Vintage Velvet Eyes Santa’s Little Helper

Klimack, Emil W. Velvet Eyes Santa’s Little Helper. No place: No publisher, circa 1950. Quarto, comb-bound as issued, original pictorial red paper wrappers, original pictorial box.

First edition of this wonderful story of a reindeer fawn who laments his small size until Santa finds him the perfect job, beautifully illustrated in mid-century style by Charlot Byi, with three Christmas-themed pop-ups, a bouncy reindeer, a tiny jingle bell, a small metal whistle, a mirror, a full sheet of stickers intended for use in the text, paper game pieces, "Win a Christmas Star" sheet, and two stick-on gilt badges to celebrate the "No. 1 Christmas Helper," in rare original box.

This charming story focuses on a reindeer fawn named "Velvet Eyes," who only wants to help at Christmas but fails at every task until he uses a little Christmas-style ingenuity in completing a job for Santa.
 Like many Christmas miscellanies of the era, this book—a complete narrative rather than a true miscellany—offers Christmas fun including a game, pop-ups, and small internal treasures. Less commonly, all of these elements are fully intact in this copy. Indeed, Velvet Eyes includes a full sheet of unused lick-and-stick stickers for embellishing numbered blanks in the text, instructions for "Win a Christmas Star" game, all paper game pieces still intact on a single sheet, a raised "bouncy" reindeer, three affixed metal pieces with almost none of the usual tarnish (a jingle bell, a child-size whistle, and a mirror), three beautiful pop-ups, and two gilt badge stickers (generally removed as the instructions directed the child to wear them).