This is a season for nostalgia — and also for picture books that can and should mean more than just “ ’Twas the night before Christmas.” Three splendid reissues of Christmas tales from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s offer old-timey takes on the evergreen theme of “All I want for Christmas is . . . . ”  Certainly the Veruca Salts of the world, with their Wii-topped lists for Santa and jumbo-size stockings, could use the simple message contained in “The Scrawny Little Tree.” Originally published on the cusp of the stagflation of the 1970s, Ed Mehler’s charming verse tells how a sparse little evergreen is united with a skinny, impoverished boy one Christmas Eve:  The little boy with arms so smallsaved pennies, though very poor,to buy himself a Christmas tree,which he’d never had before.  Unsurprisingly, but appealingly, both boy and tree grow in each other’s company. And Susie Pollard’s retro pen-and-ink illustrations, in a subdued red and green palette, are precious. Published, fittingly, in a stocking-sized format with low price to match, this book, with its homey message about meager means and ample gratitude, will speak alike to children in similar straits and to children in want of compassion.  Also appropriately small, short and sweet: “Something for Christmas,” by Palmer Brown (“Beyond the Pawpaw Trees,” “The Silver Nutmeg”), first published by Harper & Row in 1958 and now reissued by the children’s imprint of The New York Review of Books. Here, the character of limited means is a small mouse, though his trouble is what to give rather than what to get, since “someone” (really his mother) seems to have everything.  “I could make her a plum pudding,” the mouse proposes. “Plum puddings are nice. But do you know how to make a plum pudding?” his mother asks, not unkindly. And what to do when you don’t even have the ingredients?  With exquisitely adorable creatures fit to rival Peter Rabbit, the book provides a predictable answer – love – that will make it no less enchanting to young children. Out of print for 45 years, the book was long a cherished favorite, memorably read aloud on television by Captain Kangaroo.  And speaking of Kangaroos: “Kangaroo for Christmas” offered joy of an entirely different sort to the Sallys and Bobbys of the “Mad Men” era. First published in 1962, the story of little Kathryn’s astonishing gift from her Uncle Dingo showcases the marvelous period illustration of James Flora, a giant among midcentury commercial artists.  Working in riotous bursts of carnation pink and deep teal, Flora adds visual pop to an off-kilter story that hardly needs it, but is gloriously zanier for it all the same. When Kathryn opens a big box left on the porch the day before Christmas, her hope is to find some candy or perhaps a kitty. Out instead hops a kangaroo, hardly cause for disappointment. “ ‘Oh my! Isn’t she pretty?’ Kathryn laughed and clapped her hands. ‘She’s just exactly what I’ve always wanted. I’ll call her Adelaide, and she’ll be my best friend.’ ”  But of course. And of course, owning a kangaroo turns out to be more trouble than Kathryn imagined in this everything-goes-wrong tale. Is there a message here? Most certainly not. Unless the message is that Christmas isn’t just about candy canes and the latest electronic toy. And that’s what children’s Christmas books, happily, are usually about.
Three reissued Christmas books tell timeless stories of a sparse little tree, a big-hearted mouse and a gift-wrapped kangaroo.