Wednesday, December 27, 2023

December 27, 2023: Christmas Stories: The Night Before the Night Before Christmas

[This December we commemorate the 200th anniversary of Clement Clarke Moore’s “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (well, maybe we do—see Monday’s post!). That was one of many Christmas stories I read to my sons when they were young, so this week I’ll AmericanStudy it and four other such holiday classics!]

Look, I’m not going to pretend that I can devote three thoughtful paragraphs to Richard Scarry’s silly but fun The Night Before the Night Before Christmas (1984). Mostly I wanted to include it in this week’s series for two relatively straightforward but good reasons: it was maybe my sons’ favorite Christmas story for many of their young childhood years; and I don’t think nearly enough people know that Richard Scarry created a number of Christmas books set in his wonderful Busytown world. Like every Busytown character, Mr. Frumble, the pig at the heart of Night Before, is a flawed and flustered figure who means well, messes up most of the time, but ultimately gets the job done (and thus saves Christmas in the process, natch). And like every Richard Scarry classic, Night Before features incredibly full and multi-layered illustrations that reward the kinds of constant revisiting that come with a book that we read again and again, over multiple nights in every holiday season. If you’ve got young kids, of your own or in your life, you won’t find a better holiday read

Next Christmas story tomorrow,

Ben

PS. What do you think? Christmas or holiday readings you’d share?

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