Krampus: The Yule Lord by Brom

Title: Krampus: The Yule Lord
Author: Brom
Publication Date: October 30, 2012
Length: 357 pages

Krampus is a creature from Germanic folklore. He's often compared to Santa Claus, but is actually much older. Unlike Santa, who is known more for rewarding good children, Krampus came at Yule to punish bad children. In Krampus: The Yule Lord, the author takes this basis in folklore and builds on it to create a fascinating character and story.

Krampus is the Yule Lord, and he visits houses during Yule, leaving gold coins for children who leave him tribute, and beating children who don't. He is adored by all. That is until Santa Claus takes over, imprisoning Krampus in a cave, and perverting the traditions of Yule with his Christian influence. Hundreds of years later, with the help of his Belsnickels, it's time for him to escape and take his revenge.

This was a great holiday read. I loved the different take on Santa and Krampus, with Krampus actually being a pretty good guy, and Santa being sort of ambiguous. I also liked Jesse, a guy with problems of his own who gets swept up into the conflict when Santa's sack falls into his trailer. Throughout the story, he's just trying to protect his daughter, but he also comes to care about Krampus (yet also feels weird about setting out to kill Santa Claus).

The art is another thing to love about this book. The author, Brom, is also an artist, and there are some amazing illustrations of the characters. I particularly like his depiction of Santa, looking way more badass than any Santa I've ever seen. You can see that image, and some of the other characters, on Brom's website. Check it out!

I definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a holiday read that's a bit more on the Pagan side.

4 stars.

This book counts for the Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge.

North Pole High: A Rebel Without a Claus by Candace Jane Kringle

Title: North Pole High: A Rebel Without a Claus
Author: Candace Jane Kringle
Publication Date: October 2, 2012
Length: about 269 pages (ebook)

This book is the memoir of Santa's teenage daughter, Candycane. 16-year-old Candycane is the most popular girl in school, and has a boyfriend, Tinsel, who's totally hot chocolate (they totally talk like that in the book and it has rubbed off on me). Life is pretty much perfect. But then, the new kid arrives. Rudy Tutti hates Christmas. And yet, Candycane's feelings start to get pretty confused! Add to that an unbearably overprotective Santa, and you've got one heck of a story.

First of all, I LOVE the writing. "Oh, for Christmas sake!", "I think Rudy's hot chocolate!", and other such phrases had me giggling on every page. Also, a penguin who immigrated from the South Pole, reindeer that poop chocolate, and a whole lot of really disgusting foods like fruitcake pizza. The funny thing is, it still reads like a normal YA novel underneath all the Christmas. Candycane is still a normal teenager.

The story is also great. Candycane tries to figure out why Rudy hates Christmas, Christmas is almost ruined due to a lack of Christmas spirit, and the romance is both adorable and just a bit steamy. This is a Christmastime must-read!

The book loses one star from me because of a single scene, in which Candycane talks about the origin of Christmas trees, and includes a story about Pagans sacrificing children. Seriously, people, can we stop with that? Discrimination against Pagans is a real thing and stories about sacrificing children really are not helping.

4 stars.

Full disclosure: Free copy received from the author.

With this book, I finish off the 2012 A-Z Book Challenge. This book also counts for the Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge.

2012 Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge

It is once again time for the Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge! This year I only have one Christmasy book to read (and I have way too much to read to be able to get others from the library!), so I'll be participating at a lower level than last year.

So, I hereby sign up for the challenge at the level of Candy Cane (read 1 book), and also Fa La La La Films (watch Christmas movies).

I'll post the Christmas books I read and Christmas movies I watch below.

Books read:
North Pole High: Rebel Without a Claus by Candace Jane Kringle
Krampus: The Yule Lord by Brom

Movies watched:
Home Alone
Scrooged

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum

Title: The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus
Author: L. Frank Baum
Publication Date:1902
Length: 224 pages

A couple of years ago, I read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and adored it, so when I found out that L. Frank Baum had written a story about the life of Santa, and how he came to become the man he is, I had to check it out. And I sure am happy I did.

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus tells the story of a human baby who is adopted by a nymph, and raised among the immortals. When he grows up and leaves the forest to help his fellow mortals, he especially wants to make the children happy. The book tells how he came to make his first toy, and how he started travelling in a sleigh pulled by reindeer.

This story is absolutely delightful. Much like The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, it is a story that any kid would love to be read at bedtime, and that you will continue to love throughout adulthood. I love how it explains all those little details you might wonder about, like why Santa started putting toys into hanging socks.

There's not much more to say about this book, except that you just have to read it. It's positively brimming with the spirit of the season. 5 stars!

The Solstice Cup by Rachel Dunstan Muller

Title: The Solstice Cup
Author: Rachel Dunstan Muller
Publication Date: 2009
Length: 169 pages

Twin sisters Mackenzie and Breanne are in Ireland visiting relatives, with the Winter Solstice approaching. The last time they were there, something strange happened to them, having to do with the Faerie world. Thanks largely to Breanne's "Irish people are crazy; I don't believe in Faeries! Let's go walking around at night on the Solstice! Nothing happened to me before, that was your imagination!" attitude, the two get trapped in the Otherworld, which turns out to be an enchanting but dangerous place for humans.

My goodness, Breanne was annoying. I never like characters that are so foolhardy that you have to wonder if they have a death wish or if they're just really, really stupid. Mackenzie, on the other hand, is the Chuckie to Breanne's Tommy (which personally I see as a good thing).

Besides that, though, I really have no complaints. The story is wonderful. I love stories about faeries and the Otherworld, and this one has a nice mixture of traditional elements and new ideas. It's also a real page-turner. I couldn't wait to find out whether they'd escape or become trapped as mindless slaves to the Faeries!

Overall, a good YA read. Light on the character development, but a great story. Recommended for budding young fantasy lovers, or for adults who just want a nice, light read.

The Winter Solstice by John Matthews

Title: The Winter Solstice: The Sacred Traditions of Christmas
Author: John Matthews
Publication Date: 1998
Length: 241 pages

The Winter Solstice is a non-fiction book that examines the major traditions and symbols associated with the Winter Solstice and Christmas, and goes into great detail about their history and meaning. Major topics include Santa Claus, the evergreen tree, and the Child of Wonder (ie. Jesus, Mithras, the Sun).

I'm very picky about non-fiction, as it easily gets too long and dry for my liking, but this book passed the test. It's broken up into short, easily digestable sections, with lots of pictures, and I felt like it didn't have a lot of filler, even though it's pretty long.

I think this book is especially good for people who celebrate both the Solstice and Christmas due to upbringing, family compromises, etc. It really shows you how similar the two holidays are, since Christmas essentially developed from the Winter Solstice celebrations. I also think it's great for people who are celebrating on their own or just with their own families, who don't have a large community to practice their traditions with. The book really left me with the feeling that I am perfectly capable of celebrating the passing of the seasons with just what I have in my own home.

Overall, I recommend this to anyone who celebrates the Winter Solstice, as well as to anyone who celebrates Christmas and wants to know more about its history (though that depends on your taste, as there are probably more Christian-aimed books that do this).

The Winter Solstice by Ellen Jackson

Title: The Winter Solstice
Author: Ellen Jackson
Illustrator: Jan Davey Ellis
Publication Date: 1994
Length: 30 pages

This book was not at all what I was expecting. What I was expecting was a nice book about celebrating the Winter Solstice. Something Pagan parents could read to their children around the holiday season.

Instead, this book describes a few "ancient" (a word which here means "still practiced today by many people") rituals and celebrations surrounding the Winter Solstice, while occasionally suggesting that these people were quite primitive. It then goes into a page about how we today do not believe such silliness because SCIENCE, which is all well and good because I love science, but then it's all "today the solstice has been replaced by Christmas and Hanukkah because apparently we're all Christian or Jewish".

Also, this book uses the phrase "people in the United States and Europe". There is no phrase I hate more than that phrase. What do the United States and Europe have in common that Canada doesn't? Or Australia or New Zealand? American authors, please stop using this phrase, forever. It is always used in contexts that suggest that these are the "Western people", and if you're going to do that and list countries, and least list them all.

Ahem, where was I?

So anyway, this book is not Pagan friendly. Nor is it supportive of cultural diversity, really. The one part of this book I liked was that at the end there's a little story that says it was adapted from a Cherokee tale of creation, and it describes how the evergreen trees got to be evergreen. It was a nice little story. If that story was the whole book this review would be a whole lot better. As it is, I found most of this book mildly offensive. And it's a kids' book. 1 star.

14 Favorite Christmas Stories

Title: 14 Favorite Christmas Stories
Author: various
Publication Date: 1964
Length: 156 pages

I don't know why I expected a collection of Christmas stories from the 30s to the 60s to be good. It wasn't.

There were a couple stories that had sort of nice endings. For example, the first story starts out all depressing because it's about an old woman who's losing her memory and is gradually realising that she sent the frilly dress for her daughter to her friend who lives in the woods, and the warm socks for her friend to her daughter. But then it ends up all "aww!" because she gets letters from both of them about how much they love their presents, even though they were the wrong ones.

Unfortunately, most of the stories didn't have particularly great endings, or beginnings, or middles. They were just boring. I was hopeful as I got to the end because the last story was by Ray Bradbury, but even it was kind of confusing and dissatisfying.

That's really all there is to say about this one. 1 star.

This book would count towards the Read Your OWN Library! Challenge (hosted by The Beauty of Eclecticism) for December, but I've already got one for this month! Bonus!

The Return of the Light by Carolyn McVickar Edwards

Title: The Return of the Light: Twelve Tales from Around the World for the Winter Solstice
Author: Carolyn McVickar Edwards
Publication Date: 2000
Length: 172 pages (paperback)

The Return of the Light is a collection of stories, most of them involving someone stealing the Sun, and then other characters getting it back. The idea behind these stories is that at the Winter Solstice, the Sun has moved away as far as it's going to, and appears to stay far away, sitting still, causing people to worry that it might not come back.

I normally don't like book introductions very much, for whatever reason. But the introduction to this book really made the book, in my opinion. It describes how ancient people saw the Winter Solstice. Reading it, I could easily imagine living in a time when such an event could be a cause for worry. The Sun has been moving away, and now is sitting still, and the people have to convince it to come back. That's where traditions like the Yule log come from: the log burns, showing the Sun how it's done and convincing it to come back and be bright and hot again. This was a really interesting topic to read about.

As for the stories themselves, I enjoyed them, but I tend to find stories like that kind of repetitive. Which sort of makes sense, since it's basically the same event being explained by different groups of people from around the world. So the interesting thing about them is how similar they are. So I guess I just shouldn't have read them all in a row (the same problem I had when I read The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales).

So overall, I still recommend this book. The introduction is great, and the stories are nice to dip into when you just want to read one short story. They'd be good for reading to kids around the Solstice time, teaching them about the origins of the holiday.

The Yule Spirit Reading Challenge

I've decided to take part in a slightly modified version of the Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge hosted by the True Book Addict.

Instead of reading books about Christmas, though, I'm gonna read books about Yule (with maybe a Christmas book or two thrown in). I'm starting a bit late, but should still be able to fit quite a few in by the end of the challenge.

There are 3 levels for adult books, plus one for movies and one for kids' books:

• Candy Cane (read 1 book)
• Mistletoe (read 2-4 books)
• Christmas Tree (read 5 or 6 books)
• Fa La La La Films (watch Christmas movies!)
• Visions of Sugar Plums (read children's Christmas books)

For the full rules, visit the challenge site. I'll be going for the Christmas Tree level (or in my case the Yule Tree level). I'll also be doing Fa La La La Films, because I looooove holiday movies, and Visions of Sugar Plums, which I hope still counts when you're reading kids' books to yourself and not to kids, because I don't actually have any kids.

I'll be writing review posts for the books as usual, and I'll also maintain a list of what I read and watch for the challenge here. I hope you'll join me in the holiday spirit!

Grown-up books read:

1. The Return of the Light by Carolyn McVickar Edwards (November 28-30)
2. 14 Favorite Christmas Stories (December 3-4)
3. The Winter Solstice: The Sacred Traditions of Christmas by John Matthews (November 30 - December 12)
4. The Solstice Cup by Rachel Dunstan Muller (December 12-14) 
5. The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum (December 20-22) (Really, this one could count as a kids' book, too!)

Kids' books read:

1. The Winter Solstice by Ellen Jackson (December 5)

Holiday movies watched:

1. Jingle All the Way (November 27)
2. Home Alone (November 29)
3. Home Alone 2 (December 2)
4. The Santa Clause (December 8)
5. The Santa Clause 2: The Mrs. Clause (December 16)
6. How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (December 20)
7. A Christmas Carol (December 23)
8. Elf (December 23)
9. Scrooged (December 25) (This one is my favourite, and a family tradition!)