The Polar Express

In light of Alton being the little book-fiend that he is, we recently made a trip to Barnes & Noble to buy some new tomes for Alton along the Christmas theme! Okay, we know that Christmas is coming and his birthday's just a month later, but the kid loves to read so much that we can't help it with the books, plus his burgeoning vocabulary and understanding of holiday traditions have been greatly supplemented by these new books. Upon arrival at the bookstore, I started prowling around the kid section alongside Andy and Alton with three vague literary ideas in mind: a nativity book, at least one holiday classic, and a "Santa" book. We found a "Christmas story" board book that had the simplest language for describing the night Jesus was born, picked up The Polar Express and 'Twas the Night Before Christmas in beautiful illustrated hardbound editions, and then I started looking around for a good "Santa" book.

I had really been hoping to find something that would be a little less commercial and "Disney"-fied; something more along the lines of how the Santa legend had come to be, maybe a Father Christmas myth from another culture, or at the very least something that portrayed Santa more as a "salt of the earth" rugged North Pole grampa than slick dude with unlimited funds who goes around giving you free stuff, just 'cause. I was disappointed that such books are either really hard to find, or maybe don't even exist! I have certainly discovered my Christmas money-maker for next year: write a children's book that explains how it originally came to be that some old geezer from the frozen north with lots of time on his hands and no razor got a bunch of Yukon deer together, made them fly, and came over to your house.

In the meantime we got a book called "The Christmas Magic," another great hardbound picture book that describes how Santa prepares for Christmas eve by cleaning his sleigh, brushing the reindeer's coats, trimming his whiskers, etc. The drawings show Santa shuffling around his house in a red apron, cutoff sweats, and bunny slippers. Awesome.

Gee, I'll bet you're having a really hard time figuring out which Christmas book is Alton's favorite. Hmm, let's see. We have a two-thousand-year-old tale of birth in a barn, Santa in bunny slippers, a 19th-century poem that uses words like "coursers" and "lustre," or a book about...a...train. Thanks to the "choo-choo book!," as Alton likes to call it, he has now added "North Pole" and "Polar Express" to his list of vocabulary words. He also has a little bell that he likes to hold during the reading of the book (a silver bell from Santa's sleigh figures largely in this book) and ring from time to time, except that he likes to tightly clutch the bell itself into the center of his palm, so when he "rings" the bell you really just hear the tiny metallic tapping sound from the little piece inside the bell. The Polar Express was actually a 25th anniversary edition that included a CD of the book being read aloud by actor Liam Neeson! And based on the number of times that Alton likes us to read this book each day (we're in double digits here, people), I might have to pull out the CD and teach Alton how to press "play" on the stereo...okay, I'm kidding. But I might send old Liam an email in Ireland to see if he's going to be around during the holidays, maybe he'd like to come by and read the book in person a couple dozen times. I'll let you know what he says.

But despite the ratio of two readings of The Polar Express to every one reading of his other Christmas books, Alton really likes to hear all of these stories read aloud. I led a storytime reading for our playgroup at the library the other day, and brought his books AND some bells for the little ones to shake while I read. As Alton and I were leaving, I noticed a small shelf displaying used books for sale that were along the Christmas theme. It seemed like most of the items were periodicals focused on holiday decorating, but I found one small red hardbound book that was published in 1946, entitled "Christmas Tales for Reading Aloud." Alton was purposefully marching down the hall away from me, ready to leave, but I picked up the book, glanced at the $1.50 price tag and flipped quickly through the table of contents, noting that it included "The Gift of the Magi" and Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," in addition to a small section that was simply headed "Santa Claus." Eureka! A post-war book with holiday gems from such recognized children's writers as Hans Christian Anderson and Frances Hodgson Burnett (The Secret Garden)? Sold! I grabbed the book and paid at the desk, excitedly hoping that my new acquisition would have the good 'ol fashioned story of St. Nicholas that I'd been hoping to introduce to my son. A later, more thorough search through the contents was a tiny bit disappointing. While there were Christmas poems from Shakespeare, Longfellow and Tennyson in addition to thematic works from Louisa May Alcott and Clement C. Moore, it also boasted the stories of "The Goblins Who Stole a Sexton" and "Solange, the Wolf-Girl." I'm not making these up. The Santa section was more about distracting little narratives than about Santa legends, although I do look forward to perusing the "Humor" section and one of its pieces: "When I Fetched the Fixin's Fer Christmas Dinner." The book even has "The Little Match Girl" in case I want to share with Alton the fun holiday yarn of a little girl freezing to death in the snow.
Yup, I'm counting on all of you to buy my Santa book next year--you'll see it right alongside "Mickey Saves Santa" and "A Very Dora Christmas."