Santa Was a Child Just Like You in Delightful Picture and Story Book for the Holidays

Linda Bailey's When Santa Was a Baby is a delightful story and picture book for the holiday season. Have you ever thought of Santa as a baby and young child growing as all children do? This creative story places Santa in this role and parents will want to share this story for the holidays.

Santa as a baby was his parents' pride and joy. They would admire his dimples and his little red nose. They also enjoyed the sounds he made as a baby with all the gurgles and coos. Can you guess what his first words were? A huge "Ho, Ho, Ho" came out one day and his parents were amazed. They immediately recognized his voice as not being the usual baby voice. Santa continued to grow to be a young child. Can you guess what his favorite color was? Of course it was red! Santa had the habit of wrapping presents that he received for his birthday and re-gifting them to his friends. His parents realized that he was a very generous child. Santa asked for a reindeer for his next birthday. The surprise hamster that he actually received produced more surprises. Readers will be enchanted by what Santa did with the hamster. There were other interests that Santa had as a child that puzzled his parents. he loved to keep the regrigerator open to experience the extreme cold. He also had a fascination with the chimney. Santa as a teenager had his own mind and did not often fit in with others. Santa grew up to follow his dream and we all know how that turned out.

Genevieve Godbout contributed her talent as an illustrator to create delightful illustrations to help tell the story of Santa as a baby and growing up to be Santa as we know him.

When Santa Was a Baby was published by Tundra Books, a division of Penguin/Random House. It is recommended for ages 4-8 and has an ISBN of 978-1-77049-556-2.

My favorite time of the year was the holiday season with my students. Most schools now have some rules about the holiday season, but picture books about the season offer reading activities and most classrooms would be allowed to use picture and story books to have creative reading and writing activities for the holiday season.

LInda Bailey's When Santa Was a Baby offers ideas for creative holiday activities. My favorite tool for teaching reading and writing activities was always a picture book for my kindergarten and early elementary students.

*Read When Santa Was a Baby in a story time session. Call attention to Santa's physical features as a baby. How are the features similar to the features as described in another favorite, The Night before Chirstmas. You might want to refresh children's memories of the "nose like a cherry" and the dimples.

*Call attention to the fact that Santa's favorite color as he grew was the color red. Why is this significant?

*Engage children in a discussion of Santa as a little boy and his habit of re-wrapping his birthday gifts and re-gifting them to friends. How did that relate to what Santa would later become as an adult?

*Call attention to what Santa did with his hamsters. How did that relate to what he would become as an adult?

*Offer a creative writing activity for students to write their own story about Santa as a little child.

*Offer drawing paper, markers, and crayons for students to draw their own illustrations of Santa as a young boy and his activities.

*Plan an activity for students to wrap gifts to present to their friends. Offer an art activity for students to make their own wrapping paper.