Children’s book from 70s/80s. Santa’s sleigh is stuck and Russian farmer helps him with his tractor. Story is told in song and the book has a vinyl album of music to accompany the story. Likely had a red cover.
Category Archives: Christmas
368J: Christmas poem from the 50s? If I’d been born in Bethlehem (Solved!)
The poem which I can neither remember nor forget starts off something like:
If I’d been born in Bethlehem
So many years ago
I might have seen the ***
Passing to and fro
I am fairly confident it is a poem, but perhaps not?
It was definitely part of a Christmas story
From the early 1950s?
363L: Christmas-time story, possibly 1960’s
The story is about a boy whose father (parents?) left for a trip, leaving him with the cook/housekeeper. Before the present time, she had won a baking contest when the boy knocked some chocolate chips into her mix and she decided to leave them. After they were alone, he ordered a (real) magic kit from the back of a comic book and when he got it and used the wax to form a figure of the housekeeper and maybe cast some spell to make her very sleepy and she stayed in bed for the rest of the story until the end. He then set about on some adventures including one where he made a willow wand to help him find the perfect Christmas tree, which I believe he cut down and brought into the house. I don’t remember the other adventures but at the end of the book he warmed up the wax to break the spell and some of it melted into the fire and filled the house with smoke, just at the time the father/parents came back from their trip.
362O: Child Finds Way Home by North Star
I’m trying to think of a book I used to read probably around the year 2000.
362H: Friends in College in England Mystery Book
In about 2006 I read and very much enjoyed a book about a group of friends at university in England (Oxford? Cambridge? Not sure). I remember a lot about the book but cannot remember the author or title. I’ve been scouring the internet which is where I found you. Please help!
There are four main characters: Brother, Sister (possibly named Maggie), Sister’s boyfriend (these three are British), and one American girl.
The book starts with the American character planning for a party to which Brother is invited. The American character is pregnant. The other characters are not invited. The rest of the book is the backstory about what happened between these four people at university.
The Sister and American girl meet at university. The American girl thinks the sister is really cool. The Brother really likes the American girl, but it’s unrequited. She has a strained relationship with her family including a family member who calls and reports her so that she gets strip searched by the airport security agents on her way back to the states for Christmas (or something like that). The security agent that searches her makes a comment about her breasts looking like fried eggs.
Somehow the Sister dies. Car accident?
The Brother despises the Sister’s boyfriend. And years later when sister’s boyfriend appears on some type of reality show where the citizens of England can call in and vote for their favorite contestant, he spends his entire lunch break every day calling in to vote for the opponent so he doesn’t win the reality show.
Brother and American girl see each other at the party. He has a terrible new haircut and it’s awkward seeing each other because of all the history between them including sister’s death.
Ok – please help me get this out of my brain! Thank you in advance!
362G: Christmas Board Book with Little Lights and Music
I have been searching for this book for years with no luck. It is a LONG LONG SHOT probably impossible 😫 but hopefully someone may know or may have had it too as a child.
I had a children’s Christmas book around 1993- 1996 that came from the The Book People (or a very similar company) that came to my mums work place. It was a large book between A3 maybe even A2 size, it had little coloured lights that came through tiny holes onto each page that flashed and it played music when you pressed a button. The button was within the page.
It wasn’t an old fashioned looking book. I unfortunately don’t remember the front cover picture (if I saw it I think I would!!) but I do remember one page had a large snowy scene with Father Christmas flying on his sleigh. It was a thick board book. I know this is not a lot to go on but I loved this book so much and would love to find it again for my children 🤞🏼
Summary:
– Large Christmas board book A3/A2 size
– From The Book People or similar book club company (UK)
– Around 1993 – 1996 time
– It had little multicoloured lights that flashed. They were on the back page but came through tiny holes onto each page.
– There was a button which you pressed and it played a tune.
361M: Christmas pop-up with opening doors
I am looking for a children's Christmas pop up (I believe it was The Night Before Christmas but can't find that specific one). It had doors and a drawer that opened.
359Z: Christmas activity book
352M: Kitten Gets Baby Sibling for Christmas
I am looking for a small red children’s book about a kitten who asks his mother and Santa for a baby brother/sister kitten for Christmas ... and gets one!
349Y: Boy wants a sled for Christmas, but doesn’t get it
I’m looking for a children’s picture book. It’s about a boy and his mother. Christmas is getting close. As they go about their days, they frequently pass by a store window, where the boy sees a sled he wants. I think it’s a red Radio Flyer type steel sled with rails. He wants it really badly. The story builds toward Christmas, but on Christmas morning he doesn’t get the sled he wanted. I think there may be some other, cheaper, sled under the tree. But it’s not the one from the window. I feel like it implied that the single mother just couldn’t afford it. I remember it being a sad book. This book always used to make my mom cry when she read it to us. Things have improved for us all now, and I’d love to find her this memory.