How Mrs. Claus Saved Christmas [Hardcover]

Jeff Guinn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2005

In How Mrs. Claus Saved Christmas, Jeff Guinn combines solid historical fact with glorious legend to deliver another heartwarming holiday book for the whole family.
 
It's 1620 and Mrs. Claus's dear husband is off in the New World planting the seeds of what will become a glorious Christmas tradition. Meanwhile, Mrs. Claus has chosen to stay in England, where the first signs of a dangerous threat to Yuletide cheer are in evidence. The Puritans have gained control of Parliament and appear determined to take all the fun out of Christmas. But Mrs. Claus knows that it's time for serious action when, in 1647, a law is passed by Parliament that actually punishes anyone who celebrates Christmas. Using as its springboard the actual events of a day in 1647 when ten thousand peasants marched through the streets of Canterbury demanding their right to celebrate a beloved holiday, How Mrs. Claus Saved Christmas is rich in historical detail, adventure, and plain ol' Christmas fun.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jeff Guinn is books editor at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He is the author of eight books, including The Sixteenth Minute: Life in the Aftermath of Fame and Our Land Before We Die: The Proud Story of the Seminole Negro, which received the Texas Book Award.

Jeff Guinn is also the author of the bestselling Christmas Chronicles series, which includes The Autobiography of Santa Claus, How Mrs. Claus Saved Christmas, and The Great Santa Search. He lives in Fort Worth, Texas.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Tarcher (September 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585424374
• ISBN-13: 978-1585424375
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,040,426 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent sequel to a beloved book, December 16, 2006

By 

Blake Petit "Novelist, columnist & reviewer" (Ama, Louisiana United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How Mrs. Claus Saved Christmas (Hardcover)

In this sequel to his classic book The Autobiography of Santa Claus, Jeff Guinn tells a new tale of Christmas in peril. In the first book, Guinn took the historical facts about St. Nicholas and the various people who contributed to the Santa Claus legend around the world and wove them into a beautiful life story. In this book, he continued that tradition, taking the troubles of the English Civil War as a backdrop for a tale about Santa's wife, Layla. Staying behind in England to manage their affairs there while her husband begins his time in the American colonies, Layla finds herself at the forefront of a movement to protect Christmas from a Puritan reformation that wants to stomp out anything reminiscent of Catholicism in England. Layla is forced to flee to Canterbury, where she lives for a time with friends Alan and Elizabeth Hayes and their daughter Sara. As Oliver Cromwell amasses power in London, Layla and her friends concoct a daring plan to show Parliament that the people of England will never stand for Christmas being stolen from them.

Like The Autobiography of Santa Claus, this is a beautiful story that weaves together fact with fantasy to produce a thoroughly satisfying tale. In fact, this may even be a superior book to the original, in that it has a much more cohesive story. By necessity, Autobiography reads like a person's life story, hitting the high points but not really holding onto a compelling narrative thread to push the plot along. This new book is focused on a relatively brief period of time instead of the thousands of years in the first book, and on a single issue -- the attempt by the Puritans to squelch out Christmas in the 1640s. As such, it's a much stronger book simply from a storytelling standpoint.

Like the original, this book is written in 24 chapters -- making it quite convenient for parents to read a chapter a day to the little ones in December, finishing up on Christmas Eve. I don't have any kids myself yet, but I have every intention of doing this once I do. I also just found out that Guinn has produced a third book, The Great Santa Search, and I'll definitely be rushing out to get my copy before the holidays are over.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Could not put it down!, November 30, 2005

By 

L. Fuhrmann (Fond du Lac, WI United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: How Mrs. Claus Saved Christmas (Hardcover)

I adored this book! I thought at first that this book would pick up where the last left off, but instead it focuses on Layla's battle to restore Christmas to England in the 1600's. The story was extremely engrossing, and very sweet and even a little sad. I was having trouble getting into the Christmas spirit this year, and this was just the push I needed!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful holiday book, November 29, 2005

By 

Cathie J. Read "Cathie" (Burleson, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: How Mrs. Claus Saved Christmas (Hardcover)

If you liked Guinn's autobiography of Santa Claus you will love this book. The story moves smoothly through the ages and has many links to history that, with a little imagination, you can find believable. The characters are delightful, making it a joyous holiday read. This one is a keeper--it won't go off to the half-price store at the end of the year!