No matter how well immigrants adapt to life in a new country, they still treasure the traditions of their native homes. For many pioneer settlers in North America, Christmas was a time to honor their heritage, both spiritual and cultural. During those long and often bleak winters, Christmas brought families and their communities together. The festivities gave pioneers a chance, for even a little while, to forget their hardships and concentrate on beauty and meaning. - from the authoras introduction. In this delightful Christmas collection, author Irene Morck has taken a number of stories from her bestseller, Five Pennies: A Prairie Boyas Story (Fifth House,1999), and adapted them for children of all ages. Based on her fatheras childhood years in a Danish pioneer community, Apples and Angel Ladders follows a family through their most memorable Christmases. Accompanied by Muriel Woodas beautifully realized paintings, this collection vividly recreates the hardships and simple joys of homesteading life and the Christmas season that offered the kind of riches that never could be bought. This is a collection that will be shared by grandparents, parents and their children, and become a keepsake to be handed down and cherished for years to come. (includes colour plates with woodcuts in black and white throughout, special binding with a ribbon marker)