4th December Santa's List Day

On the night before Christmas, 
so the old stories say, 
Saint Nicholas rides 
in a magical sleigh. 
But what is the truth, 
and what are the legends? 
Who is this giftgiver, 
and why all the presents? 

Around Christmas we spend a lot of time thinking about presents, but have you ever wondered why we give gifts? Learn about the life of Saint Nicholas and discover why he became known as one of the greatest giftgivers of all time. Told as a delightful poem by Ned Bustard.

Yes, it is time to write your letter to Santa! He needs time to organise your present. This is the day when children should start working on their holiday wish lists.

It is also the day that Santa puts together his list of naughty and nice children. Have you been naughty or nice?

The first mention of such a list occurs in the song, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie wrote the fun Christmas song in 1934. The song included the lyrics, “He’s making a list, He’s checking it twice, He’s gonna find out who’s naughty or nice.”  

This used to be something the young children I teach worried about, and we had a book in the library that I cut up to make a frieze as part of our Christmas decorations, but not anymore, they feel sure that Santa will come 'no matter what'! When I read The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree  by Gloria Houston to classes and they hear that at the time of WWI the 'naughty' children received 'lumps of coal' or a 'willow switch' they are astounded and sure that the author is wrong.

So instead this year I read some folktales about gift bringers, so that they got the idea that gift bringing has been a thing for quite some time. The legend of Santa dates all the way back to 280 A.D. This is when the real St. Nicholas was born in modern-day Turkey. Through the years, many traditions have evolved regarding St. Nick, who came to be known as Santa Claus.

We read:

• Old Befana by Tomie dePaola which tells the story of the Italian gift bringer, Befana who leaves gifts for children on the 5th January, the Eve of Epiphany and sweeps their rooms clean.

• Babushka is the Russian gift bringer who like Befana sets off to see the baby Jesus In Bethlehem with her gift of toys, but instead gives the gifts to children along the way. There are many versions of this folktale, but our school library has these:

- Babushka by Dawn Casey

- The Tale of Baboushka  by Elena Pasquali

- Babushka  by Sandra Ann Horn

- Baboushka by Arthur Scholes

• St Nicholas is the Dutch gift bringer. Children get gifts on St. Nicholas Feast Day, December 6th.

- The Legend of St Nicholas by Dandi Daley Mackall

- The Legend of St Nicholas  by Demi

- The Gift from St Nicholas  by Dorothea Lachner

- Saint Nicholas: the Story of the Real Santa Claus by Mary Joslin

• The Tomten  by Astrid Lindgren tells the tale of the Tomten who is a small gnome-like creature who takes care of a farm in Sweden during the long winter nights. In Sweden, the Tomten is the one who brings children gifts on December 24th.

If you would like to know the names of other gift bearers from around the world, this website has  a long list.

• Another folktale about Christmas and gift giving is the Mexican story  The Legend of the Poinsettia  by Tomie dePaola.

In fact it is worth exploring all the Christmas stories retold and illustrated by Tomie dePaola. It will take you to many different places.

Christmas Books for Under 6s

I have been really enjoying following quite a few bloggers who have been highlighting an advent book each day in the lead up to Christmas. Some have done one a day since the beginning of December. Others such as my friend at Momo Celebrating Time to Read have chosen twelve books. Two teacher friends with young children and another with grandchildren have been enjoying opening a book parcel each day during advent for a shared reading experience. This got me thinking about which books I would put on an advent list or wrap for my advent reading. As the teacher librarian in a school I find myself constantly thinking about what to read to whom. When I read to my preschool and Kindergarten classes in Term 4 as a lead up to Christmas, I read from these books. All have been very successful. You will notice how many of them are either very well known or are by authors who write prolifically for this age group.




1. The Christmas Book by Dick Bruna. I chose this one because it tells the Nativity story chronologically and simply but uses lovely language and is illustrated in the typical Bruna manner, that the children recognise from the Miffy books.

2. How Many Sleeps Till Christmas? by Mark Sperring and Sebastien Braun. This is about waiting patiently, not something children find easy to do at this time of the year. The title question is one that children ask every day as they are counting down.

3. What Do You Wish For? by Jane Godwin and Anna Walker. This book is especially pertinent to Australian children as it depicts a summer Christmas and a typical Australian child's street. Ruby needs to write a wish, but she struggles to decide upon one. Such a good thing to be talking to children about at this time of giving as well as receiving.

4. Max's Christmas by Rosemary Wells. I chose this one because I am the mother of a Max and a Ruby. My children loved this and all the Max and Ruby stories. Max's droll questions make everyone laugh. I also like this story because Santa appears in it, but without a huge emphasis on presents.

5. Angel Mae and the Christmas Baby by Shirley Hughes. This is the story of many children under six. Mae's mother is pregnant and tired. Her brother wants the baby to be a boy and Mae wants a girl, so squabbles ensue. It also features the school nativity play which is something most children will experience at some point in their schooling.

6. The Gift of Christmas  by Christine Leeson and Gaby Hansen. I have two copies of this story in the library. They have different titles, but are the same text and illustrations. The Very Special Christmas came with flashing fairy lights on the tree in the book, so you can imagine how much the children like it when we get to the decorated tree at the end. Molly Mouse collects a variety of decorations for the tree and the lights finish it beautifully.

7. Jingle Bells by Nick Butterworth. This is not the Christmas carol. Lottie and Jack are mice and they are having problems with the cat. The bell is part of the solution. When I bought this book for the library it was tied closed by beautiful red satin ribbon which had two bells on the ends, which is extremely fitting when you know what Mrs Mackie finds addressed to the cat.

8. Threadbear by Mick Inkpen. A story about a well-loved toy bear whose squeaker does not work. The bear thinks Santa will be able to help him. It has large fold out pages that the children love, even if they don't wear well.

9. Baboushka (various available) or The Legend of Old Befana by Tomie DePaola. I would choose one of these because they are folktales specific to either the Russian or Italian Christmas tradition that relate the story of the Three Kings going to Bethlehem.

10. Dream Snow by Eric Carle. This one because none of the other stories have snow and as with many of Carle's books it has paper engineering and music, a novelty which will keep everyone interested.


Then 11. and 12. would come from:
Wombat Divine by Mem Fox and Kerry Argent; Doing Christmas by Sarah Garland; The Snowman (show the filmclip) by Raymond Briggs; The Silver Christmas Tree by Pat Hutchins and Summer by June Factor and Alison Lester.

22nd June Visiting Russia for the World Cup

At school we put together a display of all the wonderful picture books and novels on soccer as the students became interested in the World Cup. Some of the students were discussing it and I asked them where it was being held. This led to finding out about Russia and locating it on the globe. I had just bought this lovely new book Capitals by Taraneh Ghajar Jerven and we perused the double-page spread on Moscow.

I began to wonder then how many books we would have for a display about Russia. I was surprised. We had quite a few folktales such as Firebird  and Baboushka, many picture books by Patricia Polacco and then I thought of Russian writers such as Alexei Tolstoy (The Enormous Turnip) and Alexander Pushkin (The Golden Fish); musicians such as Tchiakovsky (Swan Lake  and The Nutcracker), Mussorgsky (Pictures at an Exhibition) Prokofiev (Peter and the Wolf);  and artists such as Kandinsky, all of which we had books for and could display. See the pinterest selection here.

5th January La Befana

La Befana is part of traditional Italian Epiphany celebrations. I have borrowed this from Anthony Parente to explain what it means. "La Befana is one of Italy's oldest and most celebrated legends. Each year on January 6 the children of Italy awaken in hopes that La Befana has made a visit to their house. This is a significant day to Italians because it marks the end of the Christmas season and the day that the three Wise Men arrived at the manger of the Christ child. Over the years the Epiphany has been a more celebrated holiday for the children of Italy than even Christmas.

As legend has it the three Wise Men were in search of the Christ child when they decided to stop at a small house to ask for directions. Upon knocking, an old woman holding a broom opened the door slightly to see who was there. Standing at her doorstep were three colorfully dressed men who were in need of directions to find the Christ child. The old woman was unaware of who these three men were looking for and could not point them in the right direction. Prior to the three men leaving they kindly asked the old woman to join them on their journey. She declined because she had much housework to do. After they left she felt as though she had made a mistake and decided to go and catch up with the kind men. After many hours of searching she could not find them. Thinking of the opportunity she had missed the old woman stopped every child to give them a small treat in hope that one was the Christ child. Each year on the eve of the Epiphany she sets out looking for the baby Jesus. She stops at each child's house to leave those who were good treats in their stockings and those who were bad a lump of coal." This story is told beautifully by Tomie dePaola in The Legend of Old Befana. We can always rely on Tomie to have a picture book about any Italian tradition!

Interestingly, the Russians also have a folktale about an old woman who is also visited by three wise men who are on their way to visit a new baby. She is known as Baboushka. If you cannot find the dePaola book, look for one of the Russian folktales. My library has these three, but there are others:

• Babushka by Sandra Ann Horn & Sophie Fatus

• Baboushka by Arthur Scholey & Helen Cann

• The Tale of Baboushka by Elena Pasquali & Lucia Mongioj