Happy Holidays, Jessi

The Baby-Sitters Club #103

by Ann M. Martin

Jessi is filled with holiday excitement. She loves Christmas, and she can't wait for Kwanzaa, when her whole family--including out-of-town relatives--will celebrate together.

But then a terrible accident occurs. Squirt hurts his head in a car crash and is rushed to the hospital. Everyone is relieved to find out that Squirt will be okay. But meanwhile, the stress of the accident has taken its toll on the family.

If holidays are supposed to be about being together, then why is Jessi's family being pulled so far apart?

Genres: Middle Grade, Childrens, Fiction, Christmas, Contemporary, Young Adult, Juvenile

137 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1996

About the author

Ann Matthews Martin was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane. After graduating from Smith College, Ann became a teacher and then an editor of children's books. She's now a full-time writer.

Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.

Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.

Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.

After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...

Reviews

[FIND ME ON STORYGRAPH · Rating 1 out of 5]

in this explanation of kwanzaa by some white guy (ghostwriter Peter Lerangis), jessi’s family are so excited because they get to celebrate christmas AND kwanzaa. but their predominantly white friends don’t understand what kwanzaa is, so jessi decides to throw a kwanzaa festival. things are looking up for the holiday season, especially when jessi discovers there are plenty of black kids in stoneybrook that want to help out with the festival (they just go to private school and live in kristy and abby’s rich kid neighborhood which is why jessi didn’t know them before), and also when jessi’s favorite cousin keisha and her family announce that they will be coming for kwanzaa. but when aunt cecelia and jessi’s dad get into a huge fight YET AGAIN over how cecelia is super old-fashioned and strict with the kids, cecelia decides to loosen up. and by loosen up I mean allow jessi and becca to unbuckle baby brother squirt’s car seat while driving and then get into a car accident in which squirt is flung from the car seat. I think ignoring car safety rules wasn’t what jessi’s dad was talking about when he said to loosen up, but oh well. squirt has to be hospitalized and monitored over the holiday season, and everyone in the family is completely miserable. becca gets the flu, and jessi is barely able to help out with the kwanzaa festival she was so excited about. when squirt comes home from the hospital, he’s grumpy because he seemingly misses the hospital where he had been for quite a while. when the oakley nj contingent of jessi’s family (keisha and co) come, they can’t even put the ramseys in a good mood. but then at kwanzaa dinner when everyone is fighting squirt burps and they all laugh and suddenly all the problems are gone. and the kwanzaa festival happens and goes smoothly.

highlights:
-kristy says she doesn't know anything about kwanzaa, and jessi says, "not too many people do," but then narrates that what she means is that white people don't. BOOM. I love when jessi is actually cool and not doing that “oh I don’t think racism is real” thing she does in books like Jessi and the Awful Secret.
-they describe the food they have for the festival: hoppin' john, ashanti peanut soup, okra with corn, liberian rice bread, and senegalese cookies. yum yum yum! this is making me want to delve back into Bryant Terry’s Afro-Vegan: Farm-Fresh African, Caribbean, and Southern Flavors Remixed.
-the kids from the kwanzaa festival give squirt a gift and the pikes get the ramseys a christmas tree and mal babysits so they can get squirt from the hospital. and all of these are things that these people just did out of the kindness of their hearts without being asked. awwww.

lowlights/nitpicks:
-aunt cecelia is described as "not naturally thin." what in the world does this mean? does this mean she's fat? that she has to work really hard to be thin, which she does, like if someone says "I'm not naturally a brunette," and it’s implied that they dye their hair? I think peter lerangis is just scared to say the word fat. if you’re scared to say it, then why even talk about aunt cecelia’s body type in the first place?
-kristy gets butthurt that kwanzaa is just for black people. "does it ever bother you...you know, kwanzaa being only for one race of people?" DOES IT EVER BOTHER YOU, KRISTY, THAT WHITE PRIVILEGE IS ONLY FOR ONE RACE OF PEOPLE?
-cecelia is intolerable in this book and in general. she drives two miles per hour to go to the mall and then parks in an accessible spot and then pooh poohs the kwanzaa festival idea while barking at jessi and becca about it and then gets mad that people at the store crowd her and then gets mad that they won't assist her. and then gets mad when she got a parking ticket for taking an accessible spot. PHEW.
-kristy wants the kwanzaa skit to be about the history of the bsc because she thinks the principles of the bsc are the same as those of kwanzaa. that might be but OH MY GOD KRISTY CAN'T BLACK PEOPLE JUST HAVE ONE THING THAT ISN'T YOURS?
-at one point one of the kids demonstrates "that a piece of okra is just the right size to fit in a nostril." really? how big are the nostrils? okra is pretty big. do they mean a pre-cut okra piece? because if so, everything is the right size to fit in a nostril if you cut it to be that size.
-couldn’t they get a black ghostwriter? not knocking peter lerangis, who seems to have done his research, but if you’re going to tackle a book about the cultural events of a minority group, maybe you should get a member of that minority group to write the book (see Abby's Lucky Thirteen for another problem case). peter lerangis might be able to speak to the traditions of kwanzaa, but he definitely can’t speak to the significance of kwanzaa within actual black families unless he married into a black family or something. I just googled his wife and she appears to be white.
-everyone is fighting and miserable and nothing seems like it’s ever going to be okay in the ramsey family ever again and then squirt burps and they all laugh and suddenly no one is upset anymore. wait, really? a burp resolved all their problems? oooookay...
-I thought jessi and keisha weren't close anymore after Dawn's Big Move?

becca’s kwanzaa dress:
-"Becca came down in her red-and-green velvet dress. She had pulled her hair back with a black satin ribbon, and she was wearing black patent leather shoes."

snacks in claudia’s room:
-cape cod potato chips in her pillowcase

[Ciara · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book is a total snore. it reads like an educational pamphlet on the hows & whys of kwanzaa...& in the process, it makes kwanzaa sound about ten times lamer than it actually is!

so, it's the holiday season & the babysitters club gets a call from some new clients, the harrises. they have two little boys. usually, they have a live-in aunt or something that babysits them, which is why they have never utilized the babysitters club before, but she's going on a trip so they call the club. jessi mentions that she saw the harrises at the store the other day, doing their kwanzaa shopping. kristy starts shifting around all uncomfortably. jessi notices & asks what's up & kristy is all, "um...don't you think kwanzaa is kind of racist? because it's only for black people?" jessi is like, "no." kristy is like, "um...yeah, me neither. i was just asking." actually she says something about how anyone can celebrate xmas, & maybe it's kind of fucked up that only black people can celebrate kwanzaa. abby (the jewish one) is to quick to correct kristy on the whole "anyone can celebrate xmas" thing. she points out that it is supposedly a christian holiday, & people of other faiths celebrate other holidays a lot of the time. rather than informing kristy that a halfways decent white person would just let black people have their holiday celebrating black self-determination & unity, jessi is like, "maybe people would like kwanzaa more if they understood it better. i am going to organize a kwanzaa fest!" this also gives her an opportunity to work with all the black children in stoneybrook that we have literally never heard of before, & will never hear of again.

so that's the babysitting plot & it's boring as hell. the history of kwanzaa is legitimately kind of interesting but this book does not do it justice at all.

the main plot of interest involves jessi's family. aunt cecelia has always been kind of difficult to swallow, but she is downright evil in this book. for serious. even the hill parents were not this bad when they were teasing their seven-year-old son for being fat. i always thought jessi was being kind of bratty when she would refer to aunt cecelia as "aunt dictator" (not to mention totally unclever), but cecelia is truly evil here. she bosses the kids around non-stop & even corrects the ramsey parents on their smallest parenting decisions. CONSTANTLY. becca makes a collage of items she would like to receive as holiday gifts & sticks it to the wall in the kitchen with masking tape. cecelia hulks out about how difficult it is to get tape goo off walls & mr. ramsey tells her not to sweat it, to just let becca do her thing. cecelia mutters something about how the ramseys are "spoiling" their kids," & mr. ramsey hulks out. he tells aunt cecelia that she needs to cool it if she wants to keep living with the family. she needs to let the kids be kids & make mistakes & not question the ramsey parents quite so much.

so cecelia tries to be a little more chill. this manifests itself in her permitting jessi & becca to unsap squirt's carseat safety belt one day when they are all in the car together. & let me just say that i agree with mr. ramsey that cecelia needs to loosen up a little & cut the kids some slack. that does NOT mean that i think she should start with the baby's carseat safety belt! for fuck's sake, woman! naturally, two seconds after they unsnap the belt, they are rear ended. they are all okay except for squirt, who was catapulted out of his carseat & knocked unconscious. he is rushed to the ER & held for observation. the doctors think he may have a concussion, but it's hard for them to get a clear neurological reading because he is just a baby.

so basically this ruins the holidays.

squirt is in the hospital for days, & the ramseys spends as much time there as they can. everyone seems to blame themselves for the accident even though i think that clearly the only people at fault are cecelia & the knucklehead who rear ended them. cecelia because, seriously. WHO UNSTRAPS THE BABY'S CARSEAT? EVER? & the dude who rear ended them because, hello, traffic was crawling along at like seven miles an hour. how do you even rear end someone under those conditions? eventually cecelia & mr. ramsey begin to bicker again. cecelia is critical of how much time the ramseys are spending at the hospital, how uncommunicative they have been with her about when they might be home for dinner, how disorganized mr. ramsey is about the holiday shopping, etc etc. CECELIA. YOU ALMOST KILLED HIS BABY. QUIT WHILE YOU'RE BEHIND. if i was her, i would probably just slink back to new jersey with my tail between my legs, too embarrassed to pretend that i am capable of caring for children anyway.

anyway, the babysitters all pitch in to pull of jessi's kwanzaa fest idea, & squirt comes home from the hospital on xmas eve or something. the ramseys have one final huge blow-up over kwanzaa dinner in front of visiting relatives from new jersey, but then squirt burps & everyone laughs & makes up. it's pretty cheesy & lame.

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

2023 reread:

It’s still a 3.5, but on my reread I’m rounding down to a 3. Aunt Cecelia is the worst. Who unbuckles a baby from a car seat? Just because you’re “close to home”? She was awful. I liked Mallory the best; it was really sweet of her to buy a Christmas tree for Jessi’s family since they were too focused on Squirt being in the hospital to do it themselves. And she volunteered to baby sit on Christmas Day??? What a friend.

______________________________
3.5 stars. I never read this one growing up, so I was surprised by how straight up annoying Aunt Cecelia is. If she’s that horrible, why are they letting her live there?? The way the family not getting along was resolved was weird too, but I liked the Kwanzaa festival that Jessi organizes, and the homemade book the kids made for Squirt while he was in the hospital.

**a holiday that takes place around the same time as Christmas (Kwanzaa)**

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has been yeeeeears since I've last read this book, and for some reason I remembered it as a snore-fest. Well, I just practically wept through all 137 pages, so I'd say it was far from boring. It's just that the Ramseys are such a great family! Yes, even Aunt Cecelia, who was insufferable in this book. (Parking in a handicapped spot? She'd NEVER!) Also Mallory is such a perfect best friend, and that made me cry too because she does not get enough credit.

[Jessi · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I was in the baby-sitters club, and I heard that Jessi had unbuckled her little brother's carseat while they were driving, I would have kicked her out of the club.

Also, this book got on my nerves because there are a TON of Christmas BSC books (and other holidays, too). All this stuff isn't going on the same year, and yet the girls never get older. They're stuck in some universe where they can live 18 years worth of holidays and they never get older than 13. That sucks.

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this! I feel like I learned more about Kwanzaa from this book than I ever have in my life. I just love these books.

[Allison Preston · Rating 5 out of 5]

My third of three "Baby-Sitters Club" Christmas-themed novels is now read!

When I was younger, I preferred the Mallory, Dawn, Kristy, and Mary Anne stories over the ones featuring Jessi and Claudia. I'm not sure why, but with the exception of "Jessi's Secret Language," she was not my favorite. As an adult, I've come realize how I have dance in common with Jessi. Maybe it was because I was not a Ballet dancer at 11 years old, but I have since taken several years of Ballet lessons in my post-BSC reading years.

All of that said, this was my third BSC Christmas novel read since last week. While I came up short by five books in my reading challenge (I've got a few more days to go, maybe I can fit in a few before then?), I finished my Christmas reading challenge, so...accomplishment?

Anyway...

"Happy Holidays, Jessi" begins at the beginning of December. The Ramsey family is looking forward to the month ahead, filled with preparing for Christmas and Kwanzaa. The festive mood in the house is brought to an abrupt halt when Aunt Cecilia (Jessi's dad's sister) is in a car accident with all three Ramsey children. While Jessi and Becca are unhurt, their brother John Phillip ("Squirt") is not so lucky. Also on Jessi's (and the Baby-Sitters Club's) plate: preparing for Stoneybrook's first Kwanzaa festival.

Will things begin to look up and revive the holiday spirit for Jessi and her family?

I can't tell you that, you're just going to have to read the book!

During the course of the series, the sitters have dealt with tough personal obstacles and sadness, and this was no exception. Jessi's guilt over her lapse in judgement, her aunt continually making things difficult for the family in the wake of the accident, and the pressures of organizing the Kwanzaa Festival are enough to implode Jessi's spirit. But like the other members of the club, events like this are merely setbacks for the members to rise above, and strengthen from.

My take: I enjoyed this novel. We all experience some amount of stress during the holidays, which always feels more heightened than it would during a non-holiday time of the year. Throw in a major incident or, worse, tragedy, and watch that normal stress reach epic levels. My dad had emergency surgery the day after Thanksgiving in 2007, and spent six weeks in the hospital and rehab. He had a 30% chance of walking again (he started walking four weeks after his surgery, a few days after Christmas!), and ten years later walks with a cane. It was the saddest and most stressful holiday I've ever had in 35 years. I never want to experience another like it. To know Jessi's story about that one Christmas that she endured that kind of stress (and at a much younger age too - no one should every have to know that kind of tragedy and stress at such a young age!).

As for Aunt Cecilia...man, lighten up!

I love and highly recommend this novel, and not just at Christmastime. It also teaches about Kwanzaa, a holiday I know about, but am not familiar with. so, it educates too.

Happy Holidays, Jessi, and everyone, everywhere!

[Lianna Kendig · Rating 3 out of 5]

(LL)
This book is a perfect age appropriate story to teach people about Kwanzaa, as most people don’t learn about it in school so many people (probably mostly white people) don’t know anything about Kwanzaa. There are some good lessons in the book besides Kwanzaa, but they are the same as the other holiday books in this series so I didn’t give it four stars.

Decent story and the subplot with the Kwanzaa festival was cute. I liked that it educated people on the foods and events of Kwanzaa rather than a simple celebration, since a lot of white families attended the festival, so everyone was allowed to attend.

[Maeve · Rating 2 out of 5]

The winter holiday season is approaching, and Jessi is excited to celebrate both Christmas and Kwanzaa. She realizes that the BSC (and probably all of Stoneybrook) doesn't know much about Kwanzee, so she decides to host a Kwanzaa festival. Meanwhile, Aunt Cecelia and Jessi's father are fighting all the time. Aunt Cecelia is grumpy and irritable; but she allows Jessi to unbuckle Squirt while they are still driving...just before being in a car accident. Squirt is sent to the hospital; and the Ramsey family goes through serious conflict until the last night of Kwanzaa when they realize the true importance of family.

[Pastel Paperback · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this one, but admittedly, it's kind of stressful and the textbook kwanza descriptions didn't help.

You could tell that the ghostwriter didn't know anyone personally who celebrated kwanza and simply copy and pasted traditions read from a book. There was sort of a hollowness to it all. This is unfortunate because I think kwanza deserves more recognition and acknowledgment. I wanted to experience something joyful with the Ramseys, but the heart of this book is family conflict and stress.

And honestly, the Squirt car accident scene *was* really stressful!

I skimmed the entire play at the end, which took ENTIRELY too long.

[Dr. Aditi Kapoor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jessi wants to share her cultural festival Kwantzaa with her friends and community when the babysitter's club's interest is piqued by it. So together they decide celebrate it aa a community festival. Meanwhile Jessi and her siblinfs are trying to adjust to their aunt Cecelia and her ways. In the midst of all this, squirt gets in an accident. This is a special book about adjustment during emergencies while being a special festive edition. It explains the traditions of Kwantza in detail which is like taking a peak into a new culture.

[Sayo -bibliotequeish-]

As a kid my best friends sister had the whole BSC series on a book shelf in her room. I thought she was so grown up. And I envied this bookshelf. And would often poke my head into that room just to look at it.
And when I read BSC, I felt like such a grown up.
And while I might have still been a little too young to understand some of the issues dealt with in these books, I do appreciated that Ann M. Martin tackled age appropriate issues, some being deeper than others, but still important

[Elise · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the fact kwaanza was addressed in a bsc book at last, but didn’t agree with the white bsc members not recognizing their position of privilege where they were asking about why they are excluded from celebrating it. So they plan a community celebration, which was nice

Anyways, there is a car accident and jessis baby brother is injured, though I blame jessis aunt for it. She was acting really reckless in this book and was a draining character, so the plot mainly focuses on that

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mean.......this book was just sort of okay. As a kid I liked learning about Kwanzaa because it was not a holiday I knew anything about. That was interesting, but of course watered down because it's the Baby-Sitters Club. Also wtf with Kristy being hella racist about the holiday? Way to be a jerk, Thomas.

Also I hated Aunt Cecelia then, and I do not like her now.

[Devon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know I complain about these books sometimes and about how the stakes are never very high, but the stakes in this book were so high at one point they made anxious. In unrelated news, isn't this the first Jessi book in forever? I was starting to wonder if Martin & Co. decided to write her out at some point.

[Cassandra Doon · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was 10 I joined a readers club/group where we got a new book every week. I chose The babysitters club.
The books are fantastic! So enjoyable. I loved getting the book every week. They are super quick reads and I was able to read it in one day.
Highly recommend for young teenagers to read or even younger if they are able too read well.

[Jaclyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

So nice to see more of Jessi's family and to learn all about Kwanzaa! Also nice to see some of the other Black families in Stoneybrook. I wish those kids appeared in later books as well. Why has the BSC never sat for them?

[Cloud · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book! I always love a good book about a family overcoming trials and tribulations in order to enjoy the holidays. I also really enjoyed the larger focus on Jessi and her family because it fit the theme of the book incredibly well.

[Elena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kwanzaa

To start I learned a lot about the celebration of Kwanzaa Jessi is one of my favorite characters in this series. However, I don't remember exactly what her fathers name was in previous books, I am certain it was NOT John. That took something away from the story for me.

[Laura Rayner]

Jessi is filled with holiday excitement. She loves Christmas, and she can't wait for Kwanzaa, when her whole family--including out-of-town relatives--will celebrate together.

But then a terrible accident occurs. Squirt hurts his head in a car crash and is rushed to the hospital. Everyone is relieved to find out that Squirt will be okay. But meanwhile, the stress of the accident has taken its toll on the family.

If holidays are supposed to be about being together, then why is Jessi's family being pulled so far apart?

[Jennifer Baratta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review on www.Audible.com please listen to this book to learn more about Kwanzaa.

[Breanna Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aside from being annoyed with literally everything Kristy said, I rather enjoyed this book.

[Christina]

Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: https://www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blo...

[Tonia Christle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oof. This was another tough one to get through. But I'm glad the Ramseys are all okay.

[Kim Spradlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit traumatic at one part but the Kwanzaa stuff was good.

[Dakota Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good information about Kwanzaa, simple and easy to follow….liked it a lot

[Bailey]

Phew! This had me in my feels REAL big. 😭😭 Maybe the most emotionally intense BSC book I’ve read to date.

[Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book certainly had a lot of drama. It's Christmas yet again in Stoneybrook. Didn't we just celebrate an old fashioned Christmas with the Pikes? Time has no meaning anymore. Jessi is also excited about Kwanzaa. It was interesting to learn more about Kwanzaa since we learn about Hanukkah and other cultural holidays in this series. I really didn't know that much about it to be honest. Kristy is kind of weird about it at first saying that it's excluding others. But as Abby points out only Jews celebrate Hanukkah. They decide to hold a Kwanzaa festival to teach others. That's the b plot. The main plot involves Aunt Cecelia being more strict and bossy than usual. A bit like in her earlier books but worse. Mr. Ramsey comes across as horrid throughout this book and I actually felt sorry for Cecelia for most of the book. Anyway Cecelia is yelling at the kids a lot Mr. Ramsey tells her to lighten up. Then after a trip to the mall this comes back to bite all of them. Jessi is anxious to get back for a Kwanzaa festival planning, Becca is a brat, Squirt is whiny and fussy. Becca whines that he doesn't need to be buckled into his seat because he's trying to be free. Cecelia let's them do it, a car rear ends them and Squirt ends up with a concussion and in hospital. Everyone feels guilty. Mr. Ramsey low key blames and guilts his sister throughout the book. As I said there was a ton of drama in here. The b plot was good for some lighthearted fun to break from the constant fighting in the Ramsey clan. Overall not bad the drama kept me interested but everyone was so out of character than normal.

[Rachel Brand · Rating 5 out of 5]

I vaguely remember reading this as a child but I never remembered the specifics: just that it was sad. Having aquired a copy through BookMooch, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. It really tugged at the heart-strings when you saw how the whole family blamed themselves for Squirt ending up in hospital. Mallory and some of the children wanting to help the family was lovely to read about too. I would have liked to have learnt a bit more about Kwanzaa, which I've never heard of before, but the details in the book were an adequate introduction. What I didn't like was how forced the babysitting chapters seemed. I know that all of the ghostwritten BSC books had a certain number of babysitting chapters in them, but they just seemed like "filler" chapters in this book. Kristy was also very caricatured in this book with her obsessive desire to advertise the BSC, which was quite sad to read considering what a strong, realistic character she was in the earlier books. Overall, I really enjoyed Jessi's story and I was pleased to see the BSC covering such a serious topic, but I felt that the sub-plots were a little thin. 9/10

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic books for young girls getting into reading!! Great stories about friendship and life lessons. The characters deal with all sorts of situations and often find responsible solutions to problems.

I loved this series growing up and wanted to start my own babysitting business with friends. Great lessons in entrepreneurship for tweens.

The books may be dated with out references to modern technology but the story stands and lessons are still relevant.

Awesome books that girls will love! And the series grows with them! Terrific Author!