The Spirit of Christmas »

NANCY TILLMAN is the author and illustrator of the bestselling picture book On The Night You Were Born, its companion journal The Wonder of You: A Book for Celebrating Baby’s First Year, and the illustrator of It’s Time to Sleep, My Love, written by Eric Metaxas. Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, Nancy Tillman lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband, where she creates books with the purpose of sharing with children the sentiment, “You are loved.”

A celebration of the most magical holiday of the year, by the incomparable Nancy Tillman.

Publishers Weekly

As the adult speaker of the story nods off in a comfy red chair, the Spirit of Christmas appears, ready to get the narrator in the holiday spirit. What follows is a buoyant, imagistic tribute to the season, as the Spirit lists joys both concrete (“A toy soldier band dressed in matching red sashes!”) and intangible, before offering the reminder: “Because it took nothing but love to begin it,/ it's not really Christmas if love isn't in it.” Tillman's ethereal illustrations (a frozen tree, dotted with peppermints; the cast of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” beside a river) are surreal but captivating. Ages 4–8. (Oct.)