Christmas-time storytimes are a little difficult, to be totally honest. I live in the Bible Belt of the USA, and Christmas is a cultural institution. In many ways, it is a secular holiday - Santa Claus, Elf on the Shelf, and "presents under the tree" for all sorts of families. However, around here, it is also a very VERY Christian holiday. For many people, Jesus is the reason for the season, so focusing on Santa won't cut it.
On the other hand, I have a feeling that there are a lot of people around here who are silent about their affiliations; Jewish, Muslim, atheist... and to have a public institution (a library, no less) featuring a specific religious holiday is unfair to the population as a whole - unless I also have the wherewithal to provide storytimes on Ramadan, Hanukkah, Solstice, and humanism (to be clear, I think most of my storytimes are humanistic) in order to balance the scales - and I can't do those because I don't have the necessary materials to do so.
Many libraries deal with the problem by simply not having storytimes around the winter holiday break - reasons given are that lots of staffers are on vacation, it's a dead time of year with patrons being out of town or hosting relatives - but I am here consistently, and I like to have the option available for people who need something to remain consistent and scheduled through the seasonal frenzy.
So what do I do? So far, I've ignored it completely. I tend to do a "winter" theme - this year it's snow-storms. I do feel a little sad that I can't read "The Night Before Christmas" to a group of adorable children, or that I can't show any of the beautifully-illustrated Nativity books to my families. But I just can't bring myself to do it. As a private person, I'll read those stories and love them, regardless of my personal beliefs, because I can appreciate the beauty in them as something separate. If a patron requests Christmas books, I'll find them the best ones I can, and enjoy the recommendation process. But with storytime, I have a whole group as a captive and un-knowing audience - they don't know what I'm going to read beforehand, and they really can't leave in the middle of things. Because I can't know my patrons' relationships with religion, because they're stuck with my readings, I feel I need to stay scrupulously secular.
Thankfully, there are reams of excellent books to choose from, including the three I read today!
Started with Blizzard, reviewed yesterday.
Cat and Mouse in the Snow
Tomek Bogacki
ISBN: 0374311927
Series title, textural painted "furry" sibling cats and sibling mice play in the snow.
I use this pretty consistently every winter, because it's short and sweet and has lots of movement and flow in the narration. The illustrations are grey and brown and white and could be dreary, but always manage to have enough energy and dynamic focus to keep from being bland. A cat and mouse head out to play one morning in their meadow, but find a snow-covered landscape. They search for the green meadow, but fall down a snow-mound and are covered in snow, whereupon their siblings (mice and cats) emerge and are frightened by the two "monsters" until they also fall down the snow-mound, are equally covered in snow, and proceed to play together all evening. Sweet, no drama, no bad behavior from anyone.
Big Snow
Jonathan Bean (Building Our House)
ISBN: 9780374306960
A boy pesters his mom about an incoming snowstorm through the day. Sketchy, color-blocky.
I love the opening and closing spreads of the neighborhood, comparing them before the snow (please note the sad sled being pulled in dead grass) and after the snow makes everything soft and indistinct.
I also love the mom, who is unfailingly kind to her distracted child even when his "help" with the chores simply makes her own work harder.
I also love that the story managed to get some freaky snowstorm-inside-the-house imaginary scenes in there as a dream sequence - very Jumanji-like, but having it framed as a dream means the story itself remains very true to life.
Good pacing, good character movement and posture, and a fun story as much about anticipation as it is about snowy days.
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