With the book, The Legend of the Christmas Witch, I wanted more about Christmas and less, well, witch. I understand that Dan Murphy and Aubrey Plaza wanted to build up to the climax, but it made no real sense to me why things were called Christmas. First, she practices Yule celebrations. Second, we only see her being impatient, spoiled and naive. We do find Christmas with a Santa character, who is the witch’s beloved twin brother who turns out to be a bit of a butthead. (Santa is a butthead?) but still it wasn’t what one might assume with this title. But if you want to look at the illustrations, Julia Iredale did a lovely job. The art work of the pages are nice with their focus on earth tones and having more of a with nature feeling. They can be a bit busy at times, or not fully fleshed out, but this adds to the mythical, magical, or folk lore element. This allows the mystical element of wiccan and an “earth witch” come across.
If you are looking for a new Christmas story, this probably is not it. There is a lot of lead up to show celebration of both traditional secular Christmas and Yule celebrations but falls short. The build up is good and interesting but we are more told than shown in several places. And despite the detailed sections, things never feel completed. It has an ending that has an odd combination of “Book is closed,” but still is open as the witch has a fate that allows the thought “she is gone forever. Or…is she?”
I will find other books that follow the witch’s story (The Return of the Christmas Witch) to see if we fulfill the Yule celebration teases, and even more Murphy and Plaza titles (such as Luna and the Witch Throw a Halloween Party), but for sure will be finding more Iredale works. Best for older children to young teens and adults, due to the novel but also oversized picture book format.