The questions have started. The wonder doesn’t have to end.
The Spirit of Santa was written for the moment a child begins to ask how Santa can be everywhere at once — and a parent wants an answer that is honest without closing the door on wonder. This story gives you that answer: one you can read aloud with a clear conscience, rooted in generosity, light, and the long human history behind Santa himself.
- The complete book, free — every page of the 48-page story, read right here.
- One email, and it opens — no account, no payment, nothing to install.
- Made to read together — ideal for ages 4–9, and written to grow with your child’s questions.
The complete book is free to read through December 31, 2026 — then this reading closes for the season.
A free reading · This season only
Read the complete book — free
Enter your email address and the book opens on this page, ready to read together tonight. Your reading link also arrives by email, so you can return to the story whenever the questions come up again.
One short form, one email field. Your address is used to send your reading link and occasional notes from Torchbearer Press — never sold, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
The Complete Book
(Free to read through December 31, 2026)
For the best reading experience
Click the ••• menu in the book viewer and select Fullscreen to enjoy the illustrations at their best.
For the best reading experience
Tap the ••• menu in the book viewer and select Fullscreen to enjoy the illustrations at their best.
For the best reading experience
Turn your phone sideways to read in landscape mode. For an even more immersive experience, enjoy the book on a tablet or computer.
From the author
Before you go — I’d love to hear what you thought
I wrote and illustrated this story for a moment I know is tender in a lot of homes: the season when a child’s questions about Santa begin to change, and you want to answer honestly without giving up the wonder. If you read it with your family, it genuinely matters to me to hear how it landed — what your child asked, and what stayed with you.
If you’re willing, an honest review is a simple, free way to help. It takes a few minutes, costs nothing, and it’s how other parents find their way to this book. Please share whatever you truly thought — glowing, mixed, or critical. All of it helps, and all of it is welcome.
— Jesse Kuhn, author & illustrator
You generally don’t need to have bought the book on a particular platform to leave a review there — each platform sets its own eligibility rules.
The story
A bigger version of the story, told at a child’s pace
When a child’s questions outgrow the simple version of Santa, many parents feel they have only two choices: keep up a story they no longer quite believe, or end the magic outright. The Spirit of Santa offers a third way. It follows the thread of lantern light back through the centuries — to a bishop remembered for secret generosity, to winter customs shaped by darkness and returning light — and arrives at the part of Santa that was always real, and always ours to carry: the giving itself.
Nothing in the book confronts or debunks. It widens the story instead, so that when your child is ready for more, more is there — and trust between you stays intact.
“Wonder without manufactured certainty.”
Inside the book
Painted to be lingered over
Every page is illustrated in full premium color. A few spreads from the free reading:
what early readers are saying
Read it together tonight
The complete book is free through December 31, 2026. Enter your email above and it opens on this page — most families finish it in one sitting, and return to it all season.
The printed book
Keep it on the shelf
If the story becomes part of your family’s season, The Spirit of Santa is printed as an 8.5 × 8.5 picture book in full premium color — made to be held, given, and re-read as the questions grow.