Alvin and His Pals in Merry Christmas with Clyde Crashcup and Leonardo (1963)

Coming on the heels of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the Alvin and His Pals Merry Christmas with Clyde Crashcup and Leonard offered 84 pages of solace.

Alvin and His Pals in Merry Christmas with Clyde Crashcup and Leonardo (1963)

Alvin, Theodore and Simon had reached celebrity a mere five years after their creation. Ross Bagdasarian, Sr., had initially created the animated, anthropomorphized-woodland creatures for a novelty album. Their success branched over into cartoons and other media.

Clyde Crashcup was created to compliment the Chipmunks on The Alvin Show. Crashcup would invent things that already existed. Leonardo was his silent – literally – partner.

Crashcup and aid would spell Alvin and his friends throughout the Christmas special. He and Leonardo even opened the book with “Clyde Crashcup Invents Snow.” The duo would tag-team with the Chipmunks for the remainder of the book alternating stories. The difference being Crashcup and Leonardo wove a related tale with each of their stories until they would finally meet up with Santa.

Alvin, Simon and Theodore appeared in vignettes either Christmas or winter related.

Also interspersed throughout are one-page prose stories and challenges for readers.

Not bad for a quarter.