"Folklore and legends and traditions delight me as they do the children," says Anne Thaxter Eaton. "In particular, the legends and traditions that connect animals with the Christmas story have always charmed me. As I found them here and there over the years, and have told them and read them to boys and girls, I began to feel that I should like to see them all available in one place where each year they will serve to remind us of one of the most lovable parts of the Christmas tradition. 

"I am doubly happy that they can appear together with the work of an artist whose drawings have the same childlike beauty and lovely simplicity as the poems and stories."

From the dust jacket