How Murray Saved Christmas

If you don't know about this gem of a book, go out and buy it today. How Murray Saved Christmas ranks right up there with The Night Before Christmas if you ask me (meaning both kids AND kid-like adults will enjoy it).

The one difference about this book is that it is uproariously funny, so prepare yourself. (Certainly don't entertain any ideas of reading it by a fire whilst sipping mulled cider, tea, or hot cocoa because you will just snort said beverage out your nose!)

How Murray Saves Christmas is the story of a diner owner (good ol' Murray) who reluctantly fills in for Santa one Christmas because, wouldn't you know it, Santa got knocked unconscious by a defective toy that well-meaning but ill-equipped Edison elf made.

The story follows Murray and Edison through all of their shenanigans that night. My absolute favorite part is when Murray is called to the carpet by a rather quick 6-year-old boy, who asks him to "prove" that he's Santa by naming his reindeer. Murray, who admittedly doesn't know this stuff, just decides to wing it and comes up with the following:

"There's Dumbo and Jumbo and Mason and Dixon, Cosmo and Kramer and Richard M. Nixon." Surprisingly, even though that doesn't fly with the boy, Murray still convinces the boy that he's just filling in for Santa who is home sick, and all ends well at that house and the others they visit that year. And at the end of their journey, he and Edison fly off to the North Pole:

"On Lipstick! On Dipstick! On, Pixie and Dixie! On, Kramden and Norton and Alice and Trixie!" So, Murray saves Christmas without ever learning the names of those reindeer, but since knowing that information is Santa's job, I guess that's OK.

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