Dear Santa, Love, Rachel Rosenstein by Amanda Peet and Andrea Troyer, illustrated by Christine Davenier, Doubleday, © 2015, 32 pages of text; ISBN 978-0-553-51061-4; $17.99/
By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – It’s coming b-a-a-a-ck.
The December dilemma.
That’s when American Jewish kids want to be like the other kids and celebrate Christmas.
In this piece of juvenile fiction, Rachel likes her Jewish holidays such as Passover and Chanukah, but she is envious of the lights, festivities and hype accompanying Christmas.
So she sends a letter to Santa.
Only her younger and wiser sister points out that it is too late for the letter to get to the North Pole.
She tells a department store Santa she wants him to visit her house even though she is Jewish, but he doesn’t have time to answer before another child is on his lap.
She decorates her house for Santa, and puts out milk and a latke with a chocolate chip in it instead of a cookie.
When she comes down from her room the next morning, there are no presents. Santa hadn’t come to visit.
Morose, Rachel accompanies her family to the Chinese restaurant where they eat every Christmas.
She finds that three of her classmates are also there with their families. One is a Muslim, another is a Sikh, and the third is Chinese. None of them celebrate Christmas, but their families, like Rachel’s, celebrate other holidays.
Christmas, Rachel concludes, is simply one holiday among many.
She decides that it is not so terrible that she doesn’t get to celebrate it.
Such is the summary of the story. Will it appease a child’s desire to fit in with the majority? Will it turn off a child’s desire to collect even more presents?
I doubt it.
But I think it may be worthwhile to read to a child on your lap anyway.
At the very least, it will give him or her something to think about.
And, no matter what, there’s the wonderful warmth that comes with reading to your child or grandchild.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com