How to Decorate a Christmas Tree

In this new seasonal book, a cheerful family of five is engaged in what is obviously a holiday tradition: putting up and decorating their Christmas tree. A dark-haired little girl narrates the story and takes readers step-by-step through the process.

Clean up your toys so the tree has a nice place to stand.

Check the branches for birds’ nests. They’re good luck.

Now take a deep breath. Mmmmm! Doesn’t that smell good?

Give your tree something to drink. Ours likes ginger ale. (Me too!)

Then comes the delightful activity of taking the ornaments out of their boxes. For this household, many of these treasured objects hold memories of people or events. There is the ball with Della Rose’s name on it that was acquired when she was a baby and a pine cone from a camping trip.

And here is a maneki-neko [a cat ornament]. Auntie Celeste

sent him all the way from Japan, where she lives. She got him

on an island where there are more cats than people.

A double spread shows the simple tree decorations that Della Rose has made at school. The red paper star called a parol belonged to her Filipina grandmother, and, even though Grandma is gone now, there are happy memories evoked by seeing this one again.

Near the end, readers find out that Della Rose has been telling this story to her new baby brother who, to carry on the family tradition, is presented with an ornament for his first Christmas. Big sister carefully finds a branch to hang it on.

The gentle cadence of the author’s words brings the book to a close with the family sitting together admiring their Christmas tree.

Now that we’re finished, we climb onto the couch to

look at the tree and drink hot chocolate with extra

marshmallows. Inside, I feel all warm and glow-y.

Don’t you?

VanSickle adds this holiday story to her list of other successful books for children of various ages, including the young adult novel The Winnowing and the picture book Teddy Bear of the Year.

Illustrator Sato Is a Japanese-Canadian who studied at the Ontario College of Art and Design. She works in collage, and her simple, crisply-cut shapes are layered on the pages to create a three-dimensional effect. Light and dark contrast to bring readers from the twilight of the front yard at the beginning into a warm interior, to the shadowy last pages where the only illumination comes from the lights on the tree.

A friendly-looking marmalade cat named Taffy observes and sometimes intrudes on the action.

As Christmas approaches, schools and libraries may be looking for new titles to purchase. How to Decorate a ChristmasTree would be a worthy addition.