{"product_id":"2940014337502","title":"The Big Book of Classic Christmas Tales","description":"Christmas at Fezziwig's Warehouse - Charles Dickens\u003cbr\u003eThe Fir-Tree - Hans Christian Andersen\u003cbr\u003eThe Christmas Masquerade - Mary E. Wilkins Freeman\u003cbr\u003eThe Shepherds and the Angels - Adapted from the Bills\u003cbr\u003eThe Telltale Tile - Olive Thorne Miller\u003cbr\u003eLittle Girl's Christmas - By Winnifred E. Lincoln\u003cbr\u003eA Christmas Matinee - M.A.L. Lane\u003cbr\u003eToinette and the Elves - Susan Coolidge\u003cbr\u003eThe Voyage of the Wee Red Cap. By Ruth Sawyer Durand\u003cbr\u003eA Story of the Christ-Child (a German Legend for Christmas Eve) - Elizabeth Harrison\u003cbr\u003eJimmy Scarecrow's Christmas - Mary E. Wilkins Freeman\u003cbr\u003eWhy the Chimes Rang - Raymond McAlden\u003cbr\u003eThe Birds'Christmas (founded on fact) - F.E. Mann\u003cbr\u003eThe Little Sister's Vacation - Winifred M. Kirkland\u003cbr\u003eLittle Wolff's Wooden Shoes - Francois Coppee, adapted and translated by Alma J. Foster\u003cbr\u003eChristmas in the Alley - Olive Thorne Miller\u003cbr\u003eA Christmas Star - Katherine Pyle\u003cbr\u003eThe Queerest Christmas - Grace Margaret Gallaher\u003cbr\u003eOld Father Christmas - J.H. Ewing\u003cbr\u003eA Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens\u003cbr\u003eHow Christmas Came to the Santa Maria Flats - Elia W. Peattie\u003cbr\u003eThe Legend of Babouscka - From the Russian Folk Tale\u003cbr\u003eChristmas in the Barn - F. Arnstein\u003cbr\u003eThe Philanthropist's Christmas - James Weber Linn\u003cbr\u003eThe First Christmas-Tree - Lucy Wheelock\u003cbr\u003eThe First New England Christmas - G.L. Stone and M.G. Fickett\u003cbr\u003eThe Cratchits' Christmas Dinner - Charles Dickens\u003cbr\u003eChristmas in Seventeen Seventy-Six - Anne Hollingsworth Wharton\u003cbr\u003eChristmas Under the Snow - Olive Thorne Miller\u003cbr\u003eMr. Bluff's Experience of Holidays - Oliver Bell Bunce\u003cbr\u003eMaster Sandy's Snapdragon - Elbridge S. Brooks\u003cbr\u003eA Christmas Fairy - John Strange Winter\u003cbr\u003eThe Greatest of These - Joseph Mills Hanson\u003cbr\u003eLittle Gretchen and the Wooden Shoe - Elizabeth Harrison\u003cbr\u003eBig Rattle - Theodore Goodridge Roberts\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE CHRISTMAS MASQUERADE*\u003cbr\u003e* From \"The Pot of Gold , copyright by Lothrop, Lee \u0026amp; Shepherd Co.\u003cbr\u003eMARY E. WILKINS FREEMAN\u003cbr\u003eOn Christmas Eve the Mayor's stately mansion presented a beautiful\u003cbr\u003eappearance. There were rows of different coloured wax candles burning\u003cbr\u003ein every window, and beyond them one could see the chandeliers of gold\u003cbr\u003eand crystal blazing with light. The fiddles were squeaking merrily, and\u003cbr\u003elovely little forms flew past the windows in time to the music.\u003cbr\u003eThere were gorgeous carpets laid from the door to the street, and\u003cbr\u003ecarriages were constantly arriving and fresh guests tripping over them.\u003cbr\u003eThey were all children. The Mayor was giving a Christmas Masquerade\u003cbr\u003etonight to all the children in the city, the poor as well as the rich.\u003cbr\u003eThe preparation for this ball had been making an immense sensation for\u003cbr\u003ethe last three months. Placards had been up in the most conspicuous\u003cbr\u003epoints in the city, and all the daily newspapers had at least a column\u003cbr\u003edevoted to it, headed with \"THE MAYOR'S CHRISTMAS MASQUERADE,\" in\u003cbr\u003every\u003cbr\u003elarge letters.\u003cbr\u003eThe Mayor had promised to defray the expenses of all the poor children\u003cbr\u003ewhose parents were unable to do so, and the bills for their costumes\u003cbr\u003ewere directed to be sent in to him.\u003cbr\u003eOf course there was great excitement among the regular costumers of the\u003cbr\u003ecity, and they all resolved to vie with one another in being the most\u003cbr\u003epopular, and the best patronized on this gala occasion. But the\u003cbr\u003eplacards and the notices had not been out a week before a new Costumer\u003cbr\u003eappeared who cast all the others into the shade directly. He set up his\u003cbr\u003eshop on the corner of one of the principal streets, and hung up his\u003cbr\u003ebeautiful costumes in the windows. He was a little fellow, not much\u003cbr\u003ebigger than a boy of ten. His cheeks were as red as roses, and he had\u003cbr\u003eon a long curling wig as white as snow. He wore a suit of crimson\u003cbr\u003evelvet knee-breeches, and a little swallow-tailed coat with beautiful\u003cbr\u003egolden buttons. Deep lace ruffles fell over his slender white hands,\u003cbr\u003eand he wore elegant knee buckles of glittering stones. He sat on a high\u003cbr\u003estool behind his counter and served his customers himself; he kept no\u003cbr\u003eclerk.\u003cbr\u003eIt did not take the children long to discover what beautiful things he\u003cbr\u003ehad, and how superior he was to the other costumers, and they begun to\u003cbr\u003eflock to his shop immediately, from the Mayor's daughter to the poor\u003cbr\u003eragpicker's. The children were to select their own costumes; the Mayor\u003cbr\u003ehad stipulated that. It was to be a children's ball in every sense of\u003cbr\u003ethe word.\u003cbr\u003eSo they decided to be fairies and shepherdesses, and princesses\u003cbr\u003eaccording to their own fancies; and this new Costumer had charming\u003cbr\u003ecostumes to suit them.\u003cbr\u003eIt was noticeable that, for the most part, the children of the rich,\u003cbr\u003ewho had always had everything they desired, would choose the parts of\u003cbr\u003egoose-girls and peasants and such like; and the poor children jumped\u003cbr\u003eeagerly at the chance of being princesses or fairies for a few hours in\u003cbr\u003etheir miserable l","brand":"99 \u0026cent; store, save a lot more","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47161256050928,"sku":"2940014337502","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014337502_p0.jpg?v=1763606476","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014337502","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}