More from "Wipe Your Feet, Santa Claus"

What a wonderful image, no?

We couldn't help but to include an image from the wonderful picture book, Wipe Your Feet, Santa Claus, illustrated by the excellent Polish artist, Jozef Wilkon.

Yes, we know, there's no Santa Claus in this picture, but what the heck, it's such a lovely image of a child sleeping on Christmas Eve, dreaming about the forest he lives in, the forest literally entering his dream and his dream transporting him to deep into the forest. What a wonderful image showing the influence the forest has on the European winter tradition of Christmas.

I'm particularly fond of some of the details within the image, like the wide eyed owl perched high above the scene, looking down on the nocturnal activity below. The bear sitting human-like at the foot of the child's bed is a charming, humorous element.

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: Wipe Your Feet, Santa Claus!

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.

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?