Char­lotte is sud­den­ly told that her fam­i­ly is to move to France. Not only must she learn a new lan­guage, make new friends, and get used to a new school, but no one pre­pared her for the entire town’s all-out cel­e­bra­tion of the Christ­mas sea­son. The streets are dec­o­rat­ed, the shops full of presents and in school, all the chil­dren are told to bring gifts to exchange. Char­lotte is bewitched by Christ­mas and longs to have a Christ­mas too, but her fam­i­ly is Jew­ish. Help­ing to dec­o­rate the class­room, singing car­ols, and eat­ing hol­i­day treats does not suf­fice. After the only nasty girl in the class, who was not nice to her, doesn’t have a present to con­tribute to the class gift exchange because her fam­i­ly is too poor, Char­lotte fig­ures out a ​“solu­tion” for her own yearn­ing to have a Christ­mas cel­e­bra­tion. Char­lotte becomes San­ta Claus. She con­vinces the Chris­t­ian father that he is doing her a favor by allow­ing her to pro­vide an almost total Christ­mas event — tree, dec­o­ra­tions, hol­i­day meal and presents for this Chris­t­ian fam­i­ly — with her par­ents’ coop­er­a­tion. She is reward­ed by being invit­ed to share the par­ty with their fam­i­ly. This is a beau­ti­ful book, well writ­ten and mar­velous­ly illus­trat­ed, but it teach­es the wrong les­son. Charlotte’s family’s Chanukah obser­vance is min­i­mal, as my own family’s had been when I was a child; but not so my children’s which was filled with mean­ing, sto­ry, dec­o­ra­tions, games, fam­i­ly and invit­ed friends of all reli­gions and shades. Nor do I like the image of a Jew­ish fam­i­ly play­ing such an osten­ta­tious ​“Lady Boun­ti­ful” role to a Chris­t­ian fam­i­ly. Enjoy this Chris­t­ian hol­i­day as a vis­i­tor, but do not try to make it your own, espe­cial­ly to serve one’s own needs. Charlotte’s gift is too elab­o­rate, too much of a con­trast between what the Jew­ish fam­i­ly can eas­i­ly pro­vide that this Chris­t­ian fam­i­ly can­not. Well intend­ed, but ill con­ceived. Grades K – 2.