Santa’s Christmas Handbook by Christopher Edge & a team of illustrator elves

Santa’s Christmas Handbook is a wonderfully interactive festive picture book which contains information about everything Santa needs to know to deliver presents. Written by his elves it is a hilarious and extremely comprehensive guide to all aspects of the job and will hopefully ensure that accident prone Santa will be ready for anything!

Santa’s Christmas Handbook is a wonderfully sturdy lift the flap book. Each highly illustrated page is full of flaps and little booklets which convey amusing snippets of information that will be enjoyed by even the most reluctant of readers. The double spreads focus on the different aspects of Santa’s job which are involved in present delivery, the elves have really thought of everything! This is a great coffee table book for the whole family to enjoy, we find new details and things to laugh about every time we read!

Jingle Bells! Jingle Bells! Santa’s sleigh is full of amazing gadgets for an enjoyable and stress free journey. Complete with first aid kits and snacks (for reindeer as well as Santa) it has all-terrain tracks, a radio that only plays Cliff Richard and carriages that hold 300 presents. 

There is a lot to know about reindeer including top tips for feeding and controlling your team and keeping harnesses in good condition. There is information about each reindeer so that Santa can tell them apart – we were surprised to learn who the boss of the team is!

A skyway code gives flying tips and reindeer tricks, including how to overtake a jumbo jet. We love the weather warnings and the reminder that some children may actually need presents delivered to them at sea!

All About Presents is our favourite page, we love lifting the flaps to see what is inside each gift. There is advice on keeping presents in tip top shape, a present first aid kit and a handbook of frequently asked questions – lost labels, noisy presents and, most importantly, what to do if you have left the wrong present!

Delivery Dos and Dont’s and a Roof-Top Guide talk Santa through landing on different types of roofs and what to do when there is no chimney – the Insta-Chimney is hilarious! And when Santa is in the house there’s advice about what to do if he meets a child, the golden rules of present placement and what to wear if the fire is still burning.

Santa Claus care is very important and it’s amazing how many gadgets are inside Santa’s suit. We laughed when we lifted Santa’s beard and discovered what he keeps under it – it’s always good to have a festive snack handy!

If Santa needs entertaining on his journey the elves have packed him a game, quizzes, puzzles, jokes and carols with elf lyrics. The final page has Santa’s passport and a ticket to Barbados for a much needed holiday. We love the emergency contact list with biographies of the elves that have written the book.

This is a fun book for readers of all ages and can help answer any questions that children may have about how Santa delivers presents in one night, how he manages to carry all the presents (he can’t but Inventor Elf Crackers has an ingenious solution to the problem!) and what Santa’s most powerful tool for controlling his reindeer is. 

Age Range: 5 +

Wordsmith Elf: Christopher Edge / Illustrator Elves: Tim Hutchinson / Richard Johnson / Maggie Kneen / Sandy Nightingale / Mike Phillips

Thank you to Templar Publishing for sending a copy of this wonderfully interactive and entertaining book. We hope that the elves also had a good holiday after writing it 🙂 

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