“DON’T KILL SANTA!”

In nine warm and winning holiday tales, veteran storyteller Davis either looks back at his own youthful experiences or recalls family tales from a previous generation. Writing in the same measured, tongue-in-cheek tones in which he tells his stories live, he opens with his father’s description of the simple pleasure of making a Christmas orange last as long as possible. He closes with an account of the time he and a friend inadvertently trapped their fathers in a pit intended for their little brothers. And in between, he describes encounters with sleds, department-store Santas and a pilfered cigar; what holidays were like at Grandma and Grandpa’s non-electrified house; measures taken to make sure Santa didn’t fall into the new oil heater just installed in the fireplace; a disastrous (and hilarious) mishap at a church Christmas pageant, and similar memories. Most of these rural and small-town episodes are available as recordings—on Davis’s Christmas at Grandma’s (1994) and elsewhere—but they translate just fine into print, and for sharing, make the next best thing to a live concert. (Short stories. 10-12)