Customer Reviews

Mommy, Was Santa Claus Born on Christmas Too? (Mommy Why?)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After searching for a way to explain to our children why, as a part of celebrating Jesus' birthday, there's a large fat man flying around giving "good" children presents, I finally I found this treasure of a book. The book is very simple with nice black and white drawings, detailed enough to hold the attention of younger children, but not so catchy as to detract from the important message.

The premise of the book is a little girl is making sugar cookies with her mother, when she notices the Santa cookie cutter. Thus begins a discussion between mother and daughter about why Santa is a part of Christmas.

The book does an excellent job of simply and intelligently explaining to children about Saint Nicholas. The mother explains, in a way likely acceptable to both Protestants and Roman Catholics, the snippets we "know" about Saint Nicholas, a man who served God. She tells the stories about Nicholas being caught in a boat in a terrible storm, how he became the Bishop and how he provided the dowry for the three sisters.

The book ends with an explanation of how Saint Nicholas changed into Santa Claus and, more importantly, how a "generous stranger...who brings gifts" reminds us of God's even better gift of Jesus.

This book is easily used by families who choose to include Santa in their celebrations, as well as those who chose to exclude him. Although I wasn't able to use it this year, I believe my 2 1/2 year old son would have been able to grasp the concepts. It will definitely be part of our celebration next year.

I loved this book! As a child I beleved in Santa but the lines seemed so crossed for me as a Christian. I knew a little of how it began but this book was written with a lot of information, but one kids will love! I loved that this explained who St. Nick was and how the stories of Santa began, without making them negative! It also points to the real star of Christmas, Jesus, and not Santa. My children 12,7,&5 all enjoyed this book!

I bought this to help explain Santa to our almost 4 year old. We aren't "doing" Santa and are keeping the focus on Christ. However, his friends believe in Santa, and Santa is everywhere at Christmas, so I thought this book would help. However, I don't think it would hold the attention of my son. The pictures are just black and white outline drawings. Some of the pages are filled from top to bottom with text. I just counted one page that has five PARAGRAPHS and no pictures. Five sentences can seem like a lot of text for one page in a book written for preschoolers. Although the concepts wouldn't be too over his head, it's just a lot of reading before you can turn to a new picture. Unfortunately, by the time he's ready for such a wordy book, we will have already explained the concept to him on our own. So, this book won't be very useful by then. It was $6, and I got it with some other items and got free shipping. So, it's not really worth paying for shipping to send it back. I guess that's a risk you take when you order books "blindly" on line. That's why I'm taking a few minutes to write this review- in case it will help other parents decide if it's right for their kids.

This is a great book if you are looking for a nice way to tell your child there is no Santa Clause. I read reviews saying that the book is good for kids who do believe as well as kids who don't, but any child who puts any thought into it will realize that what the book is really saying is that there is NO Santa. Luckily I read the book myself before reading it to my 6-year-old! She would have picked up on it immediately and I have no intentions of telling her there is no Santa yet.