A Treasury of Christmas Songs: Twenty-Five Favorites to Sing and Play

This is a beautiful collection of Christmas songs for the family with outstanding illustrations from museum quality art works. 25 songs are featured here in this collection. Each song has a brief introduction describing its origins or other important facts, and each image also has a description, often including historical tidbits. The illustrations are great! If you are looking for a book of carols to just sing to or for you young musician to play this is the book to get. We would recommend this book. The colorful illustrations make it a good book for young children to look at while singing or playing at the piano.

[This review first appeared in the "Ephrata (Pa.) Review."] Pair an eclectic assortment of museum pieces--paintings, prints and textiles--with musical arrangements of beloved holiday songs. Adorn with tidbits of information about the music and artwork, and wrap in an attractive cover. Voilá--an alluring package. "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is illustrated with details from an American coverlet of the late 1700s, images from a Swedish tapestry titled "Marriage at Cana" (early 1800s) and drawings from an Austrian postcard of the early 1900s. "We Three Kings" is paired with the early 15th-century painting "The Journey of the Magi" by Italian artist Stefano di Giovanni. Guitar chords accompany the piano arrangements, which are suitable for beginning and intermediate musicians. This is a production both practical and poetic.