The Lost Christmas Gift

This poignant chapter book tells the story of Emerson Johansson, who, sixty years after his father left for war, receives a long-lost package. Inside is a remarkable handmade book from his father, recounting a shared Christmas Eve adventure where they were lost in a blizzard and helped by a mysterious 'silvery man.' The book, filled with maps, drawings, watercolors, and photographs, reveals the true identity of their helper and the enduring bond between father and son, even across decades and wartime separation. It's a story of memory, love, and the magic of Christmas.

Published in Fall 2012 to glowing reviews, The Lost Christmas Gift quickly sold through its first printing to become a holiday hit and instant Christmas classic. Andrew Beckham's poignant tale features an exquisite book lovingly handmade by a father to show his son what really happened during an adventure they shared one blizzard Christmas Eve. Sixty years after his father left to be a mapmaker in the war in Europe, Emerson Johansson received a package that had been lost in the mail for decades. A remarkable book, lovingly handmade by his father, details an extraordinary adventure they shared together just months before his departure. Setting out into the mountains on Christmas Eve to cut a tree, they find themselves in a dangerous blizzard. Lost in the snow, they are helped by a mysterious silvery man who does not speak but leaves them a series of gifts that help them find their way home. The enigmatic man's image is not captured in the photographs the boy took with his new camera, pictures he believed, until now, were long lost. Little did he know that his father had taken the photographs with him to the battlefield. Featuring a lively combination of maps, vellum overlays, drawings, watercolors, and photographs, The Lost Christmas Gift faithfully reproduces the mysterious present, lost in the mail for decades, revealing that the silvery man in the woods who helped them get home was, in fact, no stranger, but somebody well-known to us all.