Handpicked Holiday Entertainment for All Ages From Our Catalog

By Bridget G. RSS Wed, November 29, 2023

At the Free Library, we believe that the holidays should be a time filled with warmth, wonder, and shared experiences for everyone, regardless of age or interests. With this in mind, we've scoured our catalog and digital collections to assemble a festive array of recently released holiday-themed books, movies, crafts, and more, guaranteed to spark joy and add seasonal cheer to your celebrations!

So, gather around and explore the wonders that await within our library's holiday collection. Let the festivities begin!

 

Young Children

PBS Kids Christmas Collection (DVD)

It's time to celebrate Christmas with your favorite PBS Kids characters! Watch fun-filled stories from Caillou, Let's Go Luna!, Peg + Cat, Pinkalicious and Peterrific, Ready Jet Go!, Super WHY!, Wild Kratts, and Word World!

Twinkle, Twinkle, Winter Nights

Celebrate winter with this magical twist on a beloved nursery rhyme that brings the shimmering season of lights to life.

 

Older Children

Let's Celebrate with Christmas and Hanukkah Origami

Christmas and Hanukkah light up the winter with festive celebrations, and readers learn how to add to the fun with their own origami crafts. This multicultural guide to popular holidays introduces readers to a variety of paper folding projects, including Christmas cards, Santa Claus, a menorah, and a dreidel. Clear, step-by-step instructions with visual examples help readers master each project, and helpful tips and materials lists ensure they’re prepared before they begin. In addition, fun facts about the history behind these holidays are presented throughout, allowing readers to learn as they play.

The People Remember

The People Remember recounts the journey of African descendants in America by connecting their history to the seven principles of Kwanzaa.

 

Teen

Talk Santa To Me 

Francie was born in a stable ... really. Granted, it was the deluxe model with the light-up star on the roof, one of the many Christmas items for sale at her family's Hollydale Holiday Shop. Their holiday gift empire also includes the Santa School, which was founded by Francie's beloved grandpa, who recently passed away. Francie's always loved working in the shop, but lately, Aunt Carole has been changing everything with her ideas for too-slick, Hollywood-inspired Santas and horrible holiday-themed employee uniforms. Aunt Carole's vision will ruin all the charm and nostalgia Francie loves about her family's business ... unless she does something about it. But this winter is about more than preserving the magic of Christmas. Francie is saving up for a car and angling to kiss the cute boy who works at the tree lot next door — hopefully, it will be good enough to wipe her fiasco of a first kiss from her memory. As the weather outside gets more and more frightful, can Francie pull off the holiday of her dreams?

Eight Nights of Flirting

Shira Barbanel has a plan: this Hanukkah, she's going to get a boyfriend. And she has the perfect candidate in mind: her great-uncle's assistant, Isaac. He's reliable, brilliant, and of course, super hot. The only problem? Shira's an absolute disaster when it comes to flirting. Enter Tyler Nelson, Shira's nemesis-slash-former-crush. As much as she hates to admit it, Tyler is the most charming and popular guy she knows. Which means he's the perfect person to teach her how to win Isaac over. When Shira and Tyler get snowed in together at Golden Doors, they strike a deal: flirting lessons for Shira in exchange for career connections for Tyler. But as Shira starts to see the sweet, funny boy beneath Tyler's playboy exterior, she realizes she actually likes hanging out with him — and that wasn't part of the plan. Amidst a whirl of snowy adventures, hot chocolate, and candlelight, Shira must learn to trust her heart to discover if the romance she planned is really the one that will make her happiest.

 

Adult

The Jolliest Bunch: Unhinged Holiday Stories

For many families, the holiday season is — in a word — unhinged. In no family is that more true than in Danny Pellegrino's, beloved podcast host of Everything Iconic and bestselling author. Inappropriately improvised monologues at the children's Christmas pageant, the presents that land someone in the emergency room, or just sitting on the absolute roller coaster that is a Hallmark movie marathon, the holidays are a strange and magical time in the Pellegrino household. And nobody knows this better than Danny. Following his New York Times bestselling memoir How Do I Un-Remember This?, Danny takes his readers on another nostalgic trip to the 90s and 2000s with a collection of holiday stories that are heartfelt, hilarious, and (unfortunately) true. Whether you spend your holidays baking with your chaotically stressed-out mom (Hi, Linda), binge-watching Christmas Vacation until you can quote every line, or drooling over the NSYNC Christmas special, this collection of nostalgic holiday stories will put you in the holiday spirit and reminisce about your own holiday memories — the good, the bad, and the cringeworthy.

The Twelve, Topsy-Turvy, Very Messy Days of Christmas

After their mother's death on Christmas Day five years ago, Will and Ella Sullivan, and their father, Henry, come to a family agreement: Christmas is a holiday for other people. At their brownstone in Harlem, stockings go unstuffed, tinsel unstrewn, gifts unbought, mistletoe unhung, chestnuts unroasted, carols unplayed, cookies uncooked, a tree un-visible, and guests uninvited — until this year. Until guests start arriving anyway — in pairs and sixes, in sevens and tens — they keep coming, and they stay. For twelve long, hard, topsy-turvy, very messy days. That's when the Sullivans discover that those moments in life that defy hope, expectation, or even imagination, might be the best gifts of all.

 

Fun for the Whole Family

The Christmas Movie Cookbook: Recipes from Your Favorite Holiday Films

Indulge in scrumptious recipes inspired by scenes from your favorite holiday films in this delightful cookbook.

The Cookie Bible

This is your must-have cookie book, featuring nearly every cookie imaginable, from rustic Cranberry Chocolate Chippers to elegant French macarons, and everything in between — simple drop cookies, rolled-and-cut holiday cookies, brownies and other bars, pretty sandwich cookies, luxurious frosted or chocolate-dipped treats, and much more. With legendary baker Rose Levy Beranbaum's foolproof recipes — which feature detail-oriented instructions that eliminate guesswork, notes for planning ahead, ingenious tips, and other golden rules for success — it's easy to whip up a batch of irresistible, crowd-pleasing cookies anytime, for any occasion. Standout classics and new favorites include Rose's Dream Chocolate Chip Cookies, Lemon Lumpies, Black Tahini Crisps, Peanut Butter and Jelly Buttons, Double Ginger Molasses Cookies, Caramel Surprise Snickerdoodles, Mom's Coconut Snowball Kisses, Chocolate Sablés, Gingerbread Folks (with a special sturdy variation for gingerbread houses), Pecan Freezer Squares, Brownie Doughnuts, Brandy Snap Rolls. Plus extra-special details including homemade Dulce de Leche, Wicked Good Ganache, Lemon Curd, and more.

Check out more highlights from our 2023 Holiday catalog list!


Participate in the Free Library's festivities with our family-friendly holiday programming!


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