Special Edition A Christmas Lost in Time (Shipping on October 29th)

On the cover of our Christmas 2026 Special Edition is the home of Jason and LeeAnn Imel of Madison, Indiana.

Christmas inside LeeAnn’s home seems to open a door to another era. Each December, her early antiques are joined by the Christmas imagery she remembers from childhood: rosy-cheeked Santa mugs, flocked reindeer, bottle-brush trees, putz houses, handblown ornaments, papier-mâché candy containers, celluloid figures, and cupboards overflowing with midcentury Christmas characters.

Many of these collections remain packed away year-round, making the ritual of opening the cupboard doors part of Christmas itself. Inspired by memories of her grandmother, old-fashioned Christmases and the natural simplicity she admired in Little Women, LeeAnn brings together two different kinds of nostalgia: the worn early antiques she loves year-round and the colorful vintage Christmas pieces that transport her directly back to childhood.

Inside A Christmas Lost in Time, tour the homes of:

Jason & LeeAnn Imel of Madison, Indiana

Dana & Amy Haenner of Hamilton, Indiana

Dave & Sally Joller of Export, Pennsylvania

Cathy Wilcox of Caddo Mills, Texas

Joe & Jennifer Spadaford of Chester Springs, Pennsylvania

The home tours are only the beginning.

THE WASHINGTON CHRISTMAS JOURNAL

What did Christmas actually look like for George Washington? Using Washington’s diaries, letters, account books, and surviving historical records, we reconstruct his Christmas seasons from 1740 through 1799. Follow him from a childhood fire and a Christmas spent aboard ship to the snowy western frontier, his marriage to Martha during the Twelve Days of Christmas, the crossing of the Delaware, Valley Forge, his long-awaited Christmas Eve return to Mount Vernon after the Revolution, presidential Christmases and his final holiday season. Together, these records reveal an eighteenth-century Christmas far different from the one we know today.

THE MAGIC OF CHRISTMAS IN COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG

Again and again, the homeowners we feature tell us Colonial Williamsburg has influenced how they decorate for Christmas. So we wanted to look more closely at the place behind that influence. We’ll explore what Christmas actually meant in eighteenth-century Williamsburg, and how the restored city later helped develop the greenery, fruit, candlelight, hospitality, and historic imagery that Americans now associate with a “colonial Christmas.” This article might actually surprise you! Have we been decorating in the wrong century??

OUR NEWSLETTER READERS ARE PART OF THIS ISSUE, TOO!

We asked our newsletter readers to open their homes and collections to us, and their submitted photographs will fill several special articles throughout the issue. We’ll share their Christmas trees and ornaments, fireplace mantel displays, and treasured Christmas collections, giving you a chance to see how fellow primitive and early American collectors decorate for the season.

Those collections will take us into some of the Christmas antiques and collectibles our readers look forward to bringing out year after year, including Arnett Santas, Belsnickels, Putz houses and sheep, Byers’ Choice Carolers, vintage Christmas collections, and so much more.

This issue will be packed with Christmas antique collecting and decorating inspiration, from ideas for incorporating holiday pieces among your everyday antiques to unusual collections you may want to start hunting for yourself.

From eighteenth-century Christmas traditions to decorations that instantly return us to childhood, this Special Edition asks what about Christmas past continues to call us back.