The Kringles love Christmas. In fact, everything in their world revolves around it. The father owns a jingle bell company. The mother owns the Mistletoe-and-Nail Salon. They keep their tree up all year long. Sophie and Chris, the children, have presents galore – and still want more. Auntie Claus watches all this with a disapproving eye, and suggests that perhaps they get too many presents, but the Kringles won’t hear of such a thing. So Auntie does her best to instill good values in the children, having Sophie over for tea and giving her good Christmas advice, such as how … Continue reading →

It’s Christmas time, and Paddington wants to do something special. He suggests to the Brown family that they head down to the department store to see Santa. There will be a sleigh ride and a visit to Santa’s workshop, as well. Paddington is especially curious to see where Santa makes his marmalade. (I didn’t know Santa made marmalade, but who am I to argue with Paddington Bear?) The Browns are clueless about the marmalade too, which makes me feel better. They headed off to the store and Paddington made a beeline to Santa. There were two huge sacks of toys, … Continue reading →

We’re all familiar with the classic poem “T’was the Night Before Christmas.” This cute children’s picture book takes the rhyme and gives it a new twist. On the left side of the book, we are treated to the original rendition. On the right, we see that someone isn’t asleep yet, and he’s adding his own verses as well. He’s trying to go to sleep, he really is – but we all know how hard it is to fall asleep on Christmas Eve, when we’re all so excited about everything that’s going to happen the next day. He tries commanding himself … Continue reading →