There’s something magical about Christmastime in Christmas Town. In many ways it feels like we are living the Frankenmuth version of an enchanted Hallmark Christmas movie. I felt this during the opening of the Frankenmuth Ice Rink a few weeks ago, when, to the joyful sound of live Christmas music and the sight of families holding hands while gliding beneath warm stands of lights, a gentle snow began to fall.
In many ways, the impermanence of the season adds to the collective excitement. Christmastime is here for a brief moment and then it vanishes for the next 10 or 11 months, so we make the most of it while we can, especially when we live in Christmas Town.
If you’re anything like me, you try to squeeze in as many of those Hallmark, Prime Video, and Netflix holiday films that you possibly can between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. This year, my family has also been delighting in an abundance of holiday literature.
Every evening throughout the month of December, we sit down, light a candle, and share a meal together. When we are finished eating, the kids unwrap a holiday picture book and we read. So far, the Keat favorite is Red & Lulu by Matt Tavares. I must thank Michelle Duclos, Library Director, for sharing this idea with me, as she practices the same tradition with her family throughout Advent. And of course we are grateful to the library for providing us with these (free!) books throughout the holiday season. Perhaps this is a tradition you’ll want to begin with your family too.
The library has plenty of ways to help you tap into that Christmas cheer all season long. The holiday book display directly across from the circulation desk is full of your favorite Christmas classics like Miracle on 34th Street and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, but it also has a sprinkling of Christian fiction and even a few Christmas murder mysteries. Upstairs, there’s an additional holiday display for holiday cooking and crafting ideas.
If you’d like a bit of a challenge this season, the library recently launched a Holiday Reading Challenge for ALL Ages with challenges to “read by candlelight or flashlight,” and “read in front of a Christmas tree” among others. Stop by the library to pick up a reading challenge sheet and turn it in to the library on or before January 6, 2023 for a chance to win a gift card!
Whether you’re ice skating downtown, lighting Advent candles at your dinner table, or sitting down with a cup of hot cocoa to enjoy your favorite Christmas movie, don’t forget to spend some time cozied up with your favorite (or new-to-you) book this Christmas. It might be that extra bit of magic you need to complete this fleeting yet heart-warming season.
