Christmas Under Construction

PreS-Gr 3–Classic Christmas characters demonstrate how to work together to overcome challenges. When a winter storm knocks down Santa’s workshop, leaving the elves out in the cold on Christmas Eve, Santa and Mrs. Claus have a plan. With help from the reindeers and even the abominable snowman, the elves use traditional holiday confections and construction equipment to build a new workshop, just in time to save Christmas. The illustrations guide the tone of this work. A towering pile of presents patterned in bright red, yellow, blue, and green evokes the traditional sense of excitement associated with Santa’s workshop, while the conveyor belts guiding additional presents to the stack underscore the bustle of holiday preparations. When the wind, in swirling lines of white, disrupts the elves’ work, the tone shifts to dismay, but not for long. Most of the work is dedicated to a united effort: using a forklift to carry gingerbread walls, a crane to raise candy cane columns, and a bulldozer full of peppermints for decoration, the last-minute plan to save Christmas is successful. A simple, unbounded quatrain rhyming scheme establishes flow, providing a balance between the predictability and surprise of the plot.