T'was the Night... : Five Little Monkeys Looking for Santa by Eileen Christelow

On the night before Christmas, what do little ones want? Eggnog? A kiss under the mistletoe? Fruitcake? An early bedtime?

We wish!

No, since the celebrated Clement Clarke Moore penned his classic, we know that parents want their children all snug, asleep in their beds. But for little Santa fans, Christmas Eve brings the worst insomnia a youngster can experience! And how are those five little monkeys, famous for jumping on their bed, sleeping on this Christmas Eve?

YOU GUESSED IT!

CREEPING PAST MAMA SLEEPING,

SNEAKING DOWN EACH STAIR. . .

Santa's not putting presents around the Christmas tree, but-- what's that noise in the kitchen? Clickety Clack! Is Santa raiding their fridge for a snack? No, it's Grandpa, having a cookie and cocoa, with a time-honored warning.

"SANTA WON'T COME WHILE YOU'RE AWAKE!"

"GO BACK T0 BED, FOR GOODNESS SAKE!"

But the five little monkeys are still worried. Does Santa know their address? And what's that noise in the bathroom? Santa?

It's Mom in her bathrobe. She repeats Grandpa's advice and shoos them back to bed. But it's not long before they hear a bump on the roof. Is it Santa making a very bad landing?

Quick as a flash, they're out the front door in their jammies, looking up on the roof. The noise is still there, so they find a long ladder and scale it double quick. But there's not a sign of Old St. Nick!

SUDDENLY, WITH A BIG GUST OF WIND AND A CREAKING SOUND...

. . .the monkeys see their ladder blown down to the ground! OOPS! Now how do THEY get down?

Shivering, they brainstorm the only way. If Santa can do it, SO CAN THEY! It's down the grimy chimney for the tired little monkeys.

And sooty and chilly, they now want to sleep. They crash on the couch, all piled in a heap.

And when Santa finally comes down the chimney with care, he finds them all snoozing, totally unaware.

So Santa fills each stocking, grinning from ear to ear.

"MERRY CHRISTMAS, LITTLE MONKEYS! SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!"

On Christmas Eve what do Santa newbies do? It's an old plot, but for little ones it's all brand-new. As bells jingle and snowflakes glisten, they lie in their beds sleepless, with nothing to do but listen!

Eileen Christelow, the author of so many hilarious books about the Five Little Monkeys, has a good reason for a new one for this season, Five Little Monkeys Looking for Santa (A Five Little Monkeys Story) (Clarion Books, 2021). For youngsters who've yet to meet Christelow's mischievous five, this seasonal story is a great introduction to these famous characters.

Lost Recipe! Cookies for Santa by Johanna Tarkela

It's the week before Christmas. Everyone at the North Pole is getting ready for the big day.

Everyone but SANTA.

Santa is in a funk.

It seems he cannot find his copy of the Kringle Family Cookbook; ergo, he can't make the Chocolate Krinkle Cookies he always gives to his staff--elves, reindeer, mice....

Christmas is canceled!

But meanwhile, in the marginally warmer clime of Boston, U.S.A., there are two kids, Benton and Abigail, out Christmas shopping with their mom, and at Abigail's urging, they stop off at the downtown library to find a Christmas cookie recipe book. Abigail spies a dusty but intriguing old volume and checks it out. The perceptive Abigail quickly figures out that Santa's lost recipe book has somehow found its way to the stacks of the Boston Public Library and that she herself must save Christmas by baking a bodacious batch of Chocolate Krinkle Cookies!

But there's one hitch! The recipe calls for elfin chocolate, an ingredient that no one seems to be selling. For such a culinary question--Who you gonna call?

"I have an idea!" said Mom. "America's Test Kitchens are down the street. They'll know what to do!"

Is that august collection of culinary skills up to the Krinkle Cookie challenge?

It looks as if this will not be The Year Without A Santa Claus after all in Johanna Tarkela's Cookies for Santa: The Story of How Santa's Favorite Cookie Saved Christmas (Sourcebooks, 2019). While this modern version of the evergreen "helping Santa" theme is well retold here, Tarkela's  lively and jolly illustrations really sparkle--lovely, merry, and bright.

Share this one with Phyllis McGinley's heartwarming classic, The Year without a Santa Claus or the tasty top-seller, A World of Cookies for Santa: Follow Santa's Tasty Trip Around the World (see review here).

Jolly Season Sleep-Aid! Santa and the Goodnight Train by June Sobel

SANTA'S COMING! HO HO HO!
THE GOODNIGHT TRAIN IS ALL AGLOW.

ENGINE'S SHINED, LOOKING JOLLY.
STRUNG WITH LIGHTS, DECKED WITH HOLLY!

ALL ABOARD. SLOW AND STEADY.
CAREFUL NOT TO DROP YOUR TEDDY!

It's no secret that for youngsters, falling asleep is difficult on Christmas Eve.

So what could be more timely than a special sleepytime express, The Goodnight Train, sporting a big wreath on its boiler and pulling special sleeping cars, each one a cozy sleigh bed for tired but excited tots. As he boards, one boy drops his bed-buddy-bear, just as it's all aboard for the little night-capped and pajama-ed passengers, and with a WHOOOO WHOOOO and a JINGLE JINGLE the Goodnight Train heads out for Destination Dreamland.

Lucky for that little rider, the lost Teddy catches a ride on Santa's sleigh as they zoom through a gingerbread town, the merry locomotive shining its light into the night, and the missing Teddy drops down right where he is supposed to be as Santa flies on.

Meanwhile Santa's sleigh has a temporary delay, but soon all is set aright, and his reindeer fly again through the night. With its load of snoozing sleepers, each one now gifted and with the boy's Teddy back in his arms, the Goodnight Train chugs on, its job well done. Santa sighs with relief, finally heading back to his workshop on Christmas Eve.

This just-published holiday sequel to June Sobel's train series, with its Christmasy sparkles and colors by illustrator Laura Hutiska Beigh and Sobel's soothing rhyming verses, Santa and the Goodnight Train (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019) may be just the bedtime story to send non-somnolent youngsters off to sleep on Christmas Eve, especially when shared with Sobel's The Goodnight Train and The Goodnight Train Rolls On! (board book).

Not Lost for Long! Reindeer's Nosy Christmas by Kali Stileman

REINDEER'S LOST IN THE SNOW.

"MY NOSE WILL SHOW ME WHERE TO GO!"

There's something orange ahead. Is it Santa's carrot cookies?

No, it's a snowman's CARROT NOSE!

What's that fluffy white stuff? Santa's bushy beard?

Nope! That white hair belongs to a POLAR BEAR!

What Reindeer spies are some twinkly eyes. Could they belong to St. Nick?

No way. That's a fuzzy fowl called an OWL!

There are plenty of touch-and-feel experiences along the way as Reindeer hones in on the real object of his search--Santa Claus--waiting with a big plate of lumpy, bumpy cookies as a reward, in Kali Stileman's tactile story in her new Christmas touch-and-feel board book,Reindeer's Nosy Christmas (Thomas Nelson/Make Believe Ideas, 2018) The fun starts with Reindeer's big, liquid-filled transparent nose filled with tiny foil stars which follow the finger and swirl intriguingly with the movement of a finger. More tactile sensations follow on the way as Reindeer follows the clues that cue him in that he's on the right track to find Santa.

Join the Search? Where's Santa Claus? by Ingela P. Arrhenius

Santa seems to be everywhere at Christmas, but it is still fun to try to spot him, along with the usual snowbound Christmas crew at the North Pole.

A POLAR BEAR? Where?

There he is, hiding behind that bright red felt flap!

Now, can we find a jolly SNOW MAN? Where can he be?

And then Santa must have an elf or two hiding somewhere there. Where can she be....?

And now it's time to find the jolly guy in the red suit. WHERE, OH, WHERE... do we look? Maybe behind that soft green Christmas tree?

Introducing very little ones to the symbols of the season can be lots of fun in Ingela P. Arrhenius' newest, Where's The... board book, Where's Santa Claus? (Where's The) (Nosy Crow, 2018). The latest in this board book series for the very youngest features liftable flaps made from soft colorful felt that are easy for even babies under a year old to manipulate, with bright and colorful discoveries hiding under each one. And that other important person in the scene, the little reader, gets to lift the flap and see--himself or herself in the MIRROR on the last page. Who's that?

YOU!

For the very youngest Christmas celebrant, this jolly little toy-and-movable book is just the stocking stuffer for a first Christmas.

Gettin' There Any Old Way! The Twelve Sleighs of Christmas by Sherri Duskey Rinker

Two weeks before Christmas, and every elf,
Is building, rushing, racing, busy--
Every elf in a tizzy!

It's a full-court press on the production line at Santa's Workshop. It's not a good time for a sleigh malfunction!

The sleigh is totaled, smashed, and battered!
The elves are rocked! They're shocked! It's shattering!

Santa's old sleigh does have a lot of miles on it, and the elves suddenly conceive the idea of total redesign. It's their one chance to pimp Santa's ride! Who knew Santa's elves were such a bunch of gearheads?

They form twelve teams, each working on their concept of a hi-tech twenty-first century Santa sleigh, and they work furiously, all through the long dark days of the polar pre-Christmas week. It's the Great Sleigh Build Off. And then--it's SHOW TIME!

Build Team One unveils a hyper-powered dragster which gets off the mark in a nano-second. But then one elf asks if the kids of the world could possibly sleep through the roar of this mighty machine!

Build Team Two rolls out their big-rig, a semi that even boasts a sleeper cab in case Santa needs a nap. But another elf wonders out loud if there's a roof anywhere in the world than can support that 18-wheeler. Build Team Three has the answer, a multi-sail rebuild of a airborne pirate ship which hovers over children's houses and jettisons their gifts overboard. The other elves roll their eyes. Seriously? What about breakage?

The concept models get more and more overbuilt, and the elves sheepishly realize that they've let their fantasy rides get way over the top. And Santa's big trip is almost at hand!

But one young elf has secretly been working on Plan B all along, in Sherri Duskey Rinker's new hit, The 12 Sleighs of Christmas (Chronicle Books, 2017). Staying with the transportation theme that she rolled out her first best-seller, Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site, Rinker's latest is set for take off as the hit of the season. With jolly rhymes, roaring motors, and clever cartooning by artist Jake Parker, this is a funny and festive story of how, once more, St. Nick keeps his promise to come on Christmas Eve. Says School Library Journal, "The colorful illustrations, created in brush pen and rendered digitally, are a perfect fit for sleigh creations reminiscent of Dr. Seuss' imaginative vehicles. A splendid choice for any holiday read-aloud collection wishing to incorporate STEM concepts." Santa and STEM? What more could we want in a comic Christmas eve bedtime story?

Sherri Duskey Rinker is, of course, the high-powered author of those other motorhead-motivated best sellers, Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site, Mighty, Mighty Construction Site, Steam Train, Dream Train and her recent Big Machines: The Story of Virginia Lee Burton.