Customer Reviews

Pennsylvania Dutch Night Before Christmas (The Night Before Christmas Series)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The author of this book read it to kids on the Pennsylvania Kids Network, and they loved it - but then, kids would love it when a stranger would come in and read legal advertising from the newspaper. Can you really trust the judgement of a group that loves McDonald's and Pee Wee Herman?Nope, this is a book for adults to enjoy, year after year. Kids will never appreciate the naming of the holsteins, or the authenticity of the Plain Sect traditions associated with Christmas. They'll just laugh when the roof caves in.So don't give this book to your kids. Give it to your boss, or to your webmaster - someone who enjoys subtle humor in the style of Shel Silverstein. An adult will appreciate it a lot more.

The hex signs, the cows on the cover are a clue to the pure fun of reading Williamson's Pennsylvania Dutch Night Before Christmas. The cadence, the w/v sounds are possible to understand from the very beginning. The explanations of the German dialect are not overdone. Even the names of the cows and steers are Pennsylvania Dutch to the core. The book is fun to read aloud; fun to look through: the illustrations are as joyful as the words. Children outside the area of Amish populations may not understand some of the subtle humor, the names used, such as "Stolzfus." But children of all ages will enjoy the overall effect of the book: good fun.

Clement C. Moore's "A Visit From St. Nicholas" (or, as it's more commonly known, "'Twas the Night Before Christmas") is forever etched in the minds of everyone who loves Christmas. Over the years, this famous poem has been adapted to various cultures around the world, to better suit the customs, languages and holiday nuances of the people who live there.

Chet Williamson tackles the Pennsylvania Dutch (primarily Amish and Mennonite) community with a broad wink and grin in "A Pennsylvania Dutch Night Before Christmas." Adhering closely to the style, rhythm and basic storyline of Moore's original piece, Williamson sets his version around the Belsnickle, an often-stern parallel to Santa Claus who distributes candies and handmade toys to the good children and switches for whippings to the bad. This version, lovingly and warmly illustrated by James Rice, inserts plenty of humor into the story; just imagine, if you will, a wagon pulled by a team of cows resting comfortably on your typical residential roof! And it turns out the children in this story don't earn switches, anyway.

For Christmas with a twist, keep a copy of "A Pennsylvania Dutch Night Before Christmas" under your tree. It's a hoot, even if you're not from Lancaster County, PA!

by Tom Knapp, Rambles.NET editor

If you ever had "clear toy" candy (still made in Lititz), and know what the words "schusslich" and "nixnootzes" mean, you'll enjoy this version of The Night Before Christmas done by someone who knows PA Deutsch (German) commonly called PA Dutch. Whether or not you grew up in a PA Dutch family, you might learn something. I did! And, there is an explanation of pronunciations (like "ch" for "j" so "just so" becomes "chust so") in the back of the book. There is also a pretty good recipe for Shoofly Pie (similar to mine), but unfortunately none of the great Christmas cookies, like Sand Tarts and Molasses Cakes. I now read this charming parody of Clement Moore's version on Christmas Eve.

I grew up in PA Dutch country, I still live there and this book really brought back a lot of memories! It reminded me of my grandparents and their friends who would speak PA Dutch around the dining room table on a Sunday afternoon. The story itself is hilarious to anyone who's grown up in central PA's small PA Dutch towns. Would greatly recommend to anyone who wants to teach their children a bit of their heritage; and even for a few laughs!

I came across this book when I was doing another search for Christmas books and ended up it buying for my children because I grew up in Pennsylvania Dutch country. It is a great book and we read it every year during the Christmas season, as well as right before we read "The Night Before Christmas" (Mary Engelbrit has the BEST book for that) on Christmas Eve. I was surprised to learn a few PA Dutch words that I had never heard before, and it is a great way to share a piece of my heritage with my kids, since I no longer live in that area of the country and they are not exposed to it. The only negative I have about the book, and the reason I did not give it a 5 star rating, is because I found the verse to be cumbersome to read at times, and it ruined the flow of the story a bit. But, it is true to the dialect of the PA Dutch, and it is a great way to share old traditions with your children.

Maybe it's because so many of the people I live near in Eastern PA talk like this, but this book cracks me up. This will be the sixth Christmas Eve in a row that I'll pull it out and read it to my kids. Maybe we'll have shoo-fly-pie too. It's a tradition I'll continue forever.

A wonderfuly funny book. I purchased this for my father(who is PA dutch and can speak the language)as a Xmas gift. My mother read it to friends on New Years, and was a big hit. She can do the accent perfectly, sounding just like Mammy(my late great grandmother). This book brought back fond memmories of Sundays in Hebe from when I was very little. A large Sunday dinner spread shared with family and any cousins who dropped by, most of all who spoke PA Dutch or Dutchified English. To this day my teenage daughters and I still use many Pa Dutch words in our daily lives. These are some of the little things that bring smiles to all of us. Somehow it helps preserve our heritage. I also purchased copies of the coloring book by the same title for my daughters. They laughed so hard and colored in the book like 3 years olds then tucked them into their keepsake box. Even if you know nothing about the PA Dutch, this book is a hilarious read.

I read this to my family every year at my grandparents house and now that I have a family of my own, I needed a copy for my own house. Love the book.

This is great fun, particularly for those of us who have known the joys of living in the Pennsylvania Dutch (Deutsch) area. We gave it to a good "Dutchy" friend, and she was delighted.