The historical importance, makers, materials, and rarity of Christmas trees, decorations, and ornaments of all kinds are discussed in detail, including glass ornaments, all types of lighting from candles to electricity, cotton and paper ornaments, and Dresdens. All the major manufacturers are identified and much personal information is given about the families that developed the Christmas ornament industry into big business internationally. Christmas Past includes beautiful colour pictures of extremely rare, exquisite glass balls and figurals and early electric lamps.

A miser learns the true meaning of Christmas when three ghostly visitors review his past and foretell his future.

A present contains a monstrous secret. An uninvited guest haunts a Christmas party. A shadow slips across the floor by firelight. A festive entertainment ends in darkness and screams. Who knows what haunts the night at the dark point of the year? This collection of seasonal chillers looks beneath Christmas cheer to a world of ghosts and horrors, mixing terrifying modern fiction with classic stories by masters of the macabre. From Neil Gaiman and M. R. James to Muriel Spark and E. Nesbit, there are stories here to make the hardiest soul quail - so find a comfy chair, lock the door, ignore the cold breath on your neck and get ready to welcome in the real spirits of Christmas.

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Haley is starting to think this Christmas ski trip was a big mistake. When her best friend ditches her to hang with more popular girls, Haley's totally left out in the cold. And if that wasn't bad enough, someone is playing scary pranks around the old inn and Haley's getting all the blame! Christmas is going to be a really silent night if she can't figure out what's going on. But the more Haley finds out about the inn's creepy past, the more she starts to suspect that the prankster isn't a guest ... it's a ghost!--P. [4] of cover.

From Rhys Bowen, the author of In Farleigh Field, comes the next Molly Murphy mystery: The Ghost of Christmas Past. Semi-retired private detective Molly Murphy Sullivan is suffering from depression after a miscarriage following her adventure in San Francisco during the earthquake of 1906. She and her husband, Daniel, are invited for Christmas at a mansion on the Hudson, and they gratefully accept, expecting a peaceful and relaxing holiday season. Not long after they arrive, however, they start to feel the tension in the house’s atmosphere. Then they learn that the host couple's young daughter wandered out into the snow ten years ago and was never seen again. Molly can identify with the mother's pain at never knowing what happened to her child and wants to help, but there is so little to go on. No ransom note. No body ever found. But Molly slowly begins to suspect that the occupants of the house know more than they are letting on. Then, on Christmas Eve, there is a knock at the door and a young girl stands there. "I'm Charlotte," she says. "I've come home."