The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus
“First published in 1902, the book follows Santa Claus from the time he’s a baby through his years of toy-making and on to his role as deliverer of Christmas gifts.”
Publishers Weekly
“In all this world, there is nothing so beautiful as a happy child.” —Santa Claus
A baby is found by wood nymphs in the forest of Burzee. They raise him as their own and give him the name Neclaus. When he grows up, Neclaus has to leave the forest so he makes a home for himself in the laughing valley of Hohaha, where he lives amongst humans for the first time. He discovers there that many children are very poor and neglected so, to cheer them up, he whittles wooden toys as gifts. Eventually he makes presents for all the children, and so the story of Santa Claus is born.
Fashioned as a whimsical fairy tale, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus was published in 1902, just two years after L. Frank Baum’s masterpiece of the imagination, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Praise