The 12 Days of Christmas and Other Holiday Picture Books for Kids

Title: How Santa Got His Job
Written by: Stephen Krensky
Illustrated by: S.D. Schindler
Hardback: 32 pages
Ages: 4-8
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing (October 1, 1998)
ISBN-10: 0689806973
ISBN-13: 978-0689806971

Children will love this humorous picture book about Santa’s employment history and how he came to hold his current job position. Because as lots of adults do, Santa had to try his hand at many jobs before finding his niche as the sleigh-driving, reindeer-handling, gift-giving, chubby old fellow whom we all know and love today. This book tells us about some of those interesting occupations and the resulting skills Santa learned on those jobs that now help him in his current profession.

When Santa Claus was a young man, he decided very quickly that he wasn’t cut out to work at a desk or in an office. He liked to stay on the move. So he took a job cleaning chimneys. But he was so sure-footed and neat that never got dirty with soot. He was fired because management didn’t believe he was actually working—for what chimney cleaner can stay that clean if he is really doing his job?

Next, he went to work for the post office. And although he loved delivering packages to people, he hated the traffic. So he decided to make his deliveries in the middle of the night. Not a good idea! Needless to say the postmaster gave him the boot.

But since Santa liked staying up late anyway, why not work at an all-night diner? He liked filling the orders and giving his customers extra helpings. But he was also sampling those extra helpings himself, and he started getting rather chubby. Maybe he needed to find a job to get some exercise.

The book goes on to tell how Santa finds and loses a job at the zoo, but the gains the friendship of some reindeer. It also tells how he and the reindeer find and lose a job at the circus, but meet a group of shy toy-making elves who discover they need someone to deliver their toys to children all over the world! We also learn how Santa got his giant toy sack and about his failed attempt to teach polar bears how to pull a sleigh.

Santa’s path to his current profession (which he finds very satisfying) was often bumpy, but each and every job along the way provided him with skills that he still uses to this day! And he learned the most important lesson of all. Always be prepared—because NO job is perfect!

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Amy M. O’Quinn is a pastor’s wife and former schoolteacher-turned-homeschool mom of six. She is also a freelance writer who enjoys jotting down ideas around the fringes of family life. She specializes in non-fiction, and her work has been published or acquired by magazines including Jack and Jill, US Kids, Guideposts for Kids, Learning Through History Magazine, Highlights, GEORGIA Magazine, Homeschooling Today, International Gymnast, etc. She is also a product/curriculum/book reviewer for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine and a regular columnist for TEACH Magazine. The O’Quinns live on the family farm in rural south Georgia. You can find Amy’s blog, Ponderings From Picket Fence Cottage, at http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/picketfencemom.