Christmas has become a celebration of excess and conspicuous consumption. Frequently overwhelmed, nostalgia becomes the antidote to frantic preparations, endless shopping and huge expense that leaves us bone weary. The sermon title, "TLC: Thanksgiving Leads to Christmas," caught Pastor Elaine Eachus' imagination and she began to wonder how thankfulness might be the key that unlocks the richness of each day of the Christmas season. Being truly thankful takes time---to appreciate, to look deeply inside, to see myriads of connections coming together for good, to incorporate life changes, and to share these new insights. Living into this dimension is to see with the wide-eyed wonder of a child. For Eachus, little moments contain the TLC--- a granddaughter coloring a Christmas tree, making candy with a friend, or a father giving his young daughter a copy of Handel's Messiah. No matter our age, there is magic and wonder within the Advent season. Eachus invites us on a twenty-eight day journey to discover God-with-us. Accompany her on this trip that can take each of us a lifetime as we look for our unique Christmas heart.

"Let's have a parade" is the phrase that begins a beloved American tradition, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. In 1924, employees of the R. H. Macy and Company store in Herald Square, many of whom were immigrants and first-generation Americans, chose to give thanks for their good fortune in a manner reminiscent of the festive parades held in their native countries. The excitement and praise from crowds lining the route that first year led Macy's to issue an immediate proclamation: the parade would become a tradition. Before the parade's first decade passed, Macy's welcomed the huge and spectacular helium character balloons that became its goodwill ambassadors. Since then, the parade has become a world-famous treasure. Through rare and historic images, Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade offers readers a chance to reminisce, explore, and delight in eighty years of this thoroughly American celebration.

The origins and ever-changing story of America's favorite holiday