The first Christmas comes to life on the pages of this book (originally printed in 1875!).

The original paintings were recreated using a sophisticated woodcut technique, called xylography, that gives the feel of an engraving–but in vivid, beautiful colour. These illustrations were first designed and painted by Leonhard Diefenbach, a member of the Munich school of painting.  Then they were translated into these woodcuts by Heinrich Knöfler in order to reproduce them for this book. Both had to be at the very tip-top of their skills to produce this book, not so that it could hang on a gallery wall somewhere, but so that it would be placed somewhere even more precious: into the hands of children…and why? Because it mattered to them that children would be given such a rich exemplar of faith to be handed down through the generations.