Christmas Eve holds an air of magic, warmth and nostalgia. For Toronto artist Tim Gentle, there is no purer example of this than the spellbinding Christmas Eve-set story – crafted over decades by his beloved, now 87-year-old uncle Ian White – which has just become his debut picture book.
The story in question is Snowball: A Christmas Dilemma – written by White, illustrated by Sarah Cowan and edited by Gentle. The clever and sweet rhyming mystery follows Santa one frosty Christmas Eve as he searches for his missing red hat, and wades into a quandary of questions and clues. Crafted more than 30 years ago by Gentle’s father’s oldest friend, Ian White, it’s a tale rooted in family, performance, and tradition that Gentle literally grew up hearing. Thanks to Gentle’s efforts, it has become a published book at a profound moment in the 87-year-old author’s life.
“It’s hard to put into words what this means to me,” Gentle begins. “I’ve always known this story was special, and had a legitimate chance to take its place among the canon of traditional Christmas stories like ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas, A Christmas Carol or How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” Gentle calls it a story that White created “meticulously with the intention to be shared with families everywhere”. So seeing this book become “a real thing” in the hands of parents reading to captivated children is “very emotional, and a dream come true for all of us”. In fact, “it’s like finally sharing a treasured family secret.”
The fun uncle and the father speaking from beyond
Gentle is self-publishing Snowball: A Christmas Dilemma in memory of his father, and the story’s evolution into a published book is has been a long-gestating “family legacy project” that is inseparable from his love for the uncle who “who was easily one of my favourite people growing up,” and helped shape Gentle’s childhood. “He was the fun uncle—when he came to visit my dad, he’d always have a new joke or a magic trick. … So for me, it’s a way of honouring his role in my early years, and his lifelong friendship with my dad.” It’s also a validation of “how much time and painstaking effort Ian has put into making the story ‘just right,’ and all the people close to him who’ve helped him over the years: for example, his ex-wife Gail supporting this dream, long after they divorced; and his pals who helped him perform Snowball at SickKids. This is huge for all of us.”
The book’s origins stretch back decades. “Ian never had any children, so I think this book was one way he could connect to his paternal side,” Gentle explains. Snowball “started as a challenge to himself, wanting to write a Christmas story that hadn’t been told before. He settled on a ‘Christmas mystery,’ and it just grew organically from there.” White’s dad was an artist who died at an early age from TB. And while White is not a particularly religious person, he suspects that his father had unfinished creative business, and may have used him as a vessel. As evidence, “he claims that whole sections of Snowball just came to him with perfect wording.”
While channelling this otherworldly inspiration, White worked on it like “a scientist,” Gentle explains, “scrapping whole passages, trying to find the right cadence, the right ‘swinging rhyme’ that at times is stilted and at other times, just happens to rhyme. As an example, he shares these playful verses his uncle once sent his father ahead of golf season:
“Have you game face ready, Freddie
And lots of loonie too
For you’ll be Loony Toons
The end of June
When I am through with you”
A Christmas mystery that sends tingles down the spine
Gentle’s deepest childhood memory of hearing the tale remains vivid. “What I remember most is the tingle down my spine I got when the story’s mystery was revealed. It felt like magic. And to be honest, I still get that tingle every time I read it, or even explain it to someone new. He just sets it up so brilliantly. Gets me every time!” He quotes a favourite passage:
“But, how did it get there?
Aha! Now that was the question.
Oh, there were all kinds of questions
But that was the best one.”
When White began performing the story at The Hospital for Sick Children (now known as SickKids), he entered a years-long phase of continuous revision and refinement, testing out different turns of phrase, pacing, and story elements with live audiences of children. Gentle eventually saw White perform Snowball live at the hospital in 2017. “He was adorable, with his homemade hearth, and his friend Les pressing play on a portable CD player.” That performance sparked their first collaboration: an audiobook. “Then, in early 2024, prompted by Ian’s health issues mounting, he expressed his wish to create the book, and I was more than happy to help him.”
At its heart, the story is about intergenerational connection, and evokes “that simple, olde time-y Christmas scene of sitting by the fire, curled up with a hot cup of cocoa… listening to a parent or grandparent reciting a story on Christmas Eve.” So Gentle knew the illustrations had to capture that warmth. White had drawn his own illustrations for the original DIY version of the book that he used during SickKids performances. “They were simple and charming, but not really professional quality.” Due to the modest budget to make the book, Gentle initially experimented with AI image generators, but quickly rejected the images for being “soulless and antithetical to the heart of our story”. When he discovered Vancouver, BC-based illustrator Sarah Cowan, he loved her “warm and friendly” hand-drawn style immediately. Together, they drew inspiration from Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman and the expressive charm of Robert Munsch’s frequent collaborator, Michael Martchenko. Cowan’s preferred medium is coloured pencils, which she used exclusively to illustrate Snowball: A Christmas Dilemma. “I think Sarah’s illustrations are beautifully composed and balanced to bring the story to life.”
Official book of the Santa Claus Parade
Recently, Snowball achieved a milestone beyond anything Gentle imagined: it was named the official children’s book of the 2025 Toronto Santa Claus Parade – the result of a cold call to Becky Conroy, the Director of Business Development at the SCP. The news left Gentle elated. “When our call ended, I literally jumped up and cheered like we’d scored the Stanley Cup game- winning goal.” It felt like “pure joy, excitement and validation… that Snowball was destined to become a real book that would be read and shared with a wide audience this Christmas, and maybe, just maybe, become a part of families’ Christmas traditions for generations to come.”
Snowball: A Christmas Dilemma is available for presale at snowballchristmasstory.com, with pickup options available in Toronto and online orders at Amazon.ca. Gentle will be at the Bloor & Brunswick Public Stage (11:00 am – 5:00 pm) for their Santa Claus Parade partnership doing readings, sharing free colouring pages, and have author signed copies on hand and at Doug Miller Books (10:00 am – 6:00 pm).
© Arpita Ghosal, Sesaya Arts Magazine 2025
