The one-haired hero from Yummy Yucky and Potty returns in an exuberant holiday tale that finds him helping with tree decorations, constructing a gingerbread house and dressing up his doggy before joining in carol singing and waiting for Santa's arrival.

The adventures of John Dough, the human-sized gingerbread man brought to life by an Arab elixir, and Chick, the world's first incubator baby, as they travel from the Island of Phreex to the kingdom of Hilo.

Enriched with anecdotes from ethnography and the daily media, this revised edition examines family structure, reproduction, profiles of children's caretakers, their treatment at different ages, their play, work, schooling, and transition to adulthood. The result is a nuanced and credible picture of childhood in different cultures, past and present.