christmas books this morning, I came upon this gem, published in 1968, that I thought I’d write a quick post about. I picked the book up at an antique store about 15 years ago.
I love the cover of the book, and the inside illustrations are divine. But the real reason I bought it …
… is because it was retired from the Lincoln School Library in my hometown.
I didn’t attend Lincoln School and those due dates are all a little before my time so I don’t recognize any of the borrowers’ names, but I love that sweet reminder of how the world used to be, before books were checked out with bar codes and scanners.
The cards from the card catalog had also been saved and stored in the back pocket.
This might be my favorite illustration from the book: a very Ward-and-June-Cleaverish couple and their 2.0 kiddos hanging a wreath on their front door.
I also like this one, mostly because it has a “LINCOLN SCHOOL LIBRARY” stamp directly above it.
And then there’s this quaint two-page spread of Santa Claus delivering presents. I’d say this is one svelte Santa, but the book refers to him as “roly-poly.” Apparently our standards have changed a bit in that regard since 1968.
Anyhoo, thanks for checking out my little Christmas story.
The end.