Pink Santa

Tanya Hennessy

Ben Whitehouse

Albert Street, 2023

24pp., hbk., RRP $A19.99

9781761180392

‘Twas the night before Christmas and everything in Santa’s workshop was ready to go – work done, lists checked, biscuits baked, gifts wrapped… But then Santa remembers his suit is still in the dirty clothes hamper from when he wore it last year and it desperately needs a wash before he and the reindeer can go.

 Being helpful, Rudolph volunteers to do it but when he takes it out at the end of the cycle, it has turned PINK. Can Santa be Santa in a pink suit? 

With rollicking, rhyming text and hilarious illustrations, this original story touches on being who you are inside rather than what you look like on the outside, even venturing into stereotypes and preconceptions formed on the basis of appearance. Will the colour of Santa’s suit really affect the joy and delight of the children in the morning? Indeed, with Santa’s proposal to make the following Christmas even more radical, older readers might want to trace how the image has changed since the days of St Nicholas in the 3rd century being variously depicted in the long garb of a bishop and particularly the influence of the Haddon Sundblom images of the 1931 Coca Cola campaign.  

But whether it is used as a stepping stone to learn more about the traditions, the man or ourselves, or just for the sheer fun of it, this is one to keep in your collection.  It is thoroughly modern and will cheer up anyone, even The Grinch!