Legible Review: The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, by L. Frank Baum
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, by L. Frank Baum, is a charming short story for kids and adults about the origin of Santa Claus. At the beginning, a wood nymph named Necile found and adopted a human infant and decided to raise him as her own in the forest of Burzee, where no human has ever lived before. She named this child Claus. When Claus was old enough, the master woodsman of the forest decided to take him around the world and show him humankind. Claus saw the pain and suffering of the humans and vowed to help them all, especially the little children. After this life-changing journey, Claus left the forest of Burzee to go live on his own, and he eventually settled in a beautiful valley called the Laughing Valley of Hohaho.
Although Claus now lived on his own, the immortal creatures from his childhood were always willing to help him. The watchful Knooks built Claus a nice wooden house, the Fairies filled the house with all the tools and supplies Claus could ever need, and the lighthearted Ryles brought food to Claus so he would never be hungry. Claus spent his days playing and laughing with the children in the nearby village, and he was happy.
When winter came and Claus was no longer able to venture to the village to play with the children, he grew bored and lonely. So he decided to start carving toys. When spring came, Claus began to give the toys to the children in the village. Over time, he made more and more toys and gave them to more and more children. As the number of children grew, Claus received help from the immortal creatures. The Ryles brought paint and the Knooks brought woodworking tools so Claus could continue to make beautiful toys for the children. He asked for two deer to help pull a sleigh so he could travel quickly, and the deer agreed to pull his sleigh once a year, on Christmas Eve. Claus faced some evil creatures that tried to stop him from spreading joy to the children, but with the help of his friends he overcame the evil every time. The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus explains how Santa Claus became the loving and carefree legend that he is known as today.
Throughout the story, the reader learns all of the reasons behind the many aspects of Santa Claus we’re familiar with today, including the tradition of hanging stockings by the fireplace. The story even explains how Santa dealt with the invention of the stove and the subsequent disappearance of the standard chimney he used to climb down to deliver toys.
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus portrays Santa as a kindhearted, jolly man who loves making the children of the world happy. Even adults who no longer believe in the magic of Santa Claus will smile as they read this wholesome book about the true joys of Christmas as a child. The book paints a vivid picture of the pure joy felt by a child when they wake up Christmas morning and see the toys left for them by the mysterious and loving Santa Claus. It was made into a TV movie in 1985, and you can watch a clip of it here.
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus is available on Legible for beta testers.
Lucy Johnson is a junior at Carroll University, majoring in animal behavior and biology. She works part-time as a curation assistant for Legible and spends her free time reading any book she can get her hands on and binge watching a little too much Netflix.
