We just sent a review of this beautiful book to the Magnolia Square Little Snippets blog - watch out for it.

In the meantime we hope everyone has a very magical Christmas day tomorrow.

Our Christmas tree this year is not a perfect specimen. It is asymmetrical, slightly bushier on one side, and has a decidedly wonky top. But I love it because it is an Eco Christmas Tree! It is a real living tree in a pot, and we have hired it for December. I though this concept was brilliant as soon as I heard about it – with tree delivery and collection included, you also get the satisfaction of knowing that a healthy tree continues to grow and thrive all year round.

When I was growing up we always had our Christmas tree in a pot. My mum and dad bought a small living Christmas tree for my first Christmas as a baby and every year for 20 years we continued to bring the same tree into the house. In the end it was so tall that it touched the ceiling. I really loved thinking of the tree and I growing alongside each other.

When Rowan was born, I intended to create a similar tradition for our household. But I soon learnt that my mum is a better gardener than I because I was unable to keep our little tree alive for the year… But Eco Christmas Trees provides the perfect service for someone like me. They even offer to deliver the same Christmas tree to you next year!

I do love Christmas tree traditions, and one of the Christmas stories Rowan and I are enjoying at the moment is Mr Willowby’s Christmas Tree by Robert Barry.

The story starts with the delivery of a very tall Christmas tree to Mr Willowby’s grand house. The tree is the biggest he’s ever seen – so big that it can’t stand up straight in his parlour! Mr Willowby asks his butler to chop off the top of the tree so that it will fit better. The butler cuts the top, but instead of throwing it away, he decides to offer the cutting to Miss Adelaide, the upstairs maid. Miss Adelaide gratefully accepts her ‘tree’, but discovers the tree-top is too tall for her attic room, so she too trims off the top… And so the story continues, and the tree-top is gradually shortened and shared with smaller and smaller animals.

I love the idea that a tree can become lots of mini-trees, as well as the wonderful sense of sharing in this book. The final illustration of Mr Willowby with his tree in the foreground, with the detail of a tiny mouse-hole and the mice and their miniature tree is so lovely.

What about everyone else? What Christmas books are you enjoying at the moment?

||Mr Willowby’s Christmas Tree is available in the We Heart Books store||

I ♥ this mug from gorgeous website – Generation Wonder. Sales of the mug go towards supporting the not-for-profit organisation Room to Read.

A little while ago I did a post on the current Myer Christmas Windows. On that post we had a comment from John Kerr the Creative Director who designs the windows and I thought it would be good to share his comment in which he explains the choice of theme for each year and how he goes about creating such master pieces….

Each year, the children’s book chosen is always quite different and in direct contrast to the previous years.

2008 – “How Santa Really Works” was visually very detailed and busy, whilst the 2009 season, in contrast, is visually quite basic, but entertains the audience using a combination of synchronised animation, lighting and narration.

It’s difficult designing a set of windows, which begin life as simple line drawings, which sit on a white page. The audience have an expectation for high detail, glitz etc. year in / year out, but this is not always possible, if I am to stay truthful to the chosen book.

Over the 15 years of designing & building the windows, I have tried to present as many varied themes as possible – the one underlining goal is to stimulate childhood reading.

Merry Christmas

John Kerr
Creative Director

I had also asked people to leave comments on their favourite Myer Christmas windows and I have since found that Myer have now listed on their website the theme of each window from 1956. You can see the list here and some even have photos -

It’s a busy time of year but it’s always fun wrapping lovely parcels for people ordering gorgeous books for the special little (and big) people in their life.

Our cut offs for postage from We Heart Books  are – regular post orders by Monday 21 December.

Express Post orders may be placed by Wednesday 23 December for capital city customers.

How gorgeous is this bag! Made from 100% recycled cotton and available through AmericaJane’s Etsy store.

Please excuse my poor photography but I had to include a photo today of my little ladybird friend (just near the bears ear!)  who loved touring around the pile of Mouk books I had at the No Vacancy Art and Design Market on the weekend. The ladybird seemed to love the explosion of colour that is Marc Boutavant’s Mouk as much as I do.

Mouk is an absolute bestseller for our store and will be under the tree for Ned this year as when he was helping Katie and I pack for Magnolia Square he told us with conviction that this was a ‘beautiful book’.

Wow! Link via Maquette

No Vacancy Gallery Christmas Market starts tomorrow.

Phew – a busy three days at Magnolia Square. It was great fun – we had lots of beautiful new books to share and had so many lovely chats with customers. And we always love catching up with fellow Magnolia retailers who have become firm friends.

Four days off and we’ll be doing it again at Brighton Town Hall – we’d love to see anyone who is in the neighbourhood!