Yule Book Goes Back to Basics : Trends: This volume of ideas takes the focus off materialism and puts it on simple activities for families.

It’s Christmas Eve and you’re at the mall agonizing over the perfect gift for Aunt Sue. Despite the vows you made to make the holidays a special time, you’re back in the familiar old rut of feeling harassed instead of jolly.

“The Penny Whistle Christmas Party Book” by Meredith Brokaw and Annie Gilbar is a book packed with simple yet original ideas for creating that old-fashioned spirit.

“The Christmas holidays don’t have to be a hair-raising time focusing on materialism,” Brokaw said in a recent interview. “It’s a time to get back to basics.”

Her book is designed to show you how to do that.

The section on gift-wrapping illustrates over 23 ways to wrap packages using more imagination and less time. For example: A decorated egg carton can serve as a container for golf balls. Sheet music turns into wrapping paper for a musician. Bandannas, Chinese food cartons, even grapevines act as inventive yet inexpensive ways to turn ordinary packages into something personal. Jill Weber’s clear illustrations are inspiring and easy to follow, even for a young child.

Brokaw, the wife of TV anchorman Tom Brokaw and owner of the Penny Whistle toy stores in New York City, credits her grandparents with passing down invaluable traditions, many of which she has used in the book.

As a child growing up in Yankton, S.D., Brokaw spent each Christmas making felt stockings and unusual ornaments with her grandmother, Edythe Harvey. Brokaw describes her grandmother as an enormously talented craftswoman who taught her a great deal.

Every Christmas Eve, the family sat down to oyster stew, prepared from oysters that arrived by train. Her grandmother’s uncomplicated stew recipe, as well as many other simple but delicious ones, are featured.

Even though December is an especially busy time for Brokaw at her stores, she rarely eliminates any of the holiday activities that were an important part of her youth.

The belief that traditions begin early is one reason the authors suggest that even very young children be included in the festivities. Their advice then is to keep the event simple.

The nine parties offered in the book include a wealth of games and activities designed for the whole family. Many of the games that have a Christmas theme can be easily adapted for Hanukka.

The white Christmas party, an all-white party where invitations, decorations and every morsel of food is white, is especially fun for families that live in warm climates and long for snow-covered places.