The Return of the Christmas Witch
By Regan McMahon,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Santa's sister asks him to save Christmas in lighter sequel.
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What's the Story?
THE RETURN OF THE CHRISTMAS WITCH picks up right where Kristtörn was left in Book 1: locked under the ice where she was banished. But the voice of her witchy mother somehow melts the ice and she emerges, not realizing at first that she's in our modern world, centuries later. She resumes her quest to gain revenge on her brother, but learns that he's no longer involved with Christmas. The business of making and delivering toys for the holiday was taken over some years before by one of his North Pole elves, who turned the operation into the Kringle Corporation, where the dad of young Poppy, a main character in the story, works. Now the world has lost trust in Santa and abandoned Christmas traditions like Christmas trees, decorations, and writing letters to Santa. "No need for Santa himself now that we have Kringle," says a Kringle worker. Can the Christmas Witch find Santa and save Christmas?
Is It Any Good?
This lengthy story is stuffed with many threads and themes that may be challenging for kids to follow. First there's The Return of the Christmas Witch, who wakes up from where she was frozen in the ice but has lost her magic powers, which she'll gain back after her mother witch sends her messages in her dreams. She's still out for revenge on her brother, Santa, for abandoning her as a child, but she also wants him to save Christmas, which has become too commercial, thanks to the Kringle Corporation, started by North Pole elves after Santa gave up on Christmas. Meanwhile, Poppy, a tween whose dad works for Kringle delivering Christmas gifts, is spying on the Christmas Witch who's hiding out nearby in a forest along Delaware Bay, where she and her Native American family live. (We only know she's Native American by one reference to her Lanape grandfather and the designs on some textiles in her home.) The Christmas Witch breaks out Santa's magical reindeer Donner when she finds him caged in a traveling Christmas festival. And rides him up to a sky showdown with Santa and ends up rescuing him after the black smoke and wind she conjured up causes him to fall out of his sleigh.
It's really a lot to keep track of. But the story resolves in a happy, positive way, and overall it's less dark than Book 1, with appealing art and positive messages about forgiveness and resisting the commercialism of Christmas.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how Christmas has changed in The Return of the Christmas Witch. Do you think Christmas could ever be taken over by a big corporation?
Why to you think there are so many stories of someone having to "save" Christmas? Why is this such a popular theme?
What are your favorite Christmas stories? How is this one different or similar?
Book Details
- Authors: Aubrey Plaza , Dan Murphy
- Illustrator: Julia Iredale
- Genre: Holiday
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy , Brothers and Sisters , Holidays
- Character Strengths: Curiosity
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
- Publication date: October 11, 2022
- Number of pages: 56
- Available on: Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
- Last updated: November 7, 2022
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