vovat | There's No Place Like Oz for the Holidays

I've said quite a bit about L. Frank Baum's The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus in the past few weeks, but he and his successor (at least as far as Oz was concerned) Ruth Plumly Thompson also wrote a few other things with Christmas themes. One of Baum's short stories was "A Kidnapped Santa Claus," which involved Santa being captured by Daemons, and his helpers (Wisk, Nuter, Peter, and Kilter) having to fill in for him on the gift delivery. Thompson wrote a short book called The Curious Cruise of Captain Santa, which isn't explicitly connected to Oz, but does have a similar writing style and illustrations by John R. Neill. It's about Santa and his friends (an orphan chimney-sweep, a polar bear, and a penguin) sailing a ship to uncharted waters to obtain new Christmas presents. If you're interested, you can find some interesting discussion of the book here. There were also a few short Thompson poems about Christmas in Oz itself, the most notable of which is "Where Santa Spends Christmas." According to Thompson, after he's done making his annual deliveries, he stops to relax and celebrate in Ozma's palace in the Emerald City. And really, can you think of a better place to spend a holiday?