As it is a certain first of December morning, it’s time for my annual rereading of my all-time favorite Christmastime book from childhood, The Littlest Snowman.

In the spirit of the season, and as a diversion from the usual multi-hundred paged tomes that I have been reading throughout the year, the nearly two-dozen pages of this classic is a welcome treat. As I gently paged through this Wonder Book I couldn’t help thinking of what I do with every other book I read – writing my takeaways from them. In the spirit of The Hot Iron as well, here’s my takeaways from this winter tale.

Selflessness at its core – What is a holiday book without a feel-good story? This one is about the annual tradition on a town where a small boy, who is the only one who knows how, makes the Littlest Snowman along with his neighbor and several anthropomorphic animals. The Littlest Snowman then lights the town’s Christmas tree, followed by the local weatherman declaring it will be a white Christmas. Only that the forecast doesn’t pan out, and it’s up to the Littlest Snowman to save the day by sacrificing himself. Fortunately the story has a happy ending with his remaking.

Why am I the only one I know who knows about this book? – When I tell people about The Littlest Snowman, which was originally published in the 1950’s, nobody has ever heard of it. I have always wondered why, and even did Internet searches on it to no avail. Once again I am either in the minority, or am once again leading a niche.

Why wasn’t this made into a TV special? – With all of the TV specials out there and new (but not necessarily better) ones being created every year, why hasn’t anyone made this book into an animated feature? Or even a live action special? Perhaps it’s because nobody knows about it, or who knows why. As I am not in the position to do so, anyone reading this can feel free to do so.

The process of rereading The Littlest Snowman is a delicate one. As the copy of it I read as a child is long gone, I was able to find a used copy online several years ago. It’s an original print of the story, and is a little fragile. Each year I search for other copies online and find them, but I have decided to make this version the replacement of the one from my youth. You can find your own copy of The Littlest Snowman on Amazon using this affiliate link. That way we can both benefit from making this tale part of your holiday season.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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