Santa Claus Snacks around the World: A World of Cookies for Santa by M.E Furman

All around the world Christmas is a time for giving.

"Faithfully, truly, yearly, newly, somehow Santa always comes,"* to bring gifts to children everywhere. And kids have long loved being able to give something good back to Santa.

In North American, youngsters are likely to leave a couple of chocolate chip cookies and a small glass of milk. Santa's never complained, but elsewhere in the world, youngsters have their own favorites to offer the Yuletide saint.

Who gets the first visit from Santa? Christmas day first dawns on Christmas Island, Kiritimati, near the International Date Line, in the South Pacific, where kids have plenty of coconuts for their chewy macaroons. In New Zealand his reindeer get carrots and St. Nick gets Anzac "biscuits." In Australia, where chimneys are few, he has a master key for each front door and gets fruity cookies and cold milk or perhaps beer.

Across Asia there is a slice of cherry cake in Japan, and in the Dutch-influenced Sinterklaas tradition in Indonesia, the Saint finds a pineapple-topped nastar cookie. In India children leave spicy chai with crispy kulkuls to munch. In South Africa Santa finds Dutch chocolates and hertzog cookies, and in Malawi kids show their appreciation with ombatata, sweet potato cookies. And in Bethlehem, the treat is ma'moul, stuffed with dates, honey, and nuts.

Crisscrossing Europe, Santa is coming down the home stretch. In Russia he even has a minion, Snegurochka the Snow Maiden, to deliver the goods, and she gets the hot tea and honey spiced pryaniki cookies. Scandinavian youngsters leave risalmande pudding, and in Germany he gets a choice--Pepparkkakor or Springerle. Naturellement, French chefs go all out with dessert buffet and fine wine. In Spain it's Turron, a nougat-and-nuts dulce, while the British Isles offer mincemeat cookies and, of course, a spot, of Earl Grey tea.

It's a long haul over the Atlantic, giving Santa time to grow hungry enough for the fruity pan de pasequa, a fruit-filled sweet bread in Chile, and of course, familiar Mexican wedding cakes, with, for a nice change, a cup of cinnamon-flavored hot chocolate. With stops across the two westward continents, Santa's sleigh makes the long flight to one of his last destinations, Hawaii, where he puts his sleigh in park while he surfs to the beach and chows down on tropical pineapple-macadamia cookies.

Santa lovers all over get a chance to sample holiday treats wherever the Saint is welcomed, in M. E. Furman's festive new A World of Cookies for Santa: Follow Santa's Tasty Trip Around the World (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017).

It's a wonderful world-wide custom to share with Santa and others at Christmastide, one which gives kids a chance to give back to the Christmas saint of children. Furman's book offers a smorgasbord of Santa's snacks, offering a buffet of the various customs and Christmas cuisine of 32 places--from Sri Lanka to Ukraine, along the way. The author provides a sampler of some recipes from all around the world, from familiar Mexican wedding cakes to the exotic Basque almond tile cookies, all easy enough for kids, in the best tradition of Christmas, to share in the making. Artist Susan Gal's illustrations fill the pages with Christmas cheer, jolly children giving their homemade goodies up for Santa's refreshment. This book is a first purchase for libraries and for the home-baking bookshelf.

* The Year Without a Santa Claus, by Phyllis McGinley.

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).

Growing into the Job: Little Santa by Jon Agee

AT THE NORTH POLE, IN A LITTLE CABIN, LIVED MR. AND MRS. CLAUS AND THEIR SEVEN CHILDREN, LARRY, MARY, WILLIE, MILLIE, JOEY, ZOE, AND SANTA.

LIFE WAS TOUGH IN THE NORTH POLE. THE CLAUSES WERE MISERABLE.

EXCEPT FOR SANTA.

HE LOVED MAKING SNOW ANGELS, DECORATING PINE TREES, AND MAKING GINGERBREAD COOKIES IN THE SHAPE OF PEOPLE.

MOST OF ALL HE LIKED SLIDING DOWN THE CHIMNEY.

Finally, after a particularly hardknock winter, the Claus family had had it with chopping wood and ice fishing. Father Claus declares that they are moving to Florida.

Everyone is on board with the plan except Little Santa. He loves everything about the North Pole. But before they can load up and head south, an incredibly icy snowstorm buries their little house all the way up to the chimney top. It looks like nobody is going any where until the summer thaw.

But Little Santa, adorably attired in his little red onesie with a pointy hoodie, has a suggestion:

"I CAN SHIMMY UP THE CHIMNEY," SAID SANTA.

Little Santa scoots and wiggles his way up and climbs out into the deep snow, heading off to find help.

The first thing he sees is a reindeer, who offers him a lift and turns out to be able to fly, when necessity requires it.

"GEE WHIZ!" SAID LITTLE SANTA.

Soon Little Santa and the reindeer come to a little house, which seems to be a dormitory for dozens of green-clad elves, who offer to make up lots of shovels and a sleigh to haul them back to the Claus cabin to dig the family out.

"HOLY SNOWFLAKE!" SAID LITTLE SANTA.

Little Santa and the eager elves pile into the sleigh and the reindeer hauls them back to rescue the Clauses.  The family is grateful, but not enough to stay at the North Pole any longer than they have to. As soon as the snow melts enough to load up the family station wagon, the Clauses head for the sunny shores of south Florida.

But Little Santa cheerfully elects to stay behind with his new friends, the clever woodworking elves, learns animal husbandry from the flying reindeer, and gradually exchanges his red onesie for a fur-trimmed red suit, tasseled cap, and big black boots. And every Christmas he loads up the sleigh with the elf-made gifts, hitches up his whole herd of flying reindeer, and heads off into the night.  He's all grown up, but he's still fond of chimney-sliding.

AND YOU KNOW THE REST OF THE STORY.

Jon Agee's latest, Little Santa (Dial Books, 2013), is a full-blown, brand-new Christmas classic.  His Little Santa is an appealing kid St. Nick, who follows his bliss into a full-time career of chimney sliding and gift-giving all over the world. Agee's deadpan delivery has a just-right tone, and his text and charming illustrations, a bit reminiscent of William Steig's classic works, are executed with strong black lines and a light touch of watercolors except for Little Santa's Christmas red coverall and pointy hood. Winning starred reviews all around from School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and Publishers Weekly, this one is an must-have Christmas readaloud, even if you do know the rest of the story!

Pup's-Eye View of Christmas: A Very Marley Christmas by John Grogan

"Tree's up!" called Daddy.

"Sniff, sniff, sniff," went Marley. Christmas had come early!

"Finally, my own indoor bathroom!" Marley thought.

"Waddy wee wee!" Baby Louie screeched.

This all-too-likely homey holiday vignette is brought to us by John Grogan's new picture book, A Very Marley Christmas, based on his family's adventures with their exuberant Lab Marley.

Christmas is coming, and Cassie and Baby Louie want everything to be perfect. Mommy and Daddy are doing everything they can to get the house ready for Santa's visit--despite the energetic participation of their puppy Marley. Marley pulls the ornaments and decorations out of the big green storage tub and decorates himself and the floor in puppy style, "unwraps" the presents, plays tug-of-war with the tree as Dad tries to drag it into the house, pulls the lights off the tree and gets tangled therein, and bravely fights a tooth-and-nail battle with Cassie's "dangerous," snakey-looking paper snowflake chain. The Grogans finally manage to restore order and get it together for the big day, but there is still one important thing missing from their holiday preparations--snow!

"C'mon, snow; let's go!" Cassie said.

"Ya ya zo! Eek oh!" Baby Louie said.

"Aroof!" Marley said.

The Grogans persevere in their preparations, re-wrapping the gifts, baking the Santa cookies, and perpetually re-draping the tinsel despite Marley's contrarian concept of holiday decor, until at last they have done all they can to prepare for Santa's arrival.

At last everything was just right. Everything except for one thing. The most important decoration of all was still missing.

It is Christmas Eve, and the fluffy white stuff has not arrived. "No zo," Baby Louie sighed.

But after all, this is a Christmas story, and we know what Marley discovers the next morning as the kids come downstairs. Burrowing through the drapes, Marley is the first to see what is waiting outside for them. Cassie opens the front door and Marley barrels outside into the surprisingly cold white stuff. Covered in wet snow, he whirls back inside, where, shaking vigorously, he gives the family, the tree, and the waiting gifts a doggy-delivered snowfall all their own.

"Zooey zooey zo zo!"

"Good bow wow, Waddy!" said Baby Louie.

A Very Marley Christmas follows Bad Dog, Marley!, Grogan's 2007 picture book adaptation of his best-selling memoir Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog. Marley's misadventures are also out in an easy reader series beginning with Marley & Me: Meet Marley (I Can Read Book 1).

And just in time for the finale of the holiday season there is, of course, the family flick Marley and Me, starring Jennifer Anniston and Owen Wilson, opening, as we say, in movie theatres everywhere on December 25. The movie's trailer can be seen here.

A Bear In Winter: Bear Feels Sick and Bear Stays Up for Christmas by Karma Wilson

The late fall weather is tops, and Bear should be on top of the world, but instead he's feeling totally under the weather. A cold has come to stay, and Bear feels stuffy and achy.

Alone in his cave,
As the autumn wind blows,
Bear feels achy,
With a stuffed up nose.

Bear's friends-raven, hare, gopher, mole, and all the usual suspects--gather round and he's no longer alone, BUT HE STILL FEELS SICK. His pals wrap him in a quilt, make him warm soup and drinks, stir up the fire, and even paint him pictures, until Bear is soothed and warm.

They all talk in whispers.
They walk on tippy toes,
They sing lullabies,
Then the bear starts to doze.

When he wakes, Bear is all better, ready to party all day, but to his dismay, his friends seem to have all started to sneeze and wheeze. Lucky for them, Bear knows just what to do:

He tells all his friends,
'You'll soon feel like new.
You took care of me.
Now I'll take care of YOU.

With this just published book, author Karma Wilson and illustrator Jane Chapman continue their greatest hits in the Bear and friends series, beginning with Bear Snores On. Their warm and humorous pictures and cheery verse make the book practically beg to be read aloud over and over, especially as sneezy, breezy wintertime comes on!

Now that Christmastide is almost upon us, it's also time for Karma Wilson's salute to the season, Bear Stays Up for Christmas.

The day before Christmas,
Snuggled on his floor,
Bear sleeps soundly
With a great big snore.

"Dear Bear, GET UP!"
Mouse shouts in his ear.
"We won't let you sleep
Through Christmas this year."

So Bear wakes to his first Christmas Eve. He dutifully slogs along with his friends to choose a tree and carries it on his broad back through the snow to his lair, where they pop corn and string it to transform the tree, bake plenty of fruitcake, and hang their stockings. Mouse, Hare, and the rest gradually begin to doze, but by now Bear is too excited to sleep. Busy baking cookies and wrapping gifts as his friends sleep, Bear is oblivious even to a visit from St. Nick at the door to his cave.

As the friends awake and they welcome Christmas Day together, Mouse discovers Santa's bounty outside, and Bear and friends pass around the presents. Best of all, Bear's gift is a warm blue quilt, under which he is at last allowed to fall asleep.

Happy Christmas to all, and to Bear, a good night!