Every year we like to get a new Christmas book for our collection in our family. This year we were given a chance to read The Gift Giver and I believe it is going to be one of my girls favorites for many years to come.
The Gift Giver is the story of how Santa became to be. The illustrations are beautiful and I love how the story is written.
On Christmas Eve a boy stirs from sleep to find an old man, in the living room, dressed in red with a bag full of gifts. Excitement soon gives way to disappointment as he finds he has received fewer gifts than expected. The old man sees the young boy’s protest and tells the story of his origins and his motives. As the boy becomes privy to this mystery, a question comes to his mind: is it by magic that the old man accomplishes his task, or is it something else… The lesson he learns will change the way he views Christmas forever! If you are a fan of The Polar Express, and T’was the Night Before Christmas, you will love The Gift Giver.
It seems that this book is written to give an identity to Santa that is Christ based. While I love the intermingling of the two “stories” I personally would never tell my girls that this is the “true” origin of Santa. Since I know that Santa is a “story” and Christ is real, I find that mixing the two could get a little confusing.
So when my girls asked me if this story was “true” as I was reading it, I made sure to tell them that it is just a nice story and we don’t really know where Santa really came from.
However, we have read it over and over and over again. And It has given me a chance to talk about giving and how important giving is to Christmas and how important Christ is to Christmas. That He is the most important thing and the True meaning of Christmas.
Since reading this book my daughters focus has changed over the last week or so. We’ve had many discussions on what they are GIVING for Christmas and what Christ would like them to do for others! Yay! I couldn’t be more thrilled.
If you are looking for a new Christmas book, I recommend The Gift Giver.
