When my son was young, we read The night before Christmas every year. We decided to revive the tradition this Christmas Eve, but we chose to read Pennsylvania Dutch night before Christmas instead of the original version. (OK - I admit that my 2 copies of the original were somewhere in the basement and I didn’t want to hunt!)

So we put on the Dutchy accent and read aloud. Instead of Santa and his sleigh pulled by reindeer, we have the Belsnickel in his plow pulled by 8 cows and steers. He lands on the roof, not realizing that the plow with the steers are too heavy! Havoc ensues. But in the end, all is put right; the children get their gifts and the roof will soon be repaired, or as the Belsnickel says, “I’ll send over Stolzfus your broke roof to fix.”

The text is written to approximate the sounds and usage of Pennsylvania Dutch; real “Dutchies” might quibble over some of the pronunciations and definitions. And the purists will say that Belsnickel always comes through the front door! But this doesn’t affect the enjoyment of the story.

Chet Williamson has done a wonderful job of adapting the story and the illustrations by James Rice are a delight. There is a section on the history of the Belsnickel, Pennsylvania Dutch pronunciation (which differs from German) and a recipe for shoo-fly pie, “chust” like Mama made.

So “set yourself dawn and schnuggle” with Papa as he recounts the Christmas Eve story ( )