This is a high-quality edition with lots of content and beautiful pictures. For a family looking for a coffee-table book with a variety of holiday material, or for those who don't want a whole Christmas library, this is a fine choice.

The selections are good, if unsurprising (with the delightful exception of the excerpt from The Best Christmas Pageant Ever): The carols are classics, and the stories are mostly familiar. The selection of poems is weaker, though there are a few standouts, such as Langston Hughes's Carol of the Brown King. The information in the introductions is often fascinating, especially when the author relates research that supports the legends or tells the stories behind them.

Gannady Spirin's paintings and decorations are often glorious. Ranging in style from medieval-church frescoes and Persian miniatures to nineteenth-century illustrations, they draw the eye and reward close inspection.

For individual or unabridged versions of some of these stories, try The Night Before Christmas, The Tailor of Gloucester, The Gift of the Magi, and Amahl and the Night Visitors.