Case 12
- Novelty Christmas Stocking-Fillers
Pat Lawlor. Murphy’s moa and other Xmas sketches. Illustrations by Gordon Minhinnick and Fred Alexander. Christchurch: Simpson & Williams Ltd., 1936.
Case 12 contains an eclectic mix of novelty Christmas stocking-fillers.
This humorous Christmas story book is a lesser-known work by the Wellington editor and bibliophile Pat Lawlor (1893-1979), a prominent figure in the New Zealand literary scene of the 1920s-1940s.
The seventeen short sketches mark Lawlor’s desire to break away from the sad, dreary, “terribly English” old time conception of Christmas stories which “is so redolent of shivering little girls selling matches, starving families and gnomes leaping over tombstones.”
Pat Lawlor. Murphy’s moa and other Xmas sketches. Illustrations by Gordon Minhinnick and Fred Alexander. Christchurch: Simpson & Williams Ltd., 1936.
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The Christmas dog book for all dog lovers. 1968. Palmerston North: N.Z. Kennel Gazette Ltd., 1967.
The Christmas dog book was issued annually by the New Zealand Kennel Gazette from the mid-1960s. Promoted as “the biggest and brightest book about dogs in this part of the world”, these Christmas annuals contain extensive information about award winners, dog breeders, and kennel clubs throughout New Zealand.
The Christmas dog book for all dog lovers. 1968. Palmerston North: N.Z. Kennel Gazette Ltd., 1967.
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Julie and John Hope. Christmas carols for cats. Illustrations by Sue Hellard. London: Bantam, 1996.
A conspicuously novel addition to the Hymnology Collection, Christmas carols for cats comprises traditional Christmas songs rewritten from a feline perspective. The titles include ‘The twelve days of Catmas’, ‘We wish for the fam’ly goldfish’ and ‘Bark! The hairy scary things.’
Julie and John Hope. Christmas carols for cats. Illustrations by Sue Hellard. London: Bantam, 1996.
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E.J. Sullivan. A redneck Christmas carol. Illustrations by Ernie Eldredge. Birmingham, Alabama: Sweetwater Press, 1997.
This curious variation upon Dickens’ A Christmas carol is held in the “Selections, Plagiarisms, and Adaptations” sequence within the Reed Dickens Collection. It features Scrooge’s New and Used Car Lot, where partner Jim Bob Marley was sure enough dead and gone and clerk Bubba Cratchit longs to get on home to Earlene but Scrooge didn’t give nothin’ away cheap.
E.J. Sullivan. A redneck Christmas carol. Illustrations by Ernie Eldredge. Birmingham, Alabama: Sweetwater Press, 1997.
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