capturing Christmas
It was so fun to see the photos of It's Christmas being read to a kindergarten class in this post! Look at those attentive little heads!!
It got me reminiscing about how much I loved the lead up to Christmas when I was a child - the Christmas-themed arts and crafts, songs, books, end of year school plays. Such an exciting time of year for this little Burke!

Tiny Tina meets Santa
(A very special occasion that required a very fancy dress)
It was my memories of all that excitement and anticipation that inspired me to create It's Christmas. I started - just for fun - sketching a series of individual "moments", initially having no intention for the illustrations to be part of a book - I actually thought I'd use them for a series of Christmas cards. However, as I sketched, I found the individual vignettes seemed to tie together so naturally that I was inspired to write It's Christmas, showing a series of snapshots of different children as they prepare for the big day . . .


. . . and their mounting anticipation as they await the arrival of that V.I.P . . .

It's so fun to now see It's Christmas being read to kids, knowing they're probably squirming with excitement as I once did, and I'm absolutely thrilled if I can play even a small part in that magical time of year!

