A Family Christmas Book

We Need a Little Christmas   Jerry Herman     v
Letter to Santa   Caroline Kennedy     xi
Introduction   Caroline Kennedy     xiii
The Gracious Time     1
The Gracious Time (from Hamlet)   William Shakespeare     3
Psalm 8     4
Credo   Edwin Arlington Robinson     5
Letter to Fred Allen   Groucho Marx     6
Relative Pronouns   E. B. White     7
Keeping Christmas   Henry van Dyke     10
White Christmas   Irving Berlin     12
Deck the Halls     13
Deck the Halls$dWelsh Traditional Carol     15
Under the Mistletoe   Countee Cullen     17
Messiah (Christmas Portions)   Mark Doty     19
Little tree   E. E. Cummings     23
The Christmas Tree   Emma Lazarus     25
Christmas Trees: A Christmas Circular Letter   Robert Frost     28
A Christmas Tree   Piri Thomas     31
Christmas Party at the South Danbury Church   Donald Hall     37
The Loudest Voice   Grace Paley     38
Peace and Goodwill to Managers   George Bernard Shaw     45
The Old Scout: The Season of Letter-Perfect Families   Garrison Keillor     47
The Computer's First Christmas Card   Edwin Morgan     50
Lynch v. Donnelly, 465 U.S. 668 (1984)     51
The Holly and the Ivy$dEnglish Traditional Carol     54
Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town     57
Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town   Haven Gillespie   J. Fred Coots     59
A Visit from St. Nicholas   Clement Clarke Moore     60
Is There a Santa Claus? ("Yes, Virginia")   Francis P. Church     63
Letter to Michelle Rochon   John F. Kennedy     65
Letter from Santa Claus   Mark Twain     66
Santa's Stocking   Katherine Lee Bates     69
Mr. Edwards Meets Santa Claus (from Little House on the Prairie)   Laura Ingalls Wilder     71
A Chaparral Christmas Gift   O. Henry     78
Santa Claus   Sonny Boy Williamson     84
Saint Nicholas   Marianne Moore     86
Saint Nicholas (from The Christmas Encyclopedia)   William D. Crump     88
Six to Eight Black Men   David Sedaris     92
Santaland 2006 (from Santa Guide for the Macy's Santa)     97
Children of the World v. Santa Claus   Andrew J. McClurg     104
The Deadweight Loss of Christmas (from American Economic Review)   Joel Waldfogel     106
NORAD Tracks Santa: www.noradsanta.org     112
Father Christmas Executed   Claude Levi-Strauss     116
Christmas in Hollis: Run-D.M.C.     125
Away in a Manger     127
Away in a Manger   William James Kirkpatrick     129
Isaiah 9: 2-6     130
Luke 2: 1-20     131
Pedida de la Posada: Asking for Lodging     133
The Stable   Gabriela Mistral     136
The Barn   Elizabeth Coatsworth     138
Presepio   Joseph Brodsky     140
The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy   Jane Thayer     142
Christmas Superstitions (from Christmas in the Mountains)   Hubert J. Davis     146
Christmas Eve-Nochebuena   Cesar Vallejo     149
Carol of the Birds-El Cant dels Ocells$dOld Spanish Carol from Catalonia     150
Silent Night   Joseph Mohr   Franz Gruber     153
Joy to the World     155
Joy to the World!   Isaac Watts   G. F. Handel     157
Christmas Sparrow   Billy Collins     158
Christmas Day in the Morning   Pearl S. Buck     160
Christmas Day at Sea   Joseph Conrad     165
Christmas   Vladimir Nabokov     169
A Christmas Memory   Truman Capote     176
Blond   Natasha Trethewey     188
All I Want for Christmas Is You   Mariah Carey   Walter Afanasieff     190
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing-Hail the Heav'n Born Prince of Peace: Christmas in Wartime     193
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing   Charles Wesley   George Whitefield   Martin Madan   Felix Mendelssohn     195
Peace   Henry Vaughan     197
Letter to John Hancock   George Washington     198
Christmas Bells   Henry Wadsworth Longfellow     201
The Christmas Truce, World War I (from The London Times)     203
Letter to Tommy, World War II   Lt. Col. Ralph Noonan     206
Telegram to the U.S. Ambassador, Moscow   W. Averell Harriman     208
A Christmas Sermon on Peace    Martin Luther King, Jr.     209
Christmas E-mails from Iraq   Capt. Trent Weston   Sgt. Mike Mira     216
Happy Xmas (War Is Over)   John Lennon   Yoko Ono     220
We Wish You a Merry Christmas: The Christmas Feast     221
We Wish You a Merry Christmas: Traditional     223
All you that to feasting and mirth are inclined Anonymous English (Medieval)     224
"Amos 'n' Andy" Christmas Show Fails Test of Time (from The New York Times)   Henry Louis Gates, Jr.     225
Christmas in Qatar   Calvin Trillin     230
Christmas Laughter   Nikki Giovanni     232
Penalty for Keeping Christmas     234
Grace Defended   Cotton Mather     235
From Martha Washington's Kitchen     237
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl   Harriet A. Jacobs     240
Christmas in the Olden Time   Sir Walter Scott     244
The Second of the Three Spirits (from A Christmas Carol)   Charles Dickens     246
Salvation Army's Bounty (from The New York Times)     258
Christmas Every Day   William Dean Howells     262
Christmas in the Tenements   Theodore Dreiser      267
Un Poquito de Tu Amor   Sandra Cisneros     273
Here We Come a-Wassailing: Traditional     278
O Come, All Ye Faithful     279
O Come, All Ye Faithful   Frederick Oakeley   William Thomas Brooke   John Francis Wade     281
Matthew 2: 1-12     282
The Oxen   Thomas Hardy     284
A Christmas Carol   Christina Rossetti     285
Carol of the Brown King   Langston Hughes     287
Christmas Morning   Elizabeth Madox Roberts     288
The Gift of the Magi   O. Henry     290
The Real Gifts Parents Can Give to Children   Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy     296
Dreams of a Black Christmas   Gwendolyn Brooks     299
Christmas   St. Augustine     306
The First Nowell: Traditional     308
Winter Wonderland     311
Winter Wonderland   Richard B. Smith   Felix Bernard     313
All's Noel That Ends Noel   Ogden Nash     315
Christ Climbed Down   Lawrence Ferlinghetti     317
Remembrance Is Sufficient   E. B. White     320
For the Time Being   W. H. Auden     322
Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind (from As You Like It)   William Shakespeare     324
Acknowledgments     327
Credits     329