One Christmas Eve as Santa is making his deliveries, he finally gets a chance to play with all the toys in his sack.

BTW My parents only spent 49 cents on our copy of the book

7 of 7 found the following review helpful:


Disappointment  Dec 20, 2000
I owned this book as a child and was overjoyed to find it for my child. But when I got the book home and began reading it, I discovered the pictures are the same, but the story is different. My mother still has our old copy, now falling apart from years of reading, and I was disappointed to find that the whole story had been rewritten. I don't think they should be allowed to use the cover and pictures and attach a different story just to call it the "Classic" edition.

3 of 4 found the following review helpful:


Magical  Jan 20, 2001
My four year old discovered the magic of Santa Claus through this charming book. Christmas may be gone for another year but my little William continues to celebrate it through Monique Peterson's wonderful adaption of this classic. Every night before bed his eyes light up as we read of Santa flying across the sky and around the whole world to deliver toys to all the boys and girls on his list. He closes his eyes to join Santa and the reindeer in his dreams.This book captures the magic and excitement of Santa Claus like no other and will always be a staple in my family's Christmas celebration. I hope my son will hold a page of this book in his heart forever - ho! ho! ho!. In fact my son loved this book so much that I bought him the other beautifully adapted and illustrated Disney Classic Edition titles - Noah's Ark and Sleeping Beauty. I love to read and with these titles I now see my son developing the same love.


Santa's Workshop - Cartoon Origin  Sep 24, 2011 By John Gough "John Gough - Deakin University"
I have read the other reviews. None of them comment on the link between the title "Santa's Toy Shop" and the acknowledgement of Walt Disney. What's the connection?
I am speculating, but with some confidence.
As with many other Walt-Disney credited Little Golden Books, the book is directly based on an earlier Walt Disney Studio cartoon or film. In this case, I believe the cartoon original is "Santa's Workshop", an early entry in the so called "Silly Symphonies" series, in the early 1930s.
I have a vague childhood memory of having seen this, and other early Disney cartoons, in the late 1950s on TV in Australia, possibly even in episodes of "The Mickey Mouse Club" show, or an episode of the "Disneyland" show. But I am aware that Terry Toons also produced similar animations, with crowd-scenes, and vigorous dolls parading and playing. I may be misremembering seeing either a Disney cartoon or a Terry Toon (the inspiration for the "Animaniacs" series!).
But Little Golden Books would be bound to get the copyright and acknowledgment right -- it's Disney. They may not acknowledge "Santa's Workshop" as the source, but that can be checked in an old LGB copy.
I usually only have access to Australian reprints of USA originals, and the reprinting may have omitted details from the USA original edition. However I am surprised to find that my own copy is the USA edition: "Illustrations by the Walt Disney Studio. Adapted by Al Dempster: Copyright 1950". But NO mention of "Santa's Workshop".
This brings me to another point: it is lamentable that editors at Little Golden Books think they can silently change the TEXT of a classic story, and think they can get away with it. Please scrap the rewrites and substitutes, and reinstate the great originals.
Consider the Al Dempster opening:
Page 1: Way up north in the land of ice and snow stands a cozy little house. And beside the front door hangs a neat little sign. "S.Claus", says the sign. Because that is who lives there -- Santa Claus.
Page 2: Mrs Santa Claus lives there, too, of course. She keeps house for Santa Claus, and for all the elves who work in Santa's toy shop. And what a busy place that toy shop is!
This is followed by a visual catalogue of the departments in the toy shop: dolls, trains, games and building (the illustration includes the great cartoon joke of painting a checker-board with a single brush that paints red-and-black checkers!), and so on.
(Note the USA way that "shop" means "place of manufacture", as in metal-shop, carpentry-shop -- not "store", where the manufactures are sold. Hence the fact that the cartoon got the title a little clearer -- "Workshop".)
And the final page:
-- Do you think he might pick your house to stop at this year?

Yes, Santa! Please stop at MY house! I'll leave you cookies and milk! You can play at at my house!
John Gough -- Deakin University -- jugh@deakin.edu.au