The Usborne Book Of Christmas Stories

There's not much better in life than having your children snuggled up in bed whilst you read to them. So snuggle up, get warm and cosy and read Sweet Craftiness over the next few days for our Christmas book reviews.



The Usborne Book Of Christmas Stories by Russell Punter and Phillip Webb

I love Usborne books. I have fond memories of when I was little and my mum used to run Usborne book parties. It was such luxury to have all those wonderful books under our roof and the saddest part was when they all had to be returned to Usborne. I used to spend hours looking through all the books, the stories and illustrations never failed to please. I used to love the 'Farmyard Tales' series and adored the Poppy and Sam characters. Anyone remember the little yellow duck that you had to search out on every page?

Anyway, here's another Usborne book that the Sweet Craftiness family love. It's called 'The Usborne Book of Christmas Stories.' Pick the book up and it feels lovely, a big padded cover and a red ribbon bookmark is contained inside. To make the scene on the front cover look more magical, the illustration has been partially embossed in silver.

Open the book up and you will find six magical stories.

• The Elf and the Toymaker
  
• The Fake Santa
• Santa's Day off
• Chilly and the Bonfire
• Snowy and Icy
• Freezy's New Buttons

Each story is around 16 pages long and contains lots of stunning illustrations. There are lots of scenes to excite children; inside Santa's workshop, the reindeer and Santa delivering presents. Each story has an element which manages to keep the kids continuously enthralled.

Children will delight in finding out how Santa makes the toys, what Santa gets up to on his days off and just how to spot a 'fake' Santa!

One story contained within the book is 'The Elf and the Toymaker.' This is a very humorous little story where children get a glimpse of inside Santa's workshop. Santa is a very organised man and assigns each elf a specific job role. Much the same as in any factory, the elves have to knuckle down and get to work. The story revolves around a little elf named Alfie, who after getting sent home by Santa for sleeping on the job decides he wants to investigate the 'Toymaker' machine. The elf then falls down a hole in the machine and sets the machine in action. Before the elf knows it the machine is whirring and churning and he gets trapped by wires. In the meantime the machine is spouting out mini-replicas of the elf, hundreds of replicas in fact. Because of this misdemeanour, all children's Christmas lists are cancelled that year and they all have to have 'Alfie' toys instead. Luckily the toys prove popular and Santa gets even more orders for 'Alfie' toys the following year. It's a happy ending all round as Alfie gets his dream job; he gets to control the 'toymaker' machine to make lots more 'Alfie' toys.

This is a good story to read to your child if they spring on you with a newly written Christmas list after you have done their Christmas shopping. It's a good moral to the story as children don't always get what they want at Christmas but sometimes they get to like the most unexpected of things.

There are five other stories in the book and all contain excellent story plots to engage children and get them to use their imagination. Well done Usborne, we thoroughly enjoyed the book!