Ah, the holiday season: a time for cocoa, carols, and design decisions that should’ve been left in the return bin with the broken string lights. Tales for Advent and Christmas by J. Traveler Pelton aims to bring warmth and tradition to your bookshelf, but the only thing this cover is decking is the halls of poor aesthetic judgment.
Let’s begin with the snowy elephant in the room: the stock photo snow globe. This lonely, low-res bauble sits at the bottom of the cover like it got dropped in during a seasonal PowerPoint. It features a generic blue-roofed cabin and one overachieving pine tree, all encased in a glassy orb of holiday indifference. The whole thing has the energy of “free image from page 7 of Shutterstock,” with zero integration into the background. No shadow. No depth. Just… floating there, like a sad ornament rejected by even the saddest tree.
Above this frozen tragedy, we’re gifted with not one, not two, but three mismatched fonts, layered like a fruitcake no one asked for. “TALES FOR” is doing its best to look like it belongs on the side of a hymn book. “Advent” is in a glittery script that’s either trying to be magical or was yanked directly from a Pinterest wedding invite. And “Christmas”? It’s barely holding itself together under the weight of excessive twirls and clashing letterforms. The only thing consistent about the typography is how inconsistent it is.
And let’s talk about the background — a blindingly bright blue fade with mystery orbs drifting around like lost Christmas souls. Is it snow? Magic dust? A bokeh filter having a breakdown? Who can say. All it does is create an eye-searing backdrop that makes the text float weirdly and drains any sense of warmth or coziness the title might have promised.
Then there’s the subtitle: “A collection of traditions, stories and customs for the Christmas season.” It’s set in a dry, default font that practically shrugs at you from across the page. It’s centered for no reason, squished between the glitter-bomb title and the sad snow globe like it’s hiding from the design itself.
The whole cover looks like a confused holiday intern was told, “Make it look festive,” handed Microsoft Publisher, and left to fend for themselves. There’s no hierarchy, no coherence, and no joy — just blue. So much blue.
This book may celebrate the warmth of Christmas traditions, but its cover is like opening a gift and finding a tangle of extension cords and disappointment. Let’s hope what’s inside is more thoughtful than the wrapping.