Holiday Liftoff! Splat the Cat: Christmas Countdown by Rob Scotten

IT'S SUNDOWN ON CHRISTMAS EVE.

Splat the Cat should be chilling out beside the tree with the family and dreaming of sugarplums and stuffed stockings on Christmas morning.

But, noooooo! The frenetic Splat decides that there's not enough space in his living room for Santa to unload his presents. He chooses a tall, skinny, scratchy fir tree that doesn't spread its branches too far, topped by a tall skinny but shiny star.

Scat stays up, wrapping his gifts is sparkly paper, getting himself well tangled in the textured grosgrain red ribbons. And then, at last it is bedtime, and Scat is sure that in the morning he'll find that SANTA HAS COME!

And he does.

For young ones just beginning to get the holiday hang of the season, with tree decoration and holiday gifts to come, Rob Scotton's touch-feely little Scat the Cat story, Splat the Cat: Christmas Countdown (Harper Festival, 2015) is great, with its illustrations offering tactile experience for toddlers and tots amid the preparations of Christmas.  This one is the perfect open-before-Christmas book for the very youngest.