Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, over two thousand years ago. This event is so important that the world calculates the time of all other events based on it. But centuries before Jesus was born, the prophets of the Old Testament in the Bible spoke of his coming. In the centuries before Jesus' birth, belief in the coming of the Messiah was widely held, and these prophecies were fulfilled in the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. Too often today the true story of Jesus' birth gets lost in the frantic Christmas sales messages that start earlier each year. "The Christmas Prophecies" was created to bring back some of the wonder that has been at the core of Christmas since its beginning. The story is told in verses quoted from the King James Bible (Authorized Version, 1769) with a modern text accompanying it and a glossary of terms that may be unfamiliar to modern readers. It is illustrated with classic paintings of the events by Raphael, Rembrandt, Del Sarto, Tintoretto, Bouguereau and many others, and case bound with full-color laminated covers.