Pennsylvania Dutch Night Before Christmas

Since I come from a background that's heavy in Pennsylvania Dutch history, and can speak with quite a dutchified accent, this made a fun gift to my friends who always laugh when I start talking dutchified to them. Much to my delight, they were absolutely thrilled with this gift and started reading it immediately!

Clement C. Moore's "A Visit From St. Nicholas" (or, as it's more commonly known, "'Twas the Night Before Christmas") is forever etched in the minds of everyone who loves Christmas. Over the years, this famous poem has been adapted to various cultures around the world, to better suit the customs, languages and holiday nuances of the people who live there. Chet Williamson tackles the Pennsylvania Dutch (primarily Amish and Mennonite) community with a broad wink and grin in "A Pennsylvania Dutch Night Before Christmas." Adhering closely to the style, rhythm and basic storyline of Moore's original piece, Williamson sets his version around the Belsnickle, an often-stern parallel to Santa Claus who distributes candies and handmade toys to the good children and switches for whippings to the bad. This version, lovingly and warmly illustrated by James Rice, inserts plenty of humor into the story; just imagine, if you will, a wagon pulled by a team of cows resting comfortably on your typical residential roof! And it turns out the children in this story don't earn switches, anyway. For Christmas with a twist, keep a copy of "A Pennsylvania Dutch Night Before Christmas" under your tree. It's a hoot, even if you're not from Lancaster County, PA! by Tom Knapp, Rambles.NET editor

Maybe it's because so many of the people I live near in Eastern PA talk like this, but this book cracks me up. This will be the sixth Christmas Eve in a row that I'll pull it out and read it to my kids. Maybe we'll have shoo-fly-pie too. It's a tradition I'll continue forever.

If you ever had "clear toy" candy (still made in Lititz), and know what the words "schusslich" and "nixnootzes" mean, you'll enjoy this version of The Night Before Christmas done by someone who knows PA Deutsch (German) commonly called PA Dutch. Whether or not you grew up in a PA Dutch family, you might learn something. I did! And, there is an explanation of pronunciations (like "ch" for "j" so "just so" becomes "chust so") in the back of the book. There is also a pretty good recipe for Shoofly Pie (similar to mine), but unfortunately none of the great Christmas cookies, like Sand Tarts and Molasses Cakes. I now read this charming parody of Clement Moore's version on Christmas Eve.

The author of this book read it to kids on the Pennsylvania Kids Network, and they loved it - but then, kids would love it when a stranger would come in and read legal advertising from the newspaper. Can you really trust the judgement of a group that loves McDonald's and Pee Wee Herman?Nope, this is a book for adults to enjoy, year after year. Kids will never appreciate the naming of the holsteins, or the authenticity of the Plain Sect traditions associated with Christmas. They'll just laugh when the roof caves in.So don't give this book to your kids. Give it to your boss, or to your webmaster - someone who enjoys subtle humor in the style of Shel Silverstein. An adult will appreciate it a lot more.