Jingle, All the Way Home: An Advent Countdown Story

by Catherine Hapka, Kathryn Selbert (Illustrator)

An Advent Count down to Christmas in twenty-four sealed chapters!

They may live in Poinsettia, "the Most Christmassy Town in the U.S. of A.," but the Kerstman kids have never had a Christmas like this!

When Chris discovers a puppy wedged in his family's chimney on Christmas morning, he knows exactly how it got there because the dog tells him. Jingle stowed away in Santa's sleigh, got left behind accidentally, and he can talk! Can Chris, his big sister, Holly, and her best friend, Ivy, find a way to help Jingle return to the North Pole?

With full-color artwork and one sealed chapter to open each day, Jingle, All the Way Home is the perfect gift to bring festive cheer to your Christmas countdown!


Catherine Hapka has published many books for children of all ages. As a kid she always wanted Santa to bring her a pony for Christmas. These days, she's lucky enough to live on a small farm in Chester County, Pennsylvania, with three oversize ponies (also know as horses) along with several rascally goats, a small flock of chickens, and too many cats.

Kathryn Selbert is an award-winning freelance illustrator, author, and designer currently living in Montclair, New Jersey, with her tea-loving husband and grumpy French bulldog, Margot. She has so much Christmas spirit, she decorates her tree in November. 

Genres: Christmas

Kindle Edition

Published September 16, 2025

About the author

Catherine (Cathy) Hapka has written more than one hundred books for children and adults, as a ghostwriter for series as well as original titles, including the Romantic Comedies Something Borrowed, The Twelve Date of Christmas, and Love on Cue. She lives in Pennsylvania.

Reviews

[Julianna Wolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this as our read aloud for December and and the kids ate it up. The story was also cute who doesn’t love a talking dog

[Kylie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so cute and the execution of the advent calendar book was so fun!
Each chapter of this book is sealed and you open one chapter a day like an advent calendar. The pages were sealed with stickers, but they did not rip the pages at all and were easy to take off.
In this book, we follow Santa's puppy Jingle. Jingle wants to ride on Santa's sleigh but Santa won't let him. There is not enough room and he does not want Jingle to get out and get left behind accidentally. After midnight on Christmas, all the portals to the North Pole close so Jingle would be stuck wherever he gets off the sleigh for a whole year. But of course, Jingle stows away, gets off the sleigh and gets left behind. He ends up at Chris and Holly's house. Chris can actually understand him and recruits Holly and her best friend Ivy to help find him a portal to get home.
I think as a kid (or reading this to a kid) this would have been a HUGE hit. The anticipation of opening a new chapter every day is so much fun. I even enjoyed it as an adult just reading it to myself! Chris and Holly haven't been seeing eye to eye as much as they are both growing up and it was cute to see them figure each other out and help each other and Jingle. The story was really easy to follow and even if I had to skip a day because I was busy, I always remembered where I was and was excited to pick it up and see what happened in the next chapter.
If you have a kid and are looking for something fun and bookish to do with them next December, I highly recommend this book!

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first must state I love Advent Calendars! It really doesn't matter what kind. So, to have a book as cute as this was just added to my enjoyment.

The book is about Jingle, Santa's little dog, who stowaways on Santa's sleigh. The next thing you know he gets left behind in a town called Poinsettia, "the Most Christmassy Town in the US of A." Jingle ends up with Chris Kerstman, his sister Holly, and her friend Ivy trying to find his way home.

The book has a talking dog that can only be heard by someone with the Christmas Spirit, magic portals, Santa, elves and adventure. There are 24 short chapters that are sealed, so no peeking ahead, and take around 5 minutes of reading at a time.

[Karmen Sonberger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cute. Read it with my 9 year old. We got busy and missed a lot of days but we caught up and got to finish on Christmas Eve. I do wish it had been over multiple days instead of all on Christmas Day in the book. It worked perfect for that age group tho. I would definitely recommend this for parents to read with their kids in December.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sweet little Christmas book. My young one (6) very much enjoyed this book. The hardest part was only reading one chapter per day as it is meant to be read as an advent calendar. In fact, the chapters are sealed like envelopes and you get to open them every day.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kids advent count down book that we read together. It was a fun story about Santa’s dog who got left behind and needed to find his way home.

The kids enjoyed it and we hope to find another similar book next year.

[Kat Ice · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a Christmas advent book about Santa’s dog and how he got away! It was super cute and the artwork was beautiful! I wish there was more to the story but I understand they had to drag it across 24 days. It did keep me interested and loved the happy ending!

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Aubrie Macias · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this with my 6 and 8 year olds and they thought it was super sweet!

[Lily Knesevitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was prepared to give this a 4, but the ending was incredibly rushed.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

The sweetest little advent book! Each chapter was sealed and we read it each night before bed. Never seen anything like this but highly recommend!

[MacKenzie Goodman · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s a great family book and so much fun to read together every night. Just waiting to see what happens. My kids loved it so much.

[Cecilia · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was such a cute story!! A cool way to do a count down to Christmas as well!! Definitely recommend!

[Jackie Pilling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kept my kiddos on the edge of the seats through the whole story.

[Lindsay Allmon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so cute and fun. We did this through December and loved that we could only read little bits each day. The story was sweet and kept the whole family entertained.

[Jennifer Harms · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this with my kids for our advent count down and we all enjoyed it! The story was adorable and all the characters were likable. Highly recommend if you have kids under 12.

[Jen Ickler-Albrecht · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes reading with Izzy takes a little longer lol she rated this book 5 stars. It was a very cute book and fun to do as advent even if it took us longer.

[Kaydance Cole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this with my little brother and it was so cute!!♥️