Book Review: The Truth About Santa Claus

We here at Forever Santa highly recommend The Truth About Santa Claus by James Cross Giblin. It's a well put-together informative book, aimed at intermediate readers in the 8 - 12 year old range. It tells the story of the Santa Claus myth in an easy to understand way that not only explains the origins of the story, but also gives us a look at how these myths are born.

Giblin breaks up the story into several useful parts. He starts with the figure of St. Nicholas, a character from the very early Christian church who lived in the eastern Mediterranean.

Next, the legend of St. Nicholas spread from there to Western and Northern Europe, where he was thrown into a mix of other wintertime gift-bringers. Giblin discusses how this version of St. Nicholas became very popular - one of the most popular figures in the Catholic world of medieval Europe.

Last, Giblin charts the most recent chapter of the St. Nicholas story - how it accompanied European settlers across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World. In the melting pot of various European traditions, Santa Claus was born as an American tradition - a fact which indeed may not be widely known.

Giblin's style is simple, easy and clear. Adults and children alike will find a wealth of information here, either as a good place to find useful Santa info, or as a place to start one's investigations into the Santa legend. High recommended!

The Truth About Santa Claus, by James Cross Giblin

Book Review: Santa Claus from A to Z

6 year old Debbie says: "I like the holly berries. I like the ram. I like toys. I like the bowl of wassail. I like his white beard."

3 year old Barbara says: "I like the ram. I like the holly berries. I like the holly leaves. I like the toys. I like the bell."

This is an image from a book called Santa Claus from A to Z, by Bobbie Kalman and illustrated by Barbara Bedell. It's one of those books for learning the alphabet, where the first letter of various Santa-related items are used to help teach the alphabet.

 

It's an okay book, but my favorite part are the illustrations. Many of them are just wonderful, like this image of Santa riding a ram (or is it a goat?). I'm not sure which tradition of Santa Claus depicts Santa riding a ram, but the fact that he is also holding a bowl of Wassail, a Christmas drink given freely as a way to spread good holiday cheer, locates this Santa within the typical Northwestern European tradition.

At any rate, it's a great picture of an old style Santa that inspires our imaginations and makes us wonder about all the many different Santa Claus stories out there to discover, learn and hopefully pass on!

Book Review: "Young Santa" by Dan Greenburg

Ever wonder what Santa was like as a boy? What his family was like? Where he was raised and how he got into the "Santa Claus" business?

Well, Dan Greenburg's Young Santa answers these questions and many more. Irreverent, laugh out loud funny and illustrated with charming pictures, this is a good book for early readers in the 7 - 10 year old range (though I must say I enjoyed it too as a middle aged old guy).

A prolific author of children's books (among other things), Greenburg guides us through a "revisionist" history of the Santa Claus myth, as re-imagined by a funny Jewish humorist. The results are very enjoyable!

The story starts with new parents, Sophie and Milton Claus, discussing what to name their newborn son. Sheldon, Keith, Sheppy, Byron, Marvin, Freddy and Cornelius - none of the names they come up with are working for them. But then Sophie remembers the name of a city where the couple once vacationed, Santa Fe. How about "Santa?" she suggests. Milton thinks it over and agrees it has a pleasant ring to it. Santa Claus it is!

Then Milton, an icebox salesman, gets transferred to a most unlikely but fortuitous sales post at the North Pole. He's not happy about the transfer, but when he breaks the news to young Santa, the boy isn't unhappy about it all. Turns out the young fellow loves sledding, ice skating, skiing and tobogganing. Living at the North Pole is like a dream come true for young Santa, just as it should be.

Young Santa in his first sleigh... with walruses, not reindeer!

From there we learn all the funny back stories that explain the personality of the Santa we all know and love. Why he loves red. Why he laughs the way he does. His love of geography. Why he's got such a big beard. And best of all, how he came to have such an awesome sleigh. These are important questions!

This is a great book to check out from the library or to add to your holiday book collection. The humor is real - I laughed out loud at many of the jokes - and the illustrations are charming. If you want to take a break from your serious Santa Claus studies, then you and your kids could do far worse than pick up Young Santa for a quick enjoyable read.

Have you read Young Santa? What did you think?