Christmas on Jane Street: A True Story (10th Anniversary Edition)

Every holiday season for ten years, Billy Romp, his wife, and their three young children have spent nearly a month living in a tiny camper and selling Christmas trees on Jane Street in New York City. They arrive from Vermont the day after Thanksgiving and leave just in time to make it home for Christmas morning - and for a few weeks they transform a corner of the Big Apple into a small town that might be the setting for a classic Capra film. One neighbor strings a power line from his basement to their festively decorated van; another provides them with a phone line; still others drop off spare keys to nearby apartments so they'll have a place to take a hot shower. The local meter maid "forgets" to ticket them for parking violations; Broadway producers turn up with theater tickets, and the Romps return the city's generosity by giving trees and wreaths to homes in need. It's a unique and inspiring story - and this lovely, lovingly illustrated little gem of a book is a wonderful celebration of one family and the warm, wide circle of friends who have created a Christmas tradition all their own.