Santa’s Wonderful Workshop
Elys Dolan
Oxford University Press

If you’ve ever wondered what happens between the time Santa drops off the last Christmas present and the time he starts his deliveries the following Christmas Eve, then here is the answer. In her inimitable zany style, Elys Dolan gives a month by month account of the activities that take place in Santa’s workshop and a final exposure of one never to be forgotten Christmas Eve.

This is a total hoot from start to finish and every page in between too: Elys has totally let her imagination run riot with this one.

Take January for instance when we learn that already, the nice/naughty list has gone missing – hiding in plain sight as a loo roll; then by May the elves have become a tad too creative on the toy production line.

June brings a malfunctioning of the ‘Present-o-matic machine – it starts churning out toasters and come August everyone is down with a dose of flu.

Surprisingly everyone makes it through to Christmas Eve (although not without a spell of trouble with the police) but just as Santa is about to leave on his delivery round the missing bear suddenly reappears causing a catastrophe.

Can Christmas be saved? Let’s hope so or the Easter Bunny will be the one having the last laugh. Or should that be a certain polar bear?

Completely and utterly bonkers, there’s just SO much going on that I’d advise not starting to read this unless you’ve got plenty of time to enjoy the shenanigans on every spread.