In 1948, a little girl named Elisabet disappeared from a department store in Norway. Elisabet remembers following a toy lamb who came to life. Now, almost fifty years later, a little boy named Joaquin buys an old-fashioned paper Advent calendar at a local bookseller. The bookseller doesn't recognize the calendar and assumes it was placed there by the odd flower-seller who always seems to have roses aplenty in December. When Joaquin opens the first door of the Advent calendar, a small piece of paper falls out. As Joaquin reads the tiny writing upon it, he is drawn into the story of Elisabet, who follows the "lambkin" and meets an angel—and day by day, as Joaquin opens more doors on the calendar and finds more small pieces of paper, we follow Elisabet's trip back in time as she, and the fellow voyagers that join her, go back to Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus.
This is an interesting mystery that includes a very pointed political statement near the end. Did Elisabet truly go back in time to the first Christmas or was she kidnapped? You will have to decide for yourself.
• A Family Christmas, ed. by Caroline Kennedy
This is a wonderful collection of Christmas stories and poems from multi-ethnic and multi-racial points of view, some well-known, including Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory," but most of them material not usually included in Christmas collections. My favorite along with the Capote piece was "Amos'n'Andy Christmas Show Fails Test of Time," a bittersweet column originally written for the New York Times. An African-American father takes his hip kids back to his country hometown, hoping to spark some Christmas magic in the bored children by showing them his favorite holiday treat, the Amos'n'Andy Christmas show which had been so magical to him as a child.
• When Santa Fell to Earth, Cornelia Funke
I found this on the bargain table at Borders and purchased it, despite not enjoying Funke's much-ballyhooed Inkspell.
While I didn't find this as magical as Holly Claus or as humorous and endearing as Christine Kringle, this was an imaginative tale with memorable characters, down to Ben's downbeat parents who want to go to tropical climes for Christmas. The text is set within charming black-and-white art and Niklas is the type of Santa we'd all love to have visit our homes. Parental note: the elves don't actually use any really bad language, but those with small children who love to parrot "dirty words" might be a bit taken aback by Niklas' rowdy elves. Also, Ben is allowed to cheat in school without any repercussions, which might sit badly with some.From School Library Journal. The leader of the Great Christmas Council, one Gerold Geronimus Goblynch, has outlawed all of the old, magical ways. Snowmobiles have replaced reindeer, elves and angels are banned, and noncompliant Santas are turned into chocolate. Niklas Goodfellow is the last real Santa. He and his ramshackle companions—two fat angels named Matilda and Emmanuel, an invisible reindeer, and a bunch of foulmouthed elves (steaming reindeer poo!)—are hiding from the Council. Luckily, local children Ben and Charlotte and Charlotte's dog, Mutt, join forces to save Niklas from a chocolatey fate.
• Magical Christmas Tales, originally published in Great Britain
This is simply a nice children's picture book with eight Christmas stories and Christmas carols, all nicely illustrated; the Rudolph story illustrations are particularly adorable.
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