You know what time of year it is. The weather should give an indication but it hasn’t quite caught up with the times though; give it time, it will. If you haven’t caught up as well, it’s the holiday season, of course, for holidays of all sorts – Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year’s, you name it. In honor of this magical season, I’m going to highlight holiday books from the Wilson Collection and show you a fun and easy craft we did during the Throwback Thursday program in the Main Library teen area.

Let’s get started, shall we….

The Wilson Limited Editions Collection includes 2 copies of Dickens’ holiday classic, A Christmas Carol. The first was published by the Limited Editions Club in 1934, illustrated by artist, Gordon Ross. The second book in the collection was printed by the Arion Press in 1993. While both books embody their own uniqueness and beauty, my personal favorite is the Arion Press edition.

Arion Press published their copy in 1993 to honor the 150th anniversary of its first publication (in 1843). The edition includes an introduction by Paul Davis, a Professor of English Literature at the University of New Mexico. Davis is also a Charles Dickens’ expert. His intro to the book provides a chronicle of the illustrated editions of A Christmas Carol. Ida Applebroog, a well-known American artist whose works can be found in several popular art museums, created 50 illustrations for the special edition classic. Applebroog created illustrations that pay homage to the earlier versions of the book while also applying her own style.

Along with the anniversary edition, the Press also issued an extra suite of 18 hand-colored prints by Applebroog. When the prints are stood up on their folding stands, it forms a tableau. This special edition was limited to 25 copies and sold with the book, which makes it even more special.

Make Ornaments from Christmas Cards

This is an easy and fun craft, especially if you save your cards like I do.

Materials for One Ornament

• 2-4 Christmas cards (depending on how large you draw your circles)
• Ribbon, yarn, or cord (about 1 ft long total)
• Scissors
• Glue
• Pen or pencil
• Circular object like a bottle to draw circles

Instructions

Step 1: On the back of the card fronts, trace 8 circles total (there is no definite size, I drew 1-inch circles and that’s approximately the size you see here).

Step 2: Cut out your circles.

Step 3: Fold each circle in half, creasing the fold well. Then, fold them in half again. They should look like the picture you see below.

Step 4: Open each folded circle, cut along just one fold to the middle of the circle (only to the middle).

Step 5: This step can be tedious because you will have to do it to each circle, but it involves the use of the glue. With the circle facing you, place glue on the bottom right section of the circle. Bring the left side of the circle over the right now, and press down to the glue. Your circle should now look like a triangle. Now repeat this step until they are all triangles.

Step 6: This is another repetitive step – but take two triangles and glue them together. They should look like the picture below. Repeat 4 times until all triangles are glued to another.

Step 7: Now you should see where I am going with this, but let’s glue two of the sections together to create a half-circle.

Step 8: Before gluing the other half to each other, let’s first glue your ribbon or cord to the first half-circle. Glue it half-way down the half-circle for firm placement.

Step 9: Now you may glue the two halves together. Your final product can happily hang on your tree now very easily with it’s ribbon/cord/yarn!

Learn more about the Wilson Collection

The Wilson Collection is located on the 3rd floor of the Downtown Library in the East Reading Room (between the Fine Arts department and Non-Fiction). The hours are the same as the Main Library hours. See the books up close and look through them yourself by requesting a personal tour of the collection. Request a tour online with this form.