Christmas Greetings From The Presidents-Book Review

Product Details:

• Title: Christmas Greetings From The Presidents
• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Shadow Mountain (September 27, 2016)
• Genre: Non-fiction
• ISBN-10: 1629722200
• ISBN-13: 978-1629722207
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.6 x 7.1 inches 
• FTC, FYI: I received a review copy from Shadow Mountain in exchange for an honest review. 

 
Book Details:
Christmas Greetings from the Presidents takes a comforting, nostalgic look back in time to when Americans viewed the annual Christmas message to the nation as the embodiment of a national spirit of unity and goodwill through both the best of times and the darkest days of national trials. The book, the first of its kind by a national publisher, chronicles presidential Christmas messages from the inception of this tradition in 1927 with Calvin Coolidge to President Obama. It provides the historical context of the era, rarely-seen archival photographs that offer us a window into the history unfolding at the time, and a sidebar “Did you Know” feature with trivia that often shines a new light on the personality of the president as he responds to unplanned Christmas-time events.

My Review: 
I've always loved reading about Presidents of The United States. I also love reading books about Christmas. This book was a perfect combination of both. This book is a collection of Christmas messages of at least one address from each president since Calvin Coolidge to now. This is not just reading a special Christmas message, but it's also an interesting walk through history as the president at the time spoke of what was happening currently in the country. 

In 1941 , President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke to the country within weeks of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.This message is particularly poignant when President Roosevelt spoke of..."How can we meet and worship with love and with uplifted spirit and heart in a world at war, a world of fighting and suffering and death?" He went on to announce a day of prayer on January 1st 1942.It is a very beautiful speech.  

I also enjoyed reading President John F. Kennedy's speech in 1962 two months after the Cuban Missile Crisis. He spoke of peace after, "A year of peril when the peace had been sorely threatened, but a year when peril was faced and when reason ruled."

 

Sadly it was the last Christmas he'd light the Christmas tree as he was assassinated the next November. 

I really loved reading the address from President Ronald Reagan in 1981. It was a turbulent time in world politics as Communist Soviet Union, and the Polish Government itself was persecuting the Polish people and their Solidarity Movement. President Reagan addressed this issue  and this speech was the beginning of the end for the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Union. It is a very powerful speech.

I truly enjoyed reading this book and the history that unfolds from these pages. The overall message from all of the presidents was to keep hope and faith alive in people's hearts despite what was going on in the world. Christmas Greetings From The Presidents will be a fine addition to anyones Christmas book collection or any historian's book collection.

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