Christmas Gift Guide: 2023
All photographs: James Ransom
The Center for Latter-day Saint Arts is pleased to share with you a curated shopping guide of recent books, craft activities, music, and art—all created by Latter-day Saints.
For the second year, we are excited to share with you a limited edition print created as a holiday benefit print—this year by Leslie Graff—and some additional, exceptional surprises.
Happy Holidays!
Young Readers & Family Activities
1. Christmas Snowflakes 2
by Jamie Brocco
There are snowflakes and then there are Christmas Snowflakes. In this step-by-step guide, Jamie Goble Brocco incorporates text, religious imagery, and beautiful symbols to inspire even the least scissor-talented among us to get snipping. (Plain Sight Publishing, softcover, 96 pp.) $22.99
2. The Wild Journey of Juniper Berry
by Chad Morris and Shelly Brown
Children of a family living off the grid the woods are forced to move into the city with cousins when the little brother gets sick and and needs to stay in the hospital. 11-year old Juniper learns how to post about the family in the wilderness and their introduction to urban life. A half million views later, the global family that connects to them also resuces them. The Wild Journey of Juniper Berry is "a fascinating, touching story of an off-the-grid family facing changes and the invisible threads that connect people." (Kirkus Reviews) (Shadow Mountain, hardcover, 256 pp. ($19.99)
3. Snowmen's Twelve Nights of Christmas
by Caralyn Buehner (author), Mark Buehner (illustrator)
Bestselling husband and wife team Mark Buehner (illustrations) and Caralyn Buehner (story) made a name for themselves with books about the inner lives of snowmen. Their secret has always been the practice of hiding pictures within their pictures--engagement insurance that the story will never get old. Their latest, Snowmen's Twelve Nights of Christmas, finds seven gnomes a-knitting, six peeking penguins, and more merriment with a twist of mischief. (Dial Books for Young Readers, hardcover, 32 pp.) $18.99
4. The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity
Illustrations by Brett Helquist
The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity might be the perfect story for middle-grade readers, including danger, drama, adventurous delight; and it's all true. The wild story of the 1911 theft of the Leonardo da Vinci's little painting (soon to be the most famous painting in the world) is by Nicholas Day and illustrated by the master image-maker of Lemony Snicket, Bunnicula, Chasing Vermeer, and others, Brett Helquist. This book has evocative and moody images on almost every page. Spoiler: The Mona Lisa doesn't stay lost. (Random House Studio, hardcover, 288 pp.) $19.99
5. Magnetic Nativity Figurine Set
by Ali Figgat
A clever, interactive way for families to recreate the Nativity story, Ali Figgat has created Magnetic Nativity Figurine Set that mixes together the nostalgia of flannel board storytelling, paper doll sets, even an advent calendar. It comes with 24 cards to prompt the telling of the Christmas story, along with a zipped cloth container to hold the nearly 100 vinyl and magnetic pieces ready to begin your refrigerator door panorama. (Etsy, seven 7.5 x 8.75 sheets of figures, and adornments, card kit, and cloth bag) $25.00
6. Christ in the Manger beginner embroidery kit
by Romney Hoyt
Return to sweet, handmade holidays with this beginner's embroidery kit of the manger by Romney Hoyt. It comes with all the needles, scissors, threads, hoop, and instructions you'll need. (Etsy, embroidery kit) $40.00
Adult Books (Devotional)
1. Seeing Things: Technologies of Vision and the Making of Mormonism
by Mason Kamana Allred
Scholar Mason Kamana Allred studies and teaches communication, media, and culture at Brigham Young University-Hawaii. The focus of his book, Seeing Things: Technologies of Vision and the Making of Mormonism, is the role of media in the development of Mormonism. By "media," however, he refers to "seeing"--both the ways that seers see and the manner that we frame the way we are seen by others. This includes surprising excavations into history. (University of North Carolina Press, softcover, 266 pp.) $34.44
2. Both Things Are True
by Kate Holbrook
Kate Holbrook left an admirable body of scholarship and writing about Latter-day Saint women and history upon her death in 2022. Both Things Are True appears posthumously. It is a volume of five personal essays and an interview about her life and work. One scholar and friend, while complimenting her writing on behalf of other women, and upon hearing that her colleague's life was ending, encouraged Holbrook to document her own thoughts and experiences, "The world needs your personal writing, too." This gem of a book is the result. (BYU/Maxwell Institute/Deseret Book, softcover, 176 pp.) $12.99
3. Prophets See Around Corners
by Sheri Dew
Prophets See Around Corners is a modest book about a heroic subject. Author Sheri Dew tells fascinating (and sometimes funny) stories of her encounters with prophets in various settings. She has written the biographies of three LDS Presidents and bears elegant testimony of their divine calling. The book is modest in the sense that it is short, and that the author is holding back from autobiography, putting the light instead on leaders she admires. One hopes that at some point, she sits down and writes the well-observed book that her own life deserves. (Deseret Book, hardcover, 112 pp.) $18.99
4. Lowell L. Bennion: A Mormon Educator
by George B. Handley
The series, Introductions to Mormon Thought, published by Illinois University Press, is an unfurling collection of short books that introduce readers to key figures in the intellectual life of the faith. The latest is by Geoge B. Handley, and it tells the story of a man who was a forerunner of the Church's recent pronouncements regarding racism. Alas, he passed away before his progressive stands on social issues found traction--Lowell L. Bennion: A Mormon Educator. (Illinois University Press, softcover, 122 pp.) $14.95
5. Heart of the Matter: What 100 Years of Living Have Taught Me
by Russell M. Nelson
Shortly after President Russell M. Nelson was called to be an apostle, he wrote a book titled The Power Within Us in which he stated, "The older I grow, the more I appreciate the uniqueness of an individual life." 35 years later, nearing the century mark, comes a new book, Heart of the Matter: What 100 Years of Living Have Taught Me. It is full of wisdom, stories new and familiar, meant to enlighten and uplift. (Deseret Book, hardcover, 240 pp.) $25.99
6. A Word in Season: Isaiah's Reception in the Book of Mormon
by Joseph Spencer
Hot off the press is a new, provocative interpretation of the relationsip of Isaiah in the Book of Mormon published by University of Illinois Press. Written by Joseph M. Spencer, associate professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University, A Word in Season: Isaiah's Reception in the Book of Mormon is the book is the first of its kind to look at the Book of Mormon as it was dictated rather than as it was printed. (University of Illinois Press, softcover, 318 pp.) $30.00
Adult Books (Non-Devotional)
1. Under the Java Moon: A Novel of World War II
by Heather B. Moore
In the afterward of her latest book, Under the Java Moon , author Heather B. Moore includes a short essay by the book's historical subject, a person who was imprisoned during WWII in a Japanese internment camp in Java. She writes that she and her family somehow survived but never told their story until now; they turned over their history to Moore for a work of historic fiction. And what a story! (Shadow Mountain, hardcover, 400 pp.) $26.99
2. (At) Wrist
by Tacey M. Atsitty
In the world of poetry, high quality is flagged by prizes and publication credits. Her second book of poetry, winner of the Brittingham Prize in Poetry, Tacey M. Atsitty's (At) Wrist heralds both. What those accolades acknowledge and convey is how beautiful, original, and stirring these poems are. The final work in the collection, "Lacing," for example, is a sonnet followed by 14 numbered sonnets that flow like a circled river into itself.
3. Romney: A Reckoning
by McKay Coppins
As a media figure, Mitt Romney has been best served when he's found others who could tell his story for him (the 2014 Greg Whiteley documentary is a prime example). Now comes a big biography by staff writer of The Atlantic, McKay Coppins, Romney: A Reckoning. In both cases, the storytellers also share Romney's faith, which surely facilitated trust and, therefore, access. Coppins was given hundreds of pages of personal journals, private emails, and granted 45 interviews with Romney, and he responds without the cynicism or nationalism that dogged reactions to the governor and senator's public service. Many onlookers have wondered over the last decade what Romney made of his strange political circumstances. This bestseller has answers. (Scribner, hardcover, 410 pp.) $32.50
4. The Abduction of Betty and Barney Hill: Alien Encounters, Civil Rights, and the New Age in America
by Matthew Bowman
Imagine a 1960s UFO lore story investigated as a cultural symbol of a strange American decade. Matthew Bowman is associate professor of religion and history and Howard W. Hunter Chair of Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University. His several books have all been about Mormonism, but this journey in the shifting winds of politics and values at mid-century portends a newly-layered voice in Mormon scholarship that finds LDS insights into culture without the necessity that it be about religion at all. The Abduction of Betty and Barney Hill: Alient Encounters, Civil Rights, and the New Age in America (Yale University Press, hardcover, 288 pp.) $30.00
5. The Inextinguishable
by Michael Lavers
In a collection of exquisite poems, the title offering of Michael Laver's latest, The Inextinguishable, might stand out for LDS readers, in particular. It speaks of the eternal nature of seemingly transitory things. "I will see my parents again," reads one line. And these final two: "we go sorrowless/ onward forever (University of Tampa Press, softcover, 84 pp.) $14.00
6. La guía del mago frugal para sobrevivir en la Inglaterra del Medievo
by Brandon Sanderson
Brandon Sanderson's output of novels expands again with the story of a man who wakes up in Medieval England, unsure how he landed there but aware that people are chasing him. His only hope to get home is in tatters--fragments of a book titled The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England. Spanish edition. (Nova, hardcover, 288 pp.) $29.95
Music
1. Jenny Oaks Baker Christmas Tour
Joy to the World! A Sacred Christmas Celebration: Idaho Falls, ID (11/24), Boise, ID (11/25), San Antonio, TX (11/27), Richardson, TX (11/28), Houston, TX (11/29), Salt Lake City, UT (11/30), Seattle, WA (12/4), Calgary, Alberta (12/5), St. Louis, MO (12/8), Skokie, IL (12/9), Logan, UT (12/11), St. George, UT (12/13), Las Vegas, NV (12/14), Cedar City, UT (12/15), Richardfield, UT (12/16), El Cajon, CA (12/18), Thousand Oaks, CA (12/19), Cerritos, CA (12/21), Oakland, CA (12/22), Mesa, AZ (12/23).
2. The Moss Tour
The Moss tour continues: Washington, DC (11/29), Philadelphia, PA (11/30), Cambridge, MA (12/1), New York, NY (12/2), Fort Lauderdale, FL (12/3), Charlottesville, VA (12/5), Carrboro, NC (12/6), Atlanta, GA (12/7), Nashville, TN (12/8-9).
3. Nathan Pacheco Christmas Tour
The popular tenor takes his Christmas concert on the road -- Nathan Pacheco Christmas tour: Idaho Falls, ID (11/25), Portland, OR (11/27), Folsom, CA (11/30), Burley, ID (12/1), Boise, ID (12/2), Logan, UT (12/4), American Fork, UT (12/6-7) Arlington, TX (12/9), La Mirada, CA (12/15), Salt Lake City, UT (12/18), St. George, UT (12/19), Richfield, UT (12/20), Gilbert, AZ (12/22).
4. Mat and Savanna Shaw Christmas Tour
A Shaw Family Christmas: Salt Lake City, UT (12/8-9), Livestream (12/9), Idaho Falls, ID (12/14), Logan, UT (12/15), Boise, ID (12/16).
5. The Barefoot Movement Tour
The Barefoot Movement tour dates: Oxford, NC (12/1), Concord, NC (12/2), Richmond, VA (12/6), Frederick, MD (12/7), Roanoke, VA (12/8), Washington, DC (12/7), Minneapolis, MN (12/13), Cedar Rapids, IA (12/14), Greenlake, WI (12/15), Minocqua, WI (12/16), Columbus, OH (12/18), Newport, KY (12/19), Nashville, TN (12/20).
6. Strauss: Four Last Songs
Rachel Willis-Sørensen, soprano
Do you know what it means to be a Sony Classical artist? To begin, there are fewer than 100 of them. They include titans of classical music living and dead: Marian Anderson, Joshua Bell, Van Cliburn, Arthur Fiedler, Glenn Gould, Phillip Glass, Lang Lang--artists so famous that many are one-name superstars: Bernstein, Heifetz, Horowitz, Kissin, Toscanini. You get the picture. So when we say that Rachel Willis-Sørensen is a Sony Classical artist and that her multi-recording contract has just yielded its second, rapturously reviewed CD, Strauss: Four Last Songs. it's, well, a very big deal. We absolutely can't wait until April 9, 2024, when Willis-Sørensen will give her New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall, presented by the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts. The occasion will include the world premiere of S. Andrew Lloyd's Amaranthine, winner of the 2022 Prize of The Ariel Bybee Endowment at the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts. (Sony Classical, CD) $13.98 Tickets to this superlative event go on sale to the public December 4. $65-85
7. Making it HUGE in Video Games: Memoirs of Composer Chance Thomas
by Chance Thomas
The name Chance Thomas is likely less familiar to you than his work as a composer for video games. Those titles, yes, you know: Avatar, Lord of the Rings, Dungeons and Dragons, and Marvel. This delightful handbook, written as if you were sitting across a table from him and listening to his stories, Making It Huge in Video Games: Memoirs of Composer Chance Thomas, provides a peek into a world few know. Thomas writes about all of these projects, including LDS spots and videos, with candor and wide-eyed discovery, as if he can hardly believe his good fortune to land one incredible gig after another. (CRC Press, softcover, 330 pp.) $47.97
Arts and Food
1. Official Fablehaven Cookbook
by Brandon Mull and Cherie Mull
Fablehaven fans--and there are many of us—rejoice and go to the kitchen! Brandon Mull and Cherie Mull have written The Official Fablehaven Cookbook: Wondrous Recipes Inspired by the Characters from the Series. Do you have to know who Coulter is to enjoy the recipe for Coulter's Caramel Apples? No, but the book does have one excellent surprise: an original, 13-page story, "The Missing Brownies." (Shadow Mountain, hardcover, 128 pp.) $23.99
2 and 3. Paper Nativity scene and polished nickel Star of Bethlehem Christmas ornament
by Valerie Atkisson
Heirloomware is a company of holiday decorative products designed by artist Valerie Atkisson. This laser-cut nativity includes two sheets that notch together to form an upright scene (note: one sheet shown here). This polished nickel ornament of the Holy Family comes with a white ribbon and a tacit warning: the rest of your tree's ornaments are going to be jealous. (Heirloomware, polished nickel, 3.25 inches in diameter) $46.99
4. Delicious Gatherings
by Tara Teaspoon
Celebrating the holidays might conjure hopes of "gifts" for some people, but for many of us, the season is the time for extra-effort food. Tara Teaspoon’s second cookbook, Delicious Gatherings: Recipes to Celebrate Together, is a wishlist of deliciousness. Don't you want one of the following on Christmas morning: churro waffles with whipped ricotta and dulce de leche, coconut cream sweet rolls, cheesecake-topped whole-wheat brown sugar muffins, brûléed oatmeal, blueberry bannock scones...? Who needs presents? (Shadow Mountain, harcover, 272 pp.) $34.99
5. Catalog
by Maddison Colvin
Of all the products an artist can create, the genre of the artist's books might be the most under-appreciated by the public. In them, an artist, let's say, Maddison Colvin, makes a work that can be distributed like a book, editioned like signed and numbered etching, and has all the beauty and thought of her best work. In Catalog, Colvin painted many small objects--a pencil, a penny--and then used an old typewriter with no editing functions to describe it on the facing page. Old school? Most definitely, but also experimental because it is a document of what chaotic memories we all have and our difficult to describe even the most familiar things around us. (Paragon Press, softcover, 240 pp.) $20.00
6. Scripture Recipe
by Paula Weed
From the March 2010 issue of the Friend magazine comes this delightful scripture chase meets cookie recipe by Paula Weed. Open the scriptures and get hungry. (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, online feature) Free.
2023 Holiday Print
The Center for Latter-day Saint Arts and Leslie Graff Holiday Benefit Print
Leslie Graff (American, born 1976)
She made the holidays delicious (2023)
Risograph print on Mohawk Via Vellum, 9 x 12 inches (image size), 11 x 14 inches (paper size), signed and numbered, edition: 50, unframed
$100 + $10 shipping/handling via USPS.
Your purchase of this original benefit print supports the work of the Center and provides your home a holiday artwork that will bring a smile to you and your guests every year, starting now.
The wild, true story of She made the holidays delicious (2023):
In January 2021, a 48-year old man was arrested by the Boston police department. He had broken into Arden Gallery, destroyed and stole artworks, and tried to break into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum with a small sledge hammer. Leslie Graff’s work was in that Arden Gallery show. Her painting, titled She made it delicious, was slashed by the thief and was unrepairable. Now, to bring a destroyed work back to life, Graff has returned to the image for a new work. To accomplish it, she created a full-scale cake image paired, this time, with a 1950s wrapping paper pattern based on one her grandparents had in their Idaho fabric store, which they used to wrap her Christmas gifts every year. The artist was working on the painting as her grandmother passed away a month shy of 99 years old. Graff then created the smaller holiday scene for this project which she titled She made the holidays delicious.
To Purchase: (please note that the button below will send an email to our administrative assistant, Emily Spung, to initiate purchase).
$100 + $10 shipping/handling via USPS.
To ensure delivery before Christmas, please order before December 16th, 2022.
Gifts That Give Back
The four works below are generous contributions by artists working with the Center to support its activities. All proceeds support the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts.
1. The Center for Latter-day Saint Arts x Brian Kershisnik 2022 Holiday Print
An instant heirloom of Kershisnik's glorious angel with a common man's reaction. This print was the inaugural holiday benefit print to support the Center and it’s initiatives.
Brian Kershisnik (American, born 1962)
Gloria (2022)
Relief print 3.75 x 4.75 (image size), 9.1875 x 9.75 (sheet size), signed and number, edition: 50, unframed $100 + $10 shipping/handling via USPS Priority Mail. Frame not included.
To Purchase: (please note that the button below will send an email to our administrative assistant, Emily Spung, to initiate payment processing and shipping).
Quantities are limited. Order by December 16 for Christmas delivery.
2. She made the holidays delicious (painting)
Leslie Graff (American, born 1976)
She made the holidays delicious (2023)
Acrylic on wood panel, 11 x 14 inches
$750 + $10 shipping/handling via USPS Priority Mail
The wild, true story of She made the holidays delicious (2023):
In January 2021, a 48-year old man was arrested by the Boston police department. He had broken into Arden Gallery, destroyed and stole artworks, and tried to break into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum with a small sledge hammer. Leslie Graff’s work was in that Arden Gallery show. Her painting titled She made it delicious was slashed by the thief and was unrepairable. Now, to bring a destroyed work back to life, Graff has returned to the image for a new work. To accomplish it, she created a full-scale cake image paired, this time, with a 1950s wrapping paper pattern based on one her grandparents had in their Idaho fabric store, which they used to wrap her Christmas gifts every year. The artist was working on the painting as her grandmother passed away a month shy of 99 years old. Graff then created the smaller holiday scene for this project which she titled She made the holidays delicious. This painting was then the source to create the holiday benefit print.
To purchase the painting: (Please note that the button below will send an email to our administrative assistant, Emily Spung, who will assist with payment processing and shipping). $750 + shipping/handling.
Order by December 16 for Christmas delivery.
3. Inscribed Copy of Joseph Smith’s Gold Plates: A Cultural History from Richard L. Bushman
The latest book from renowned historian and Center for Latter-day Saint Arts co-founder Richard Lyman Bushman, Joseph Smith's Gold Plates: A Cultural History, takes a fresh look at the gold plates. In his inimitable manner, he examines how the plates have been imagined by believers, critics, people who saw them--as well as echoes of all the above.
Purchase autographed copies, with optional personal inscription, for your own library or as gifts for loved ones. $100 + $10 shipping/handling via USPS Priority Mail (per book).
4. Baucis and Philemon (composer’s score) SOLD
by Steven L. Ricks (American, b. 1969)
Coil-bound score, Baucis and Philemon, 105 pp., with multiple signatures, numerous edits and notes in the composer's hand
14 x 8.5 inches, sign by the composer, librettist, conductor, singers, musicians, lighting designer, and more.
SOLD ($200 + $10 shipping/handling via USPS Priority Mail)
Michael Hicks, reviewing the premiere of the chamber opera Baucis and Philemon by composer Steven L. Ricks and librettist Stephen Tuttle, wrote, "To create a small universe is no easy feat. And to visit one is to awaken fresh senses, grow new eyes and ears. Steve Ricks did the former and I've just had the thrill of undergoing the latter...." The opera, commissioned by the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts and premiered at Brigham Young University in October, is based on an episode from Ovid's Metamorphosis that presents a fable of a man and woman who are rewarded by the gods with eternal life and turned into trees on the banks of a beautiful lake. Ricks has generously donated his composer's score with handwritten rehearsal and recording session notes. Proceeds go to the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts.