From the foremost authority, the definitive guide to your career as an event leader!

Today's special events have their roots in the universal, ancient human need to celebrate with ceremony and ritual. Twenty-first-century event leaders acknowledge these roots while moving the event management profession toward the new possibilities presented by our globalizing world. Special Events: The Roots and Wings of Celebration, Fifth Edition provides experienced as well as aspiring event leaders with a comprehensive guide to understanding, planning, funding, promoting, and producing special events. Filled with helpful resources and illustrative examples, this Fifth Edition covers such areas as marketing, sponsorship, human resource management, financial administration, risk management, safety and security, global event leadership models, media use, legal and ethical considerations, technology, career development, and more.

New and revised materials in this edition include:

• New profiles of leaders in the global events industry from Africa to America and from Bulgaria to Birmingham-learn what makes the greats great and their events truly spectacular
• Five Best Practice examples of exemplary events and over a dozen detailed case studies of all types of events
• Broader coverage of production schedules and the soon-to-be new industry standard, the APEX event specification guide
• Revised discussion of law and ethics in special events
• Over 100 new Web resources throughout text
• Descriptions of the leading meetings and events industry professional certification programs and how to earn these designations

This book is a treasure trove of tomorrow's fond childhood memories, all mingled with a mix of colored thread, delicious cooking smells, softly sparkling candlelight, and the snatches of favorite songs.

Brimming with stories, poems, activities, things to make, and songs, All Year Round offers a friendly guide to the seasonal round of festivals. Helpful drawings and diagrams illustrate this practical book. It contains a wealth of experience that can help families find their own way around the year.

Parents are encouraged to develop their traditions and family ways using this as a springboard. As the authors say, the words are ours, the festivals are yours.

The authors believe that observing a round of festivals is an enjoyable way of bringing rhythm into children's lives, a way of providing meaningful landmarks to look forward to. Experiencing the unfolding year through stories, poems, and making seasonal tables encourages a love of nature. Each festival has a character of its own, bringing a special gift to family life. Celebrating together is important for families in all kinds of ways. This book offers suggestions about how to get going to all those who wish to deepen their understanding of the festive year.

Oh, those Christmas memories. We all have them, locked away in our hearts. But what about the Christmases we weren’t there for? The one our favorite heirloom ornament came from, or the one we know only from a picture of our newlywed parents smiling under the mistletoe?In Christmas Memories, Susan Waggoner, author of STC’s It’s a Wonderful Christmas and Under the Tree, looks at bygone holidays from the perspective of those who lived them. Beginning with “Christmas in the Melting Pot,” which depicts yuletide in the early 1920s, the author presents detailed snapshots that re-create holiday seasons past. She chronicles the gifts, activities, fads, and fancies that made each Christmas unique; indulges in fantasy shopping at yesterday’s prices; shares thoughts from letters, diaries, and magazines of the era; and makes the past pop to life with vibrantperiod art. Readers will revel in the irresistible nostalgia of Christmas Memories.

In only 200 words, author Skarmeas tells the story of how Valentine's Day came into being. In simple words that every child can understand, here is the story of the kindly Valentine who cared for the children of Rome, who prayed for a miracle for a blind child, and who is remembered each February 14. Artist Pickett has painted the scenes in bright colors from the schoolroom scenes to those of ancient Rome. This book is unusual in that it briefly explains the history of a holiday to toddlers.

Pumpkins are supposed to be scary!

Based on his popular and addictive website ExtremePumpkins.com, Tom Nardone has created a full-color guide to pumpkin carving that's truly frightening. Featuring the website's signature Puking Pumpkin, and spanning everything from Drowning Pumpkin, Crime Scene Pumpkin, and Cannibal Pumpkin to Electrocuted Pumpkin and other never-before-seen designs, this gleefully gory guide is nothing short of a manifesto to take back Halloween from the cheerful, the cutesy, and the parent-sanctioned. For the egg-throwing, toilet tissue-streaming, window-soaping teenager in all of us, finally- a whole new way to celebrate October 31.

In Tinsel, Hank Stuever turns his unerring eye for the idiosyncrasies of modern life to Frisco, Texas—a suburb at once all-American and completely itself—to tell the story of the nation’s most over-the-top celebration: Christmas.  Stuever’s tale begins on the blissful easy-credit dawn of Black Friday, as he jostles for bargains among the crowds at the big-box stores. From there he follows Frisco’s true believers as they navigate through three years of holiday drama. Tammie Parnell is the proprietor of “Two Elves with a Twist,” a company that decks the halls of other people’s McMansions. Jeff and Bridgette Trykoski spend eleven months preparing the visible-from-space, awe-inspiring light display they stage on their lawn each December. And single mother Caroll Cavazos, a devout churchgoer, hopes that the life-affirming moments of the season can transcend her everyday struggles. Tinsel is a humane, revealing, and very funny portrait of one community’s quest to discover a more perfect holiday amidst the frenzied, mega-churchy, shoparific world of Christmas.

When a special activity evolves into a tradition within a family, it creates meaning, connection, and community and makes common occasions more momentous and memorable. Establishing a sense of stability and shared history has never been more important to parents than it is today, as families become more fractured and scattered. THE JOY OF FAMILY TRADITIONS offers more than 400 fresh ideas and creative approaches to cultivating birthday, anniversary, holiday, and other rite-of-passage and seasonal traditions that strengthen personal bonds and reflect a family's individual style, spirituality, and values.

Even now that we're all grown up, we can't help but look back on our childhood holidays and hope to recapture that elusive spirit of joyful anticipation. Celebrating Christmas is so often about nostalgia. With a nod and a wink to the days of Christmas past, It's a Wonderful Christmas presents classic images of the Yuletide icons of mid-20th-century America.

Bubbler lights and glow-in-the-dark icicles. Catalogues crammed with toys. Norad bulletins tracking Rudolph's red nose through the nighttime sky. Along with hundreds of such quintessentially American illustrations, author Susan Waggoner stocking-stuffs her lively text with fascinating bits of information, lore, and lists. Wonder what the all-time most popular Christmas song is? How the tradition of the department store Santa got started? The answers are here. Loaded with images of vintage Christmas cards, wrapping paper, magazine ads, Lionel toy trains, and more, all in full color, this charming book will appeal to anyone who associates Christmas with home movies, The Chipmunk Song, and Santa relaxing with an ice-cold bottle of Coca-Cola. AUTHOR BIO: SUSAN WAGGONER is the author of several illustrated books, including Vintage Cocktails (STC). A native of Minnesota, she currently lives in New York City.

Christmas is a time of seasonal cheer, family get-togethers, holiday parties, and-gift giving. Lots and lots--and lots--of gift giving. It's hard to imagine any Christmas without this time-honored custom. But let's stop to consider the gifts we receive--the rooster sweater from Grandma or the singing fish from Uncle Mike. How many of us get gifts we like? How many of us give gifts not knowing what recipients want? Did your cousin really look excited about that jumping alarm clock? Lively and informed, Scroogenomics illustrates how our consumer spending generates vast amounts of economic waste--to the shocking tune of eighty-five billion dollars each winter. Economist Joel Waldfogel provides solid explanations to show us why it's time to stop the madness and think twice before buying gifts for the holidays.

When we buy for ourselves, every dollar we spend produces at least a dollar in satisfaction, because we shop carefully and purchase items that are worth more than they cost. Gift giving is different. We make less-informed choices, max out on credit to buy gifts worth less than the money spent, and leave recipients less than satisfied, creating what Waldfogel calls deadweight loss. Waldfogel indicates that this waste isn't confined to Americans--most major economies share in this orgy of wealth destruction. While recognizing the difficulties of altering current trends, Waldfogel offers viable gift-giving alternatives.

By reprioritizing our gift-giving habits, Scroogenomics proves that we can still maintain the economy without gouging our wallets, and reclaim the true spirit of the holiday season.

Good Luck Life is the first book to explain the meanings of Chinese rituals and to offer advice on when and how to plan for Chinese holidays and special occasions such as Chinese weddings, the Red Egg and Ginger party to welcome a new baby, significant birthdays, and the inevitable funeral. Packed with practical information, Good Luck Life contains an abundance of facts, legends, foods, old-village recipes, and quick planning guides for Chinese New Year, Clear Brightness, Dragon Boat, Mid-Autumn, and many other festivals.

Written with warmth and wit, Good Luck Life is beautifully designed as an easily accessible cultural guide that includes an explanation of the Lunar Calendar, tips on Chinese table etiquette for dining with confidence, and dos and don'ts from wise Auntie Lao, who recounts ancient Chinese beliefs and superstitions. This is your map for celebrating a good luck life.