Loving the Love & Creativity!

I get some of the most interesting emails from fans and creatives who want to help bring Santa Skips Christmas to new readers. This is one of the sweetest I've received:

Dear Michelle,

I want to open this letter by saying something I mean with complete and genuine admiration: the love and creative ambition you have poured into Santa Skips Christmas!?! As a debut children's book is extraordinary, and it deserves to be celebrated before anything else is said. You did not simply write a Christmas story. You built a world with an original premise, commissioned beautiful illustrations from a fifteen year professional artist, produced an original song to bring the story to life in music, wrapped copies by hand and tucked them around your community in Arlington, and spent your first season as a published author showing up for every reader, every event, and every opportunity to share this book with the families it was made for. That is not a book launch. That is a labor of love, and it shows in everything you have built around this story.

The heart of Santa Skips Christmas!?! is exactly what the best children's books are made of. The idea of Santa taking a break after two thousand years, leaving the elves in delightful and chaotic charge, and returning to the origin of the whole beautiful tradition is a premise that feels both fresh and deeply familiar at the same time. Reviewers have said the book captures the essence of Christmas in a new and delightful way, encourages readers to reflect on their roles during the holidays, and delivers its message wrapped in fun, laughter, and a bit of chaotic charm. Those are not just nice reviews. Those are parents and readers describing the feeling of a book that will be pulled off the shelf again next December, and the December after that. The families already calling it a must-have addition to their Christmas tradition are telling you exactly what kind of book you wrote — and they are right.

The original song is also something genuinely remarkable. A debut picture book with a fully produced original song made especially for the story is an asset that most children's book authors never have, and the response to watching the story come to life through music speaks to how much the whole creative package resonates with readers. That song is a gift, and it deserves to reach every family that would love this book.

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You gave Santa and Mrs. Claus and a very overwhelmed team of elves everything they needed to make children laugh and families feel the magic. Those families deserve to find this story.

Warmly,

Linda B.