Marcia Adams Christmas in the Heartland: Recipes, Decorations, and Traditions for Joyous Celebrations

No time of the year is more special than Christmas, and perhaps nowhere is the holiday season celebrated with more enthusiasm and spirit than in America's Heartland. Now award-winning author Marcia Adams captures all the nostalgia and festivity of the yuletide season with heirloom recipes and easily duplicated craft ideas that are sure to become treasured family traditions. With her characteristically personal and evocative text and glorious full-color photographs, Marcia chronicles the rituals and celebrations that bring family and friends together. She shows how our modern holiday observances reflect a rich mixture of medieval, Victorian, and multicultural ethnic traditions, all seasoned with a liberal sprinkling of the treasured family rituals that are passed from generation to generation. Marcia travels from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where a candlelit Moravian vesper service forms the heart of two families' holiday festivities, to the rustic antebellum cabin that is home to a creative family of herb gardeners and folk artists, to the author's own annual gathering of friends and family, where a lively reading of holiday prose and poetry anchors a sumptuous Hoosier buffet. As in her previous books, Heartland and Cooking from Quilt Country, Marcia has uncovered a wealth of "attic receipts," those fondly remembered recipes of our childhoods that are in danger of being lost to time. She offers such seasonal treats as Steamed Persimmon Christmas Pudding with Nutmeg Hard Sauce, Moravian Sugar Cake, and Rumrousal Punch, as well as decorations to brighten the home, like festive pomegranate topiaries, Victorian-inspired tree ornaments, and fragrant herbal wreaths. Fascinating seasonal lore tracing the roots of Christmas rituals from caroling to cookies completes this heartwarming volume. Marcia Adams has firmly established herself as a powerful chronicler of America's rich and diverse culinary heritage. Now she celebrates our most beloved holiday, sharing the warmth and traditions of families who enjoy this memorable season to the fullest.