Santa's First Christmas

Starred review from July 29, 2024
This warmhearted holiday interlude opens as a polar bear passing the North Pole finds that Santa spends Christmas Day just like any other: making toys. (He does sleep “an extra half hour,” three elves reveal.) The bear’s stern reply—“It’s Christmas”—spurs the group to offer Santa a real celebration, one with a tree to decorate, stockings to hang, and presents to unwrap. Luminous gouache and watercolor spreads by Smith add delectable touches: Santa’s kindly pink face and bushy white eyebrows in early morning sun; the eager pleasure of the elves taking Santa through the day; bright lights, filled stockings, and a groaning banquet table. Barnett tenderly unfurls the day’s events, leaning beat by beat into the meta-possibilities posed by a Christmas created for Santa, as when the elves tell him he can have only one cookie (“We have to save them.... For you know who”). Offering moments of abundance, laughter, and surprise, the creative duo’s assembly of classic yuletide elements gives readers a chance to encounter an old holiday anew—freshly through the eyes of its most iconic figure. The elves are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 3–7.