This festive season, as you hang your stockings “by the chimney with care”, you might wander want to reconsider hoping that “St Nicholas soon would be there”.
For it seems that even Santa, that seemingly immortal figure removed from the concerns and troubles of our world, except for the one magical night of the year when he races around the world at breakneck speed delivering presents, has gotten caught in the zeitgeist-gobbling zombie phenomena.
Yes the man who makes and delivers the toys and gave Rudolph his big break, has succumbed at last to the zombie’s fatal bite, not once but on four separate occasions in Matt Mogk’s whimsically dark I Saw Mommy Biting Santa Claus (illustrated by Chad Lewis).
An inspired mash up of the George Romero-esque undead – Mogk has dedicated the hardcover children’s book to the creator of 1968’s Night of the Living Dead, thanking him for “starting it all” – and corny Christmas songs like “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”, the book, which is subtitled “A Zombie Christmas Parody” is an inspired creation.
Through creative rhyming couplets, it tells the story of a boy who sees his mom take down Santa and his dad in his home before fleeing with his dog and three close friends to his aunt’s place far away from the plague that ravages his home town.
While everyone from mall security guards to his father to a Christmas marching band end up hilariously zombified, it is Santa who bears the brunt of zombie mommy’s attention.
She seems to have a fascination for the jolly man in red who is so surprised to see someone attacking him instead of kissing him (or sucking up to him big time if you’re a kid) that he remains rooted to the spot while undead mommy bites and turns him.
Both the writing and the illustrations are a wonderful meld of scary and funny, the perfect addition to your festive library.
It had me roaring with delight all the way through and I am seriously considering reading it to my nieces and nephews for a little bit of extra Christmas fun.
Or I may just keep it for myself, giving thanks to the builders of modern day houses in Australia, that there is not a chimney to be seen anywhere.
