The Aussie ABC Christmas by Nancy Bevington

New Frontier Publishing, 2018. ISBN 9781925594256
(Age: 4+) Themes: Christmas, ABC, Alphabet book, Humour, Australia. Replicating what many teachers ask their classes to do at Christmas, this ABC book offers a few different words to align with the alphabet. Many letters are combined with easily identifiable Christmas words: 'carols', 'milk for Santa', ' reindeer' and so on, while others such as 'angel', 'gifts', ' holiday', 'beach', 'joy' etc, are words associated with other times of the year, rather than specifically Christmas words. So readers will have an interesting slant on what words actually are Christmassy, and I think astute teachers will take advantage of the words offered to winkle out just what Christmas means to the people in their class. The book lends itself to offerings from all the students in the class, being inclusive and wide ranging about what Christmas means when you live in Australia. For children born elsewhere the opportunity is given here for them to share what Christmas means to them and what words best represent their Christmas, for those born in a different household, the opportunity is there to share again what Christmas means to their family.
What I have learnt over the years is that Christmas is different for every family, each having their own traditions and ideas, customs and food, whether you were born here or not, born into a religious family or into one where Christmas has no religious affiliations at all, whether you are in a family of two or a whole heap, each is different. And while this nostalgic book attempts to show the common things about an Australian Christmas, it is what is left out that might be more important for many children.
Fran Knight