I received an arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Huge thanks to NetGalley and North South Books
This was so much fun to read and I learned so many things about my favourite holiday that I didn't know with gorgeous illustrations. My only complain is the layout of the text. It was crowded and difficult to read. Hope it is better in the physical copy.

I received a free e-ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Every year, throughout my childhood, my mother always bought my sister and me a Christmas-themed book to open on Christmas Day. This is why I was drawn to this book. It's the sort of book I would have loved as a child.

I thought the writing was suitable for a young audience, and I learned a lot about different Christmas traditions from around the world. For some, they celebrate St. Nicholas' feast day in early December, while others don't celebrate until January 6. Not everyone is given gifts by Santa Claus. In some countries it is an old woman, or elves who bring children gifts.

I thought there was a wide range of examples, although most were pulled from European and North American traditions, and it would have been nice to see more from other parts of the world.

On the whole, a lovely little book. It would be a perfect gift for middle to upper-elementary years to celebrate Christmas.

It's never too early for Christmas. In Christmas is Coming we learn about Christmas around the world. It is interesting how Santa and Christmas is different in other countries. This would be a great new tradition to add to your family Christmases. Each night you could learn about a new tradition, whether it is more about advent or St Nicholas Day, it can be a fun way to expand your holiday traditions. On tree trimming night you can learn about why we have a tree for Christmas. You can also learn about the different plants associated with Christmas such as mistletoe and poinsettias.

What an excellent book for an older elementary school student ora younger middle school student to learn about Christmas traditions around the world. Why does Santa look the way he does in American culture? Why do Orthodox Christians celebrate on January 6? St Lucia? St Nicholas? Christmas trees and ornaments? Interesting, informative, and engaging with charming illustrations. I highly recommend this book!

The stories and traditions are informative yet short enough to grasp the attention of my 4 year old.. I also found the information interesting and wanting to know more! There are colorful and bright drawings that draw attention to the page. This is a good story to read during the holidays and all year ( my child loves reading Christmas books all year). We learn about traditions from all around the world. Some of the things mentioned are christmas carols, christmas pudding, Lutefisk, Jansson's Temptation, Julskinka, and Bûche de Noël,

Cute book that shows how different parts of the world and different cultures celebrate Christmas.

I received an advanced copy for an honest review.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and NorthSouth books Inc. for my copy of Christmas is Coming by Monika Utnik-Strugala in exchange for an honest review. It publishes September 14, 2021.
This book is so beautifully illustrated, I would happily frame any of these illustrations as a sweet Christmas decoration. Filled with so much information, and snippets about Christmas around the world, this book will give your global friend a passport to see how other kids celebrate!
This would make a great addition to your home or school library!

This was fun and interesting. I don;t celebrate this holiday, but do enjoy reading how it's celebrated in various cultures. As I've discovered over the years all the similar books really don't cover the same territory each time one is written. Nothing is really lost by reading all of them, as they often cover things the others missed! So I consider it a must read if you, or your child, are reading about how this holiday is celebrated elsewhere,. Why not find a tradition or two and add to your own? Could be fun Or, maybe pick up on that's somehow related to your own heritage? Good book and well researched.

Christmas Is Coming is a beautiful book about Christmas traditions all over the world. Colorful illustrations are featured on every page. Kids and adults will love learning about what has inspired so many of our favorite customs and how Christmas is celebrated in other countries.

Thank you NorthSouth Books and NetGalley for providing this ARC.

I Reviewed a copy made available by the publisher via Netgalley - Thank you very much for that!

I would like to start by saying that the illustrations are very beautiful. It’s a lot of text so younger audience might lose interest or would have a hard time understanding it but nonethelessthe book gives a nice insight into the Christmas traditions of different cultures - but unfortunately not “Around the world” as it says in the title.

The focus is more on European countries, countries like Ethiopia or Mexico only have short sections and what is particularly unfortunate is that traditions from the Middle East were not introduced at all, although Christianity originated there and the Middle East is the home of Jesus - Yes, there are in fact Christians in the Middle East.

What is also noticeable is that on the pages in which traditions from countries like Germany, Sweden, USA or The Netherlands are presented, only white people can be seen, although these are all immigration countries, in which hundreds of cultures live that also celebrate Christmas, visit Christmas markets or watch parades, but on all pages about these countries you only see white people doing all that.

And regarding The Netherlands:
On page 12 the only non-white ones you see are the Zwarten Piets.
Anyone who has followed various racism debates in recent years will have heard about this very harmful Dutch tradition where hundreds of white people use blackfacing trying to represent Zwarte Piet, who is Santa‘s helper.
There are so many people out there, especially in The Netherlands, trying to spread awareness on why this is harmful to the Black community and their stands are valid.

Another point of criticism is that in the section „At the Christmas Fair“ on page 17 the word "G * psy" is used.
This word is harmful and a racial slur against the Roma people.
A children's book from 2019 should know better and use another word instead, there are many resources that explain why the word is racist.

There is also a short section on Japan that depicts a Japanese family.
Unfortunately, this family has no eyes on its face, but lines.
By depicting this Japanese family with "slanted" eyes, the large variance of eye shapes within the Japanese population is being ignored.

I‘d really like that book if it weren‘t for these critique points, because as I said - The illustrations are beautiful and this book gives a childfriendly insight into different traditions, but there are things that need to be changed and I really hope the publisher takes these changes into consideration.

I find it unfortunate, that former reviewers on goodreads didn‘t mention these points at all, which only shows me the very big importance of keeping reviewers diverse to get helpful opinions from different backgrounds.

Right now it‘s 3 stars for me, but I‘d change that if you find an adequate solution for the problematic points I mentioned.

I am a sucker for anything Christmas, so I jumped on requesting this book! Thank you so much to the publisher for the review copy!

I think this is a really great book for slightly older kids who love to soak up information about traditions around the world- it is definitely a book I would have adored as a kid. My family had a little poinsettia chest of Christmas books that we brought out every year, and I remember specific illustrations very clearly years and years later from looking through them so many times. I can absolutely see this being one of those kinds of books- the illustrations are perfect for it (my personal favorite was the racing witches.)

This is definitely a book I will keep an eye out for when it is published to add to my own kids' box of Christmas books. He's not quite the right age yet- but we will start with describing the lovely art!

I received an advance copy of, Christmas is Coming, by Monika Utnik-Strugala. This is a really great book about the holidays. It includes Christmas, New Years, and the 3 kings day. Families will love to learn about how other cultures celebrate the holidays. I really liked the illustrations too.

A fun Christmas encyclopaedia filled with beautiful illustrations! It starts with the advent calendar and makes its way through any Christmas traditions around the globe. From giant goats to upside down christmas trees to KFC for Christmas dinner, this book is very entertaining. It explains ancient (and newish) origins of festivals, superstitions, plants and many other traditions.

The only reason I’m not giving it 5 stars is because it’s main aim is children yet I fond the content very encyclopedic. The font was also very crowded and small (I had to zoom in a lot on my screen but I’m not sure how small it’d be on a physical copy).

Thank you, NetGalley and North South Books Inc., for the Advanced Review Copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I have a hard time resisting any book that says “Christmas” in its title. What with this book’s bright red cover pic, it was doubly difficult to resist it. But it didn’t exactly work out the way I had thought.
The book contains a treasure trove of Christmas-related information, be it with respect to special days around Christmas, traditions set in the festive season, customs associated with Christmas, and so on. It is very informative. Even many adults wouldn’t know many of the details covered in the book.

However, the book is almost encyclopaedic in its approach. I had assumed this to be a simple picture book with some information on how Christmas is celebrated across various countries. (My mistake entirely. The blurb didn’t promise a picture book. I think I jumped the gun because of the lovely illustrations on the cover.) Unfortunately, it is quite text-intensive and as such, it might lose out on the younger readers. Rather than presenting the information in smaller paragraphs and a bigger font, the text looks crammed with paragraphs and paragraphs of content. I would have loved to see a more informal approach as children tend to enjoy those better. Especially if this is marketed as children’s nonfiction, then the content has to be more appealing to them. With such lengthy writing, I feel kids will mainly look at the illustrations and not read the information alongside. The purpose of the book is lost then.

What helps the book to a certain extent is the marvellous illustrations. They are absolutely charming and support the content perfectly. But illustrations alone don’t make for a good book; sad, but true.

For those children aged 9+ who love reading trivia, this book will be a wonderful gift.

Thank you, NetGalley and North South Books Inc., for the Advanced Review Copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This has made me really excited for Christmas and it is only April!!! But seriously, children would love this

Come here for what counts as quite the encyclopaedia of Christmas – there's much more oomph to it than I expected. This takes us through the season, from the start of advent (with some hymns and other things I'd never even heard of), right up to the start of the new year and beyond, explaining what our world's traditions are, and the religious background of them. So Odin has something to say about the Dutch Santa Claus' white horse, there's a bit about Celtic reverence for mistletoe, and so on. We jump across the calendar and the globe to see how Filipinos and Colombians both light up their winter nights to herald the wish for brighter days. And here are Polish Christmas trees, hung upside down from the ceiling, Catalonian children eating sweets they pretend have been shat out of a log they've mothered throughout Advent, Venezuelans taking up their rollerskates to get to midnight mass, and the Mexicans – well, they just bash piñatas and carve radishes. Could be worse – Japanese descend on KFC en masse on the 24th.

It doesn't completely disguise its Polish origins to make it a thoroughly universal piece, but it's a great work. As I say it had a lot more to it than I thought, the artworks are classy and in keeping throughout, and you'd have to have a long, flowing white beard and a blue suit (yes, blue, Santa's original, pre-Coke days colour) to not learn anything from these pages. Four and a half stars.

This is a beautiful book that covers a wide array of Christmas and winter traditions from around the world. I learned so much even as an adult and I think that children and their families will get lots of reading time out of this book.

A very insightful and informative read about the origin of Christmas and the various traditions surrounding it.

The illustrations are the main highlights and they support the text well and good.

However, I had a difficult time trying to read the small texts.

I wish the lines weren't too crowded as it's a book for children. Hope it's better with the physical copy.

Thanks Authors and the publisher for the advance reading copy.