Christmas:1940-1959 : A Collector's Guide to Decorations and Customs is a "revised 2nd edition" with 2004-2005 prices, according to author Robert Brenner's website. The book is profusely illustrated with gorgeous full-color photographs of ornaments, decorations, and other Christmas paraphernalia and ephemera, as well as nostalgic black-and-white period photographs. Interestingly, many of the latter have prices listed in the captions.

The text, however, is nearly impossible to read. The font used in the book is very small. Sentences are repeated in nearly identical format on the same page, often in adjacent paragraphs. Apparently the proofreading was very poor, as every time the phrase "after the war" appears, "after" is capitalized, irregardless of its position in the sentence. Finally, there are many detailed descriptions of items that are not illustrated, which is frustrating.

The organization of the book adds further to its tediousness. After an introductory section on "Our European Past," divided by decades from 1850 to 1939, the book has two chapters, one on the 1940s and one on the 1950s. Each chapter covers the same topics - historical perspectives, cards and paper, trees and decorations under them, European and American influences on glass ornaments, other tree decorations, how homes were decorated, and indoor and outdoor lighting. However, since there weren't that many changes from one decade to the next, there is a lot of repetition. Although there are no footnotes or endnotes, there is a references cited list at the end of the book, as well as a two-page index. ( )