On December 12th, the MUC students may mysteriously and anxiously run home from preschool to hide their Christmas Cookie Sprinkles from the menacing Christmas Cookie Sprinkle Snitcher! Who is this snitcher, you may ask? This bird like man, who resembles an old-fashioned grinch, goes out “snitching sprinkles for his Christmas fun”, in a book bearing the title of the Christmas Cookie Sprinkle Snitcher, written by Vip. I was fortunate to find this treasure when I met my husband Tom. A Christmas Eve tradition in his family was to gather around and listen to their dad read about the snitcher and to happily recite together, “Christmas cookies without sprinkles are like raisins without wrinkles, and like sleigh bells without tinkles are Christmas cookies without sprinkles”. The rest of the book talks about a “plucky kid named Little Nat, (who) knew in a flash that he had to act fast, or Christmas cookie baking time soon would be past.” Nat tracks down the Snitcher and explains, “your Christmas fun, Snitcher, Little Nat said, “has driven the whole village out of its head!” The Snitcher realized what he did was wrong and spouts out, “I’m ashamed, sobbed the Snitcher, ashamed what I done.” In the end, Nat and the Snitcher come up with a plan to give back all the sprinkles, and the book ends with this great lesson, “You’ve taught me a lesson, Little Nat, said the Snitcher. Though I haven’t a sprinkle I’ve never been richer. I know now that Christmas is not being greedy. Christmas is spreading sprinks to the needy” Of course, the snitcher mysteriously appears at school on the day we are making Christmas cookies with sprinkles and teaches us a memorable lesson about giving to the needy!
