I have this deep love for Christmas. It's not even the whole presents thing (although that is a plus), but I just love the decorations, the food, the Christmas tree, the music, the cheesy movies, the cozy New England winters (unless of course I have to actually step out of the house), just the whole ambience. However, I have yet to find an actual Christmas book that I actually love. Horace Helfin's Holiday Home was no exception, even though I did like it.

It took me about 60 pages to get into this book (a long while...). I liked it while I was reading it, but once I put it down, I didn't really want to pick it back up. I thought that maybe listening to my iPod while reading would make the book go by faster. It did. Then a Christmas song came up (I have about 50 Christmas songs that get heavy rotation all year round and about 150 others that go back into my iPod around late October). I then decided that if I listen to my all-year-round Christmas playlist, maybe I'd get into the book. Lo and behold, it worked! The little Christmas ambience I created for myself allowed me to enjoy the book way more than I previously was.

For the most part, I found Sally and Horace Helfin absolutely adorable. MILD SPOILER: The one part where they (along with the other neighborhood kids) give their toys away to the less fortunate kids really warmed my heart and made my eyes tear up a little (I'm a sap). Sure, I did roll my eyes a bit at how extreme the lesser than nice adults were portrayed (seriously, there was a crook and a crank on every corner), but I just kept reminding myself "It's a children's book. The adults have to be evil" (just ask Roald Dahl). However, the things that Horace and Sally did weren't all that nice either. I remember thinking more than once "Dude, these kids are kind of brats..." Of course, that was me looking at this book through my adult eyes and thoughts (seriously, when the heck did THAT happen?). I'm sure if I was a ten-year-old kid, I'd be tickled pink at what Horace and Sally were doing, but since I'm 21, not all of their antics were amusing.

Anyway, for the most part I did enjoy Horace Helfin's Holiday Home. It was a cute, cheesy, Christmas book for children (Heh. Say that five times fast. And we're back to the non-adult thoughts. Phew, that was close!) While I didn't love it, I am sort of looking forward to Horace Helfin's Horrifying Halloween (also try saying that five times fast). That book also seems cute. ( )