Wipe Your Feet, Santa Claus! by German author Konrad Richter and illustrated by Polish artist Jozef Wilkon tells a short tale of a boy who finds that he and Santa Claus both need to wipe the snow off their feet.
The story has a simple charm that reminds us of childhood and speaks directly to the life of children. While the story is effective and will resonate with children and adults alike, the illustrations will command your attention, if not center stage!
What illustrations they are. Take the one above with its old style Central European rendering of Santa. Like Santa Claus from A to Z, we get a flavor of the old Northern European origins of the Santa Claus myth, but in the case of Wipe Your Feet..., with a more expressionistic flair.
At any rate, Santa is not the fat, gregarious elf we're used to in the US - rather, he's thin and tall, with a great long coat and staff. As the door of the house out in the forest swings open in the middle of the night, Santa greets us with a not unkind visage, but not exactly jolly either. A black dog accompanying him smiles at us. Isn't this more ambiguous image of Santa Claus an interesting, different take than the typical, all-happy, completely non-threatening version we're used to? At the very least, this book is worth a trip to the library to find and read to your kids as Christmas approaches. The sweet view of childhood it presents, along with its deeply traditional European view of Santa will appeal to those who appreciate this side of Christmas and want to introduce it to their children.
At any rate, Santa is not the fat, gregarious elf we're used to in the US - rather, he's thin and tall, with a great long coat and staff. As the door of the house out in the forest swings open in the middle of the night, Santa greets us with a not unkind visage, but not exactly jolly either. A black dog accompanying him smiles at us. Isn't this more ambiguous image of Santa Claus an interesting, different take than the typical, all-happy, completely non-threatening version we're used to? At the very least, this book is worth a trip to the library to find and read to your kids as Christmas approaches. The sweet view of childhood it presents, along with its deeply traditional European view of Santa will appeal to those who appreciate this side of Christmas and want to introduce it to their children.
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