Christmas Magic All Year Round

From Tots to Teens, StarMag

THERE are those who like to buy Christmas-themed books as Christmas gifts. Many of these books involve snow because ... Christmas means snow. Doesn't it? Well, actually, it doesn't - it's just one thing Malaysians have been brainwashed into believing. Christmas is celebrated in December and, in countries in the northern hemisphere, winter starts around about the final month of the year. Of course, as we read mostly British and American books and watch mostly Britsh and American television and movies, the way we celebrate Christmas is very much influenced by the way the people in those countries celebrate it.

Even if we aren't Christian, we exchange gifts, we listen to Christmas songs like Rudolf the Rednosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman and Winter Wonderland, and we put up trees that we might even decorate with cotton wool and polystyrene!

I've been told that some Australians throw parties with a Christmas theme in July - because in Australia summer falls in December and that's, you know, so un-Christmassy! Perhaps we would do the same given the chance. My own children dream about a white Christmas and they haven't even been introduced to the Bing Crosby song!

I don't, as a rule, like Christmas-themed picture books because I feel they lose their appeal out of season. However, I think this is a personal niggle that, as far as I can tell, doesn't bother most people. Christmas-themed books may feature any or all of the following: the first Christmas, ie the birth of Jesus; snow; snow men; toys; candy canes and the other paraphernalia of the season; robin redbreasts; Santa Claus (with or without his reindeer).

The Christmas Magic (Scholastic Press, 32 pages, ISBN: 978-0439774970), by Lauren Thompson, is about Santa and I am recommending it because it is a very different Santa story from the ones usually told. It's a quietly magical tale set in the "far north, where the reindeer are". There, in a "snug little house with a bright red door" "lives Santa Claus. This Santa is not the fat, jolly gentleman who goes "Ho ho ho!" and is boss to a army of toy-making elves. This Santa  doesn't run an assembly-line toy factory, nor does he seem to have magical powers.

This Santa lives with his pet cat and reindeer in a little house and waits, in quiet anticipation, for the magic of Christmas to touch his life and allow him, in turn, to touch the lives of children everywhere. This Santa is quite trim - elderly but fit, with beady bright green eyes, a shock of white hair, a fluffy long white beard and a moustache that Hercule Poirot would covet despite it not being shiny and black. This Santa wears a pin-striped white shirt, royal blue pedal pushers, and a faded scarlet apron.

Jon J. Muth is the book's illustrator and his soft yet vibrantly hued watercolour drawings echo the calm and serene quality of Thompson's words. His depiction of Santa may be his own but it fits in with the feel of the book. He also adds to Santa's personality with delightful little details not described by Thompson. For example, Santa wears bunny bedroom slippers around the house. And his suit, instead of being a vivid scarlet is a dark blue, fur-trimmed, with red star-shaped buttons. Santa's hat, blue to match his coat, does not have a white pompon on its end but a silver star.

(By the way, fans of Muth's Zen Shorts and Zen Ties will be delighted to spot a familiar-looking stuffed toy panda among the toys that he fills his sack with.)

Thompson and Muth steer clear from the obvious, so-called traditional and commercial hallmarks of the season and concentrate on simply describing and depicting a peaceful, loving, magical time. And this is what makes The Christmas Magic a story that can be enjoyed throughout the year, not just at Christmas, and certainly not just on cold and snowy days.