When he was a young man in the 1930s, George Skinner, the author"s father, created a winter wonderland in his Los Angeles yard. The idea came to him after he contracted polio at age 22, when he decided to overcome this tragedy and began planning his future Christmas miracle. In the midst of the Great Depression, George created the first Christmas House, which started the tradition of decorating the exteriors of homes.Later, his daughter Georja learned some of the darker motivations behind his amazing work. George Skinner"s father had taken him away from his mother and brothers in Canada and moved to Los Angeles in 1921 — leaving without goodbyes and never revealing to George that his "other family," and of course, his mother, still lived in Canada. By turns inspiring and wrenching, The Christmas House is a memoir of a larger-than-life man whose pioneering creation masked heartbreak while creating and expressing hope.