Following the hugely successful memoir of his boyhood, An Hour Before Daylight, Jimmy Carter remembers Christmas in Plains -- this very special day provides a source of spiritual inspiration, respite, family ties, friendship, vacation fun, and the simplicity of community.

In a beautifully rendered portrait of very special Christmases, Carter begins by returning to his early years in Plains, the village that enchanted listeners of An Hour Before Daylight, which the New Yorker called "an American classic." He remembers with humor and tenderness the Christmas days of his boyhood.

With only one exception in the following 48 years, the Carters have always been in Plains on Christmas Day. In 1980, with Americans held hostage in Iran, Jimmy, Rosalynn, and Amy went by themselves to Camp David and felt lonely. At Amy's suggestion, they invited the White House staff and their families to join them and created their own version of Christmas in Plains.

Jimmy Carter has written another American classic in the tradition of Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory and Dylan Thomas's A Child's Christmas in Wales.