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Clever kids fix Christmas worries about Santa
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In Yoon and the Christmas Mitten by Helen Recounts, we meet little Yoon, who was brought to America by her Korean parents. She enters school in the United States.
In December, her teacher reads a book about Santa Claus and Yoon is allowed to take it home. Yoon is excited about it and shows it to her parents. Her father disappoints her, however, by pushing the book away, telling Yoon: “We are Korean. Santa Claus is not our custom.”
Her mother says: “We are not a Christian family.”
Yoon is hurt and hugs the book. She does not understand why she should not believe in Santa Claus like her classmates. The next day, her teacher reads about Christmas trees and colored lights. Other children talk about the stockings they will hang.
Her parents disdain these notions, too. But Yoon does not. She worries about how Santa will find her without a tree or stocking in her house.
Before she goes to sleep on Christmas Eve, Yoon pins a red mitten to the bottom corner of her blanket. She tells her parents it’s a “Christmas mitten” for Santa to leave a present in.
Her father persists in saying that is not the Korean way. Yoon replies: “America is our home now. Are we not both Korean and American?”
Yoon goes to sleep, alone in her beliefs. But her words have started her parents thinking. In the morning, Yoon finds presents in her stocking.
This happy ending book helps children understand how it feels to be an outsider. And gives them the idea that dilemmas can be solved.
In A Message for Santa by Tony Ross and Hiawyn Oram, little red-haired Emily loves Christmas, making decorations and looking forward to presents. But she’s afraid of the idea of a big man coming down her chimney, however jolly he’s purported to be.
This is a story of how Emily solves the problem of a big scary Santa by leaving a note for him to come in the kitchen door instead of down the chimney. When Santa obeys, he earns her trust for next year. Readers will learn that it’s okay to be afraid of something sometime. Everybody is.
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