Promotion for Penguin Books

Forget the woolly jumpers, yule logs and snow, this kid is going to show Santa Claus how we do Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere – with sunglasses, beach cricket, surfing and barbecues!

Does Santa realise it’s actually very hot here at Christmas time? What if he overheats in his red suit while delivering presents?

“Santa! It’s urgent! I’m not sure if you know –
down here Christmas is in summer!
It’s blue, blue skies and if you get fried
in that suit it’ll be a bummer.”

While everybody is getting ready for Christmas, one kid is worried. Does Santa know it’s summer in the southern hemisphere? What if he overheats? She decides to send him a message. If the big guy gets her invitation, she’ll show him how much fun a blue, blue Christmas can be!

Blue, Blue Christmas is a charming and funny story about how we celebrate Christmas in Aotearoa with words and music to sing along with by acclaimed musician Anna Coddington and illustrations by award-winning Story Hemi-Morehouse.

Te reo Māori edition HE KIRIHIMETE KAHURANGI also available!

Hannah’s book review

Our family was lucky to be selected to review the book Blue, Blue Christmas by Anna Coddington and illustrated by Story Hemi-Morehouse.

A wonderful children’s Christmas book describing some of the joys about a Christmas summer in Aotearoa and a little girl’s thoughts towards how Santa might react to our summer heat compared to the North Pole temperatures.

Our children aged 9, 8 and 4 were captivated by the story and with Christmas and summer approaching made it even more exciting. The illustrations are beautiful and fun and we loved seeing some of our favourite things about Aotearoa throughout the book such as summer beach days, bbqs, pōhutukawa flowers, pavlovas and more. It is written in a fun way that was easy for our 9 and 8-year-old to read with some funny moments and descriptions that had our kids giggling for more. I think many Kiwi families would love to add this book to their collection as it’s beautifully written and illustrated and personally made us feel very lucky for the Kiwi Christmases and summers we get to experience.

As well as opening up conversations about how other parts of the world experience Christmas in different seasons of the year and what that would be like, our 9-year-old son who is autistic really loved thinking about and comparing what a winter Christmas would be like compared to summer but especially loved this book Blue, Blue Christmas and how he could relate to this Aotearoa story.

Puffin Book of the Month activities

Get into the holiday spirit with this Blue, Blue Christmas colouring-in activity! Click on the image to download the PDF colouring page.

Let little imaginations grow with other Puffin Book Club activities! We have a huge range of fun, printable activities from all your favourite new Puffin books for children.

Go hunting for bugs, colour in some rascally Hairy Maclary friends, learn to count in te reo with Pūkeko, join the Lighthouse Princess on a spot-the-difference adventure, or choose any of the other great activities.

Free and printable – which ones will you choose?

Don’t forget to visit Puffin Books for more great kids’ titles.

See more books:

• Good Sports by Stuart Lipshaw | Book review
• Lucy and the Dark by Melinda Szymanik | Book review
• There Was An Odd Farmer Who Swallowed A Fly by Peter Millett
• Matariki by Gavin Bishop | New Book
• A Bonanza of Bluey Books
• Abigail and the Making of the Moon | Book Review
• Get Outdoors: Brilliant Boredom Busters For Kiwi Kids | Book Review
• Roar Squeak Purr; A New Zealand Treasury of Animal Poems | Book Review
• Discover, or revisit, our Puffin Books of the Month from previous years!