It is December 1st, the month when children count the days until Christmas Eve. But Vrese, the grumpy old farm gnome, or Nina and Kain, the rabbit children, who live with their large family in the Big Forest, do not know this. Even less do they know that they will celebrate Christmas for the first time or that Santa is coming. SANTA TO S is written on a sign that comes with the winds. The sign has been on Vrese's gate, as the farm's land is for sale. Now it lands with the rabbits, and literate crows interpret it. Santa is coming, they say, TO S, it must be the Big Forest. The crows also know that Santa comes at Christmas. What Christmas is, the squirrels know, who say that it is when you hang beautiful things in the trees, eat, dance, and sing.