The Sunday Salon and Four Days before Christmas... Last Minute Bookish Gifts!

It's Four Days Before Christmas and all through the house... Welcome to The Sunday Salon! It's the day of the week we kick back and relax, and virtually talk books with all of our bookish friends. So, grab a cup of joe, find a comfy chair and let's chat...

It's almost Christmas! Do you have all your gifts hidden away or wrapped and put under the tree? I love wrapping presents and putting them under the tree.With the twinkling of the Christmas tree lights and the sounds of Christmas music floating through the air, it always puts me in the Christmas Spirit.

Are you scrambling for last minute bookish gifts? Well, here are a few suggestions for the readers in your life...

How about a Pillow Tray?  I purchased a pillow tray for one of the readers in my life so they could sit up in bed or on the sofa with their book or eReader and a drink comfortably on their lap. Now, the pillow tray I bought also doubles as an animal pillow when it's all closed up. It is so cute! The animal pillow trays are really made for kids, but would be big enough for you and your eReader and beverage. I actually was able to put my 17 inch apple laptop on it turned diagonally to be able to also have a bottle of water in the beverage holder. The animal trays I bought at QVC.com, but there are other pillow trays available if the animal pillow is not your thing. Price range from $30 for kids pillow tray to around $49 for adults pillow tray. There should be a lot of different trays at different prices out there though.

Personal Library Kit... Not that I like to "deface" my books with bookplates, but this is just too cute. If your bookish friend tends to lend out her book, this little kit is like the old fashion checkout's from the library, with a self adhesive checkout card pocket and checkout cards, with a date stamper to let the person borrowing the book know when the "return" date is. I might attach the card pocket with something removable, so as not to damage the book, but otherwise I love this kit!  Average price about $16.


Book Lover's Calendar! I love this calendar! Every day you get a new book to discover and I'm always learning something new! Either about a book or author. This year my public library was selling these as a fund raiser for $6! The list price is normally $14.

Other ideas.... Mugs, bookmarks, book totes... and always appreciated for a book lover is a gift certificate to their local bookstore! Picking out books is nice too, but if you're not sure if the person has a particular book, save the receipt (just in case). And if you are thinking about eReaders, the basic Kindle starts at just $59! And the Nook GlowLight sells for $99.

Merry Christmas to you and your family! I hope you enjoy Christmas! And when all the presents are unwrapped and you've received bookish gifts, come back here and share what bookish delights came your way!

Next week... back to finding your next great read right here! Lots of new books to share!

Happy reading... Suzanne

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus...

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Is There a Santa Claus?

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.

"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.

"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'

"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.

"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.