Dear Santa: I don’t need socks by Consuelo Fernandez Ortiz

A wonderfully funny look at Christmas from two perspectives as Koala and his cousin, Olavi in Finland exchange Christmas cards. From there, every page shows how each will celebrate Christmas.

Koala tells us that he lives in a gumtree near Mallacoota, while Olavi lives in Lapland, a cold place of ice and snow.

In Australia Christmas can be spent in your bathers, but in Lapland, you had better rug up. As each page goes by new information is given about the Christmas celebrations in these two very different places. In Australia, Christmas is in summer, but in Lapland it is in mid winter. Other people may tuck into Christmas pudding and gingerbread men but Koala loves his gum leaves, even sharing his recipe for Christmas gum stew.

It is easy for Olavi to write to Santa, as he lives nearby. Koala’s letter asks that he does not leaves socks any more, because he has a collection and they are too warm to wear in Australia. In the north, gnomes help Santa with all the presents, but in Australia, the wombats lend a hand but they are not the best at wrapping presents. 

The 24 hour darkness means that Olavi needs a clock to wake up on Christmas Day, whereas Koala wakes with the dawn.

Opening the presents they find that Olavi has been given the flip flops (thongs) and Koala the socks. So they make a decision to visit each other and swap their presents. This lovely book introduces Christmas to young readers, telling them that although people are separated by many miles, they celebrate in the same day with some differencse. Kids will love spotting the differences and wondering how people in another climate cope with Christmas in such a different climate. The illustrations are just wonderful, and young readers will love taking in the detail, laughing at the humour in each page and see how each little animal is coping with the lead up to Christmas. 

I particularly love the front cover with the koala writing his letter to Santa by the light from the fireflies, and the headgear of Olavi and the wonderful end papers, with the lines of beautiful knitted socks. Lots of detail beckons the eyes to look further at each page, giving lots to discuss with the audience: a clothesline, the lift on koala’s gum tree, the lovely thin Father Christmas and his team of gnomes and the image of the two getting their mismatched presents. 

This lovely different look at Christmas is sure to please.

Themes: Christmas, Koalas, Humour, Celebrations.

Fran Knight