Customer Reviews

A Simply Wonderful Christmas

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4 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Compiled and organized by Silke Leffler, "A Simply Wonderful Christmas: A Literary Adventure Calendar" offers children of elementary school age a wonderful and enthusiastically recommended collection of twenty-four seasonally appropriate stories meant to be read one at a time for each day in December leading up to Christmas. The stories are enhanced with Leffler's lovely and whimsical illustrations reflecting the enchantment and magic of the three weeks leading up to Christmas Day. There are even pages set aside where young readers (and their parents) can record personal holiday memories making "A Simply Wonderful Christmas" a truly enduring family legacy and keepsake.

I stumbled across this beautifully illustrated book in a church bookstore 4 years ago. It has become our annual December advent staple. The book contains a wide variety of heartwarming and often humorous stories written by various authors. The stories are uplifting and contain messages relevant to children (and adults!) of all ages--compassion, empathy, the importance of charity, and so on. They are a great basis for family discussion, and will appeal to both boys and girls.

One feature of the book that I greatly appreciate is that the stories are largely secular; while this is a "Christmas" book, and God might be mentioned in a few instances, the stories are largely about family activities and traditions during the holiday season. Essentially, they are seasonal stories about "real life" to which children can immediately relate. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for fresh, current, meaningful holiday stories to enrich their annual holiday traditions.

I thought I was getting a literary advent calendar with sweet stories for younger children. These stories are all over the map and while they have a happy ending, some begin with bullying or being unkind to others. Just not what I was expecting... I sent a copy to my Goddaughter and was so embarrased I had to send her an Eric Carle advent calendar to make up for it. So, I wasted money buying two copies of this... ugh!