Walt Disney's Winnie the Pooh: The Merry Christmas Mystery

by Betty G. Birney, Nancy Stevenson (Illustrator)

The Merry Christmas Mystery (Disney's Winnie the Pooh / Golden Look-Look Book)

Genres: Christmas, Picture Books, Holiday, Childrens, Fiction

24 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

From kindergarten through graduation, I attended school in Affton, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. Then I graduated from Webster College (now Webster University) in Webster Groves, Missouri. Of course, I majored in English and kept on writing.

After working in advertising in St. Louis, Missouri and in Chicago, Illinois, I eventually moved to Southern California. First, I worked for Disneyland (fun job!) in the advertising department. The monorail whizzed past my window all day long. Then I worked at the Disney Studio in Burbank, where I had another fun job, writing and producing television and radio commercials and theatrical trailers (previews of coming attractions) for everything from re-releases of "Cinderella" and "Fantasia" to "Tex."

When the Disney Channel was started, I became a writer and story editor for WELCOME TO POOH CORNER. Since then, I've written more than 200 episodes of animated and live-action television programs including MADELINE, DOUG, BOBBY'S WORLD, DUMBO'S CIRCUS, THE PUZZLE PLACE, CAMP CANDY, LITTLE MOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, WHERE'S WALDO, FRAGGLE ROCK and ZOOBILEE ZOO. That's right, I write cartoons! I also wrote a number of award-winning afterschool specials and many interactive CD-ROM programs, including the award-winning "Berenstain Bears on their Own," "Richard Scarry's Busiest Neighborhood Ever," and "The Crayon Factory."

A made-for-television family movie I wrote, MARY CHRISTMAS, starring John Schneider, Cynthia Gibb and Tom Bosley, aired on the PAX network in 2002. It was the highest rated movie in PAX history and has aired each Christmas season since then.

I have been fortunate enough to win a Writer's Guild of America Award and three Humanitas Prizes (as well as two other nominations). In 2002, I won a Daytime Emmy Award for MADELINE, after two previous Emmy nominations. More recently, I received the Christopher Award for FRIENDSHIP ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY, many children's choice awards for THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY and was inducted into the Affton (MO) School District Hall of Fame.

Reviews

[Jennifer Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always loved Winnie the Pooh stories and this one didn't disappoint!

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

First sentence: It was a very snow night before Christmas.

Premise/plot: Santa gets VERY confused about where everyone lives in the hundred acre woods and delivers all his presents to the wrong people. Can Pooh and his friends make things right so that everyone has a merry Christmas?

My thoughts: This was a silly book! For little ones who love Walt Disney's Pooh, then this one is worth reading. (I've read some that weren't.) I liked the story. I liked the characters. It made me miss the Saturday morning cartoon.

Text: 3 out of 5
Illustrations: 3 out of 5
Total: 6 out of 10

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Winnie the Pooh! There is confusion this Christmas when the address signs get mixed up & Santa delivers the presents to the wrong addresses. Fortunately, Pooh & friends can get everything resolved. Love me some Winnie the Pooh!

[Abbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Things get a little chaotic in The Hundred Acre Wood when Santa delivers presents to the wrong houses! This Winnie the Pooh book is adorable and nostalgic. My daughter loved the silliness and I loved seeing the friendship between all of the characters. The illustrations are gorgeous!

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pooh and friends have to sort out mismatched presents left by a confused Santa. Fun but not particulary memorable Christmas story that works just because it's Pooh.

[Amelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was awesome. I really really liked it. Everything was nice and not gloomy like Eeyore gloomy and everything went as it should. My favorite character was Eeyore even thigh he has a gloomy face.

[Stephen Snyder · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a cute book that captures the Spirit of Christmas.

[MJ Kids · Rating 3 out of 5]

Εντάξει! -MJ

[Ced · Rating 5 out of 5]

that was a good read shout out megan

[Paige Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Merry Christmas Mystery, by Betty Birney, is a part of the Golden Look-Look Book collection and uses the characters from Disney’s Winnie the Pooh. It is a story about Pooh Bear and his friends waking up on Christmas morning. Pooh is startled yet grateful for his gift from Santa Clause. After he gets ready for the Annual Christmas Sing-Along he does ever Christmas Day with his friends, Piglet picks him up to head over to the event. As they meet up with everyone, they notice how bizarre all of their gifts from Santa are. Mr. Owl is late to the event so they start without him. As they wait for their missing friend, they begin to get cold and hungry. What happens next clears up this Christmas gift mystery?
This book was written for a younger audience. Using the characters from Winnie the Pooh appeals to children who are familiar to the series. Each page is full of color and detailed images thanks to the illustrator, Nancy Stevenson. Starting with the first page, Stevenson did an incredible job capturing the winter spirit with holiday decorations and snow through the window of Pooh’s house. One question that I cannot find an answer for is when this book would be appropriate in a public school setting. It is a touchy subject when it comes to Winter Holidays. Referencing Santa Clause might make this a story more appropriate for a Catholic or Private School. Over all, the storyline is unique and intriguing.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I picked this up at a secondhand sale somewhere - although I don't recall reading this specific book in my childhood, Winnie the Pooh was always one of my favorite series as a kid, and this was a really cute Christmas story with all of the characters.

The pictures were cute and colorful, and sure to appeal to young readers. The main plot of the story - that everyone has gotten gifts that are mismatched - is sweet, and appeals to longtime fans and kids by focusing on the characters as well as the plot.

Even outside of the mystery, the book features the characters celebrating Christmas and decorating a tree together. Very cute, and has a nice moral about friendship just in time for the holidays.

[Nina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good story with familiar characters. Pooh and all his friends end up getting all these weird mismatched gifts. In the end they find out the storm had blew the sign around and Santa had delivered all their gifts to the wrong houses. So they all exchanged gifts with each other back to the right gifts and decorated the tree. Everyone is happy in the end.

[Elizabeth Gibbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a great mystery with a fun and clever ending.

I don't know how many times I've read this in the past five years but I read it again tonight. 12/7/15

[FionaHarmon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Because when poo sneezed with the thistles

[Sabine Logeswaran · Rating 5 out of 5]

ein muss für jede Adventszeit