Ever wonder how Santa Claus got his start? According to this humorous picture book, he was born to a grumpy North Pole family, the youngest of five children. Unlike his miserable siblings, little red-suited Santa loved playing in the snow, baking gingerbread, and climbing up the family's chimney. Just as the family is ready to move to Florida, they find themselves snowed in, and jolly little Santa volunteers to climb up the chimney to look for help. Along the way he rescues a flying reindeer trapped in the snow and shimmies down the chimney of the first house he finds, which turns out to be full of industrious elves, who build him a sleigh. Much of the humor in Agee's story comes from the rationales he devises for the familiar but over-the-top characteristics of the Santa Claus we know today. His illustrations offer an amusing counterpoint between upbeat little Santa and his grouchy Florida-bound family, as well as many unspoken details, such as how the elves transform the Claus family's otherwise humdrum lives. (Ages 3-6)