Christmas is less red, and more pale blue with white dots.
All three picture books in front of me share this colour scheme, and it’s one I like a lot. Red is shouty. This is more wintry, and cold.
Rachel Bright’s All I Want for Christmas, about little penguin who thinks mostly about the Christmas shopping, is really just a version of Mother-of-witch. All she ever wanted for Christmas, no matter how often I asked, was a good little girl. And big penguin in this book is just the same. It’s all about love.
David Melling’s Merry Christmas, Hugless Douglas, brings us our favourite silly bear. He builds a snowman, accidentally incorporating most of his friends. And he finds a reindeer with a shiny nose. There are hugs. Lots of snow. And a sledge, just like little penguin’s.
In The Snowbear by Sean Taylor and Claire Alexander, two children build a snowman. And then they too go sledging. It’s very slippery, and they go very fast, and the woods are full of wolves. But with a faithful snowbear you need not worry for long, even if it is too slippery to go uphill.
