Once upon a time, a happy little Christmas gnome wakes up and seeks out happy dreams of the holiday, but instead finds dirty dishes and bills. What has happened to Christmas? The story told in simple words and photography is appropriate for the entire family.

The characters of Grim Happy Christmas, Red Hob and Green Hob, were cherished vintage ornaments handed down from family and became the centerpiece of this book during a particularly skint holiday.

Christmas Gnomes (Tomten, Nisse, or Hobs) were Christmas kitsch ornaments Made In Japan during the 1950s of hand painted hard plastic faces topped by flocked paper hats. Arms, legs, and hair were chenille, and the bodies and feet were made from spun cotton.

Mr. Bumble Bindlegrim was a collector of holiday literature, and is said to have lived his later years among wild rabbits and mossy apple trees of an orchard on the San Juan Islands of northwest Washington.

Robert Aaron Wiley ( author of The Pumpkin Dream) is also an avid fan of holidays. He is known to explore the arts via writing, illustration, photography, design, digital media, music... as well as the history of vintage ephemera and kitsch.