"Richly detailed and colorful full-page illustrations accompany this Christmas poem featuring the customs and language of the Irish." --Children's Literature

'Round Christmastime, things are a little different on the Emerald Isle. Instead of logs thrown onto the fire, we find turf blazing bright. Instead of cold eggnog spiced just right, the mother and father are enjoying their stout. You'll find no Donner or Cupid or Blitzen, but Ould Neddy the donkey and his small cart. Father Christmas with his Irish eyes twinkling ushers in his seven elves, and thus begins the wondrous Irish...

"'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the town
All the students and teachers had settled right down."

Though everybody else has settled down for a long winter's nap, poor Principal Swell has his hands full. With state-mandated paperwork, computers to fix, bus routes to unknot, not to mention discipline and field trips and all the concerned parents, it seems hei1/2ll never get back home to his own family Suddenly the school bell rings, and there
stands a lively professor with a promise to fix, complete, or manage it all, since hei1/2s already sent the teachers...