Muppet Book Club
“I Can’t Wait Until Christmas”
Can you not wait until Christmas? Then you’ll love the new Muppet Book Club selection, I Can’t Wait Until Christmas, which tells the story of Big Bird, who can’t wait until Christmas.
But not waiting until Christmas is only part of the story of I Can’t Wait Until Christmas. It’s also about love, and cookies, and hanging dirty hubcaps on a tree. It’s about doing the dishes, and gluing the shingles. It’s about phone calls, and skateboards, and long, skinny presents.
It is, in short, an epic — encompassing the entire human experience, especially the part of human experience that relates to not being able to wait until Christmas.
I Can’t Wait Until Christmas was written by Linda Lee Maifair and illustrated by Joe Ewers. It was published in 1989 by Golden Press, and what Golden Press doesn’t know about not being able to wait until Christmas simply isn’t worth knowing.
Over the next few days, we’ll be discussing this book on the Tough Pigs Forum message board, generally messing with it and having a good time. Please come join our literary salon — even if you’ve never posted at the Forum before, this could be a good moment to start. After all, what else are you going to do this week? Sit around and not wait until Christmas?
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Suggested Discussion Questions:
1. Big Bird announces throughout the text that he can’t wait until Christmas. And yet, by the end of the book, it’s proved that he can wait until Christmas. How does Big Bird cope with this proof that a central tenet of his belief system is incorrect?
2. According to this book, what is the purpose of Christmas? Is it all about the eternal battle between patience and impatience, or is there a deeper meaning to the holiday?
3. Granny Bird lives in a charming, well-furnished house, with a dining room and a kitchen. Big Bird lives in a trash-filled, snow-covered alley behind an apartment building. How is this even remotely acceptable?
Click here to read the Book Club comments on I Can’t Wait Until Christmas!
