Santa’s Brother Sandy Saves Christmas

A festive book collab with Simpsons writer Mike Reiss

I knew something had gone very wrong, in the best possible way, when I found myself emailing jokes back and forth with Mike Reiss and not immediately being escorted out of my own inbox.

Mike Reiss, for context, is one of the architects of The Simpsons. Not “worked on it once”. Not “around later”. I mean Season one. Original run. Multiple Emmys. The kind of résumé that makes you instinctively sit up straighter, even if you’re alone in your studio wearing track pants and eating toast you forgot about.

So when I say we collaborated on a Christmas book in 2022, I don’t mean that in a casual, LinkedIn way. I mean, I genuinely got to help make a thing with someone who has written jokes that rewired my brain as a kid. (When I quote lines from The Simpsons, I’m often quoting HIS lines.) I was asked to make this book by Marty at the Weekly Humoris (Humorist Books) in 2022, and I was very flattered to be approached to do it.

The book is called Santa’s Brother Sandy Saves Christmas, which already tells you most of what you need to know. Santa has a brother. His name is Sandy. He is not famous. He is not qualified. He is doing his best in the same way you or I might “do our best” when asked to organise Christmas lunch for 25 relatives with dietary requirements and unresolved emotional issues. He’s chilling on the beach with his piña colada and letting the rest of the world deal with being grown-ups.

Sandy is chill. Sandy is underestimated. Sandy is extremely relatable.

Mike’s writing in this book is exactly what you’d hope for and quietly awesome to witness up close. He writes jokes the way some people chop vegetables. No fuss. No sentimentality. If a line doesn’t work, it’s gone. No speeches. No explaining why it should have worked. Just gone, like it never existed. Watching that process made me realise how much emotional attachment I have to my own mediocre jokes.

My job was to draw Sandy in a way that looked like Santa had been reincarnated as Jimmy Buffet. (RIP)

And it is funny. It’s for kids, yes, but it’s also for adults who read children’s books at night and tell themselves it’s for “research”. It’s about family roles, unrealistic expectations, and the dull panic of being handed responsibility you didn’t ask for.

Which is Christmas, really.

If you’re looking for a gift that isn’t another scented candle or something labelled “limited edition” but emotionally hollow, this is a solid option. It’s a proper book. With jokes. And drawings. Made by real people. One of whom helped invent half the modern comedy landscape, and the other of whom is just happy to be here.

Buying it supports that kind of work continuing to exist. Also, it might make you laugh, which feels like a decent Christmas outcome.

‘til next time

your pal