With so many hol­i­days being cel­e­brat­ed in Decem­ber, some kids may become con­fused when the month rolls around. Young pro­tag­o­nist Oliv­er Over­street care­ful­ly explains the dif­fer­ences between the win­ter hol­i­days and empha­sizes that Hanukkah is a very spe­cial time of year. To accom­plish this, he writes an email to San­ta detail­ing the dif­fer­ences in the tra­di­tions and mak­ing sure that San­ta (and, by exten­sion, the read­er) is quite sure about who cel­e­brates what. San­ta assures Oliv­er that he ful­ly under­stands and that even a few of the elves in his work­shop are either Jew­ish or Mus­lim. But Oliv­er is still con­cerned. He reminds San­ta that Hanukkah and Passover are dif­fer­ent from one anoth­er, and he takes great pains to explain the var­i­ous cus­toms and tra­di­tions. San­ta responds to these let­ters with warmth and understanding.

Note­wor­thy fea­tures of Hanukkah are men­tioned, includ­ing latkes, donuts, Mac­cabees, drei­dels, and the glow­ing meno­rah. Adorable art accom­pa­nies the text, show­ing a mul­tira­cial fam­i­ly enjoy­ing Hanukkah and oth­er Jew­ish hol­i­days through­out the year. An appen­dix explains the his­to­ry, laws, and cus­toms of the hol­i­day in greater detail.

In this col­or­ful tale, San­ta — and Jew­ish and non-Jew­ish read­ers alike — learn to dis­tin­guish between reli­gious traditions.