Has the real meaning of Christmas become lost? How do you bring the true meaning of the holiday back to the season?

In an era when Christmas has become little more than a frenzy of exhausting and expensive consumerism, many Christians are searching for a way to reclaim the deeper meaning of the celebration for their children and family. New York Times best-selling author W. Cleon Skousen’s The Real Story of Christmas reconnects the reader with what Christmas is supposed to be: peace, goodwill, and the story of Jesus Christ.

Skousen provides historical context and a clear explanation of the events, the places, and the people involved in the birth of Jesus–Mary and Joseph, Zacharias and Elizabeth, Simeon and Anna, the three wise men, and the Roman occupying army. Those seeking the Christ Child, for both good and evil, are brought to life with historical context and description. It’s the real story of Christmas, the one that has lived for 2,000 years to change the hearts of billions toward fostering true peace on earth and good will toward men.

At the end of the book are the verses from Luke 2 that give the original biblical account of Jesus’s birth, a perfect passage for family reading on Christmas Eve.

The Real Story of Christmas begins in a humble little village, long besieged by warriors, with little hope of escape–until one night in early spring when there was born a babe in a manger whose life and mission would literally change everything