booktastic

It may be too early to talk about this…. but it occurred to me this morning that it’s been several years since I read the book that used to be my Christmas tradition — The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum.

I suppose this tradition ended with my marriage and leaving of the parental home, largely due to the fact that I never actually owned a copy of this book — the one I read as a child belonged to my parents’ library.

However, I always think about this book at Christmastime and rather wish I had a copy.

Yes, that’s the L. Frank Baum of Wizard of Oz fame; one of his less popular, non-Oz books was this completely fictionalized biography of Santa. When I say “completely fictionalized”, I’m implying a whole lot more than the semi-mythic stories about the actual Santa Claus, St. Nicholas. This book contains no mention of his bishopric (yes, that’s a real word, and it’s not at all dirty) or the story of him saving the girls who were going to be sold into slavery by throwing bags of money through their window. You see, in L. Frank’s version, infant Claus is abandoned in the woods, is raised by a tiger and a nymph, learns lessons about good and evil and is finally granted immortality by the elves. His being a bishop - or a catholic - or even religious at all - really doesn’t figure into the story.

As a general rule, I take issue with “Christmas stories” that remove all the religious aspect from Christmas. However, I believe L. Frank simply wanted to give Santa a suitably mystical and magical origin, and did it the best way he knew how; I doubt that this book was intended as a tract of paganism any more than The Marvelous Land of Oz was intended as an argument for the acceptability of gender reassignment. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about… Well, that’s a whole other post.)

In retrospect, the book may be a touch on the bizarre side… but I cannot describe how much I enjoyed reading it as a child. Even as a teen - when reading the book became the work of an afternoon, rather than days - it still held a certain glamour for me. The beautiful illustrations, the sweet text…

But, as I mentioned, I haven’t read it in years. It’s rather perplexing to me that I haven’t managed to pick up a copy for myself in spite of liking it so much… Maybe I’ve been waiting for somebody to give it to me as a Christmas present.

Incidentally, this book was made into a rather trippy Rankin Bass film, The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus. Oddly, where I found the book charming and magical, I found this clay representation rather disturbing and nightmarish. But maybe that’s just me… If you didn’t find this claymation epic scary, I’d be delighted to hear from you.

Anyways, if you’re looking for some Christmas Reading, you should probably try to find yourself a copy of The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. It’s a really fast read, has L. Frank Baum’s characteristic wit and charm - and, though it may not have any connection whatsoever to the “factual” biography of Santa - who couldn’t stand a little more mythical, mystical magic this Christmas? — Mrs. Hall

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