Book Review: The Innkeeper of Bethlehem–The Story of Santa Claus by Scott Roloff

This is a charming story that would make a lovely time of sharing for family at Christmas time.

The Innkeeper of Bethlehem–The Story of Santa Claus 

by Scott Roloff

• File Size: 1350 KB
• Print Length: 115 pages
• ASIN: B00FITS078

Genre: Family, Fiction
My rating: 4.25 of 5.0

Book Description
Publication Date: September 28, 2013
A Christmas book for children, families, and anyone who has ever wondered how Santa Claus came to be. This book will permit you and your family to enjoy Santa Claus and the other secular customs of Christmas within the Christian celebration of Jesus’s birth. For little children, Santa Claus becomes a real person delivering presents to them from Jesus. Each Christmas season, reading a chapter a night will become a holiday tradition for the entire family.
[Description, including Chapter breakdown, continues at link.]

Review:
A visiting, joyful Uncle shares this story by telling a ‘chapter’ each evening to the eager children he is visiting. It is clear that the goal is to share the story of Jesus’ birth and extend it into a legend of Santa Claus for the youngsters – and the surrounding family too.

The first half of the book tells the story of Jesus birth and childhood through the eyes of the kindly innkeeper and his wife, Shai and Adi. These two provided shelter to Joseph and Mary on the night Jesus was born. Shai himself realized the great significance of the birth and became an ‘adopted’ grandparent.

The story takes a few liberties in the Biblical account, having the wise men appear at the birth which is a common error. Also the childhood friendship between Jesus, Mary Magdalene and John is an extension of imagination. Although I had a few pangs at this at first I accepted that all of the Christmas celebration takes liberties since it is not even the right date of Jesus’ birth. So I chose to accept the story as a tale of love and sharing. There are wonderful Christian messages of love and acceptance woven through the childhood events.

The second half of the story is a delightful, imaginative Santa story. Shai and Adi are led by angels to a palace at the North Pole where they help raise the baby angels, elves, until they sprout their wings and earn a place in the angelic realms. The mischievous little angels help make the gifts that Shai, as Santa, will deliver with the aid of angelic magic. Shai is delighted to bring a gift to each child to remind them of the love from God through the gift of Jesus.

The story reads easily and is broken into 19 Chapters that can be read each even for the weeks leading up to Christmas. I can picture this being a nice opportunity to share family evening time while reading together and remembering the true meaning of the holiday and the true meaning of being a Christian and sharing God's love.

I received the eBook from the author for an honest review.