Every year at Christmas time, my mom pulled out the Christmas books that had been packed away for the past 11 months.
One book in particular that holds very fond memories for me is this one:
This book had a popout manger scene, a wheel you turned to make the star sparkle and I would spend hours looking at this book and playing through it’s pages.
I love having good books lying about all year round, but I particularly wanted this Christmas memory for my own children. However, I’ve fallen drastically short in the Christmas book department. The ones you see above are pretty much it. There are a couple others that are pretty meaningless twaddle that I’d like to get rid of, but I’d want to have something to replace them if possible.
So, I’d like to hear about your favorite children’s Christmas books! Leave your comments here so I can build my library for next year!
We have a lot of Christmas books we love. Here are the ones that come to mind: Room for a Little One, The Tiny Star, God Gave us Christmas, The Most Precious Gift, The Wild Christmas Reindeer, The Legend of the Candy Cane, Madeline’s Christmas, The First Christmas, Polar Express, Holly Claus, Great Joy.
I’m especially drawn to wonderful illustrations. I have a few really old 1920s and 1930s versions of the 12 Days of Christmas and the Nigh Before Christmas that have awesome illustrations – bought them at tag sales!
And, my kids also love the Little Critter, Olivia, Bernstein Bears series type of books.
I’m so glad you are doing this. I want to get some more books for my bigger kids since we have quite a few board books. One of my favorites is the Legend of the Candy Cane since it includes the Gospel message.
My brother’s family bought our kids a great book a few years ago. It is called Follow the Star all the way to Bethlehem by Alan and Linda Parry. It has become a family favorite. It has popups and games inside of it. The recommended age is 5-9.
Sherie
My neighbors just lent our family that book and my children 5 & 3 LOVE it. My three yr old is a boy and I think I agree w/the recommended ages as he can be rough. He loves me reading it tho and watching his sister “play” the games. Good suggestion
We are currently reading a Lamplighter Christmas book entitled The Candle in the Window. This is a short book (around 80 pages), but not a picture book.
Jacob’s Gift–Max Lucado
Once Upon a Christmas -Five “I Believe in Jesus” Read-Aloud Stories by William R. Goetz
Christmas in My Heart Collections edited by Joe Wheeler
an old book you might find–Told Under the Christmas Tree Favorite Christmas Stories compiled by Frances Cavanah…includes Hans Christian Anderson, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Dickens, GK Chesterton and many more
The Christ Child by Maud and Miska Petersham
The Birds’ Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggen
Merry Christmas Amy,
We have some favorite books that we like to read during the weeks up to Christmas that I would like to share with you.
One Wintry Night by Ruth Bell Graham~~ Mrs. Graham tells the story of Christmas for creation to Jesus’ resurrection. This book has been a part of our Christmas for about 12 years.
The Indescribable Gift by Richard Exley~~Mr. Exley writes this story from the view point of Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth, Zachariah, the shepherds, the wise men. The very people whose lives were first touched by the Savior.
We Believe in Christmas by Karen Kingsbury This is a sweet picture book.
My Son “Behold the Lamb of God” A View Of Jesus Through the Eyes of Mary by Jim Baumgardner~~We received, this book directly from the author, but we haven’t started it yet, it can be read both at Christmas and/or Easter/Resurrection Day.
I hope this helps you to find some new books to add to your Christmas celebration.
Blessings,
Tammi
A few years ago my MIL gave us The Legend of the Christmas Tree. We have made it a tradition to read this before decorating our tree each year. We usually set up the tree and get it all ready for decorations and then read the story before the first ornament is hung.
Also, I have a board book called The Story of Christmas. I put this with the Little People Nativity and the bigger kids read it to the littles as they use the pieces to “tell” the story.
I have a book called the Candy Cane Christmas that the kids love. I would prefer to find a “nicer” book that tells this story, but so far I haven’t looked, and the kids love our copy.
God Gave Us Christmas and The Stable Where Jesus Was Born are in the box as well as The ADVENTure of Christmas by Lisa Whelchel. I got this book for ideas for me, but the kids love it. It has stories of legends and craft ideas in it.
And for fun we have a beautifully illustrated copy of The Night Before Christmas and The Polar Express.
One of my favorite Christmas stories is “The Story of Holly and Ivy”. This year one of my kids favorite read over and over books is a Little Golden Book, The Christmas Story illustrated by Eloise Wilkin.
The Story of Holly and Ivy is one of my favorites.
Charlie Brown Christmas! And The Gift of the Christmas Cookie. The Legend of the Three Trees is good too.
My girls all love Holly Hobbie’s Christmas – the original published in 1980. Also, my old copy of the Poky Little Puppy’s First Christmas is sweet.
The Christmas Miracle of Johnathan Toomey is a sweet story.
Our favorites include “twas the Night before Christmas” , and “Room for a little one”.
This year i bought a new advent storybook that is super cute and sweet!! It’s called Advent Storybook: 24 Stories to Share Before Christmas. (I’m working on a blog post about it soon)
It’s really sweet and it points straight to Jesus!!
I like One Wintry Night by Ruth Bell Graham & This Is the Star by Joyce Dunbar. Both beautiful & meaningful.
We have several favorites that have been mentioned, including The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson is one of our all-time favorites. If you like Hans Christen Andersen, his “The Little Match Girl” is very sad but very beautiful. And O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi” is a great story, too. For little ones, If You Take a Mouse to the Movies is a fun read.
The books above are all wonderful books and I think we own most if not all. But no Christmas in our house would be complete without a dramatical reading of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! And I was just at a Mom’s Christmas party for our homeschool co-op last night where the hostess read us The Real 12 Days of Christmas. It’s an older book, sadly out of print, but goes through how the song came about, and what the religious symbolism is. I noticed that Amazon does have some used copies, so I may be ordering one for us. It was lovely. But maybe for older children?
Here’s two more to add to the list that haven’t been mentioned yet:
Christmas Soup by Alice Faye Duncan & Phyllis Dooley (my kids love this one! ages 5 &
The Legend of St. Nicholas by Dandi Daley Mackall
Merry Christmas!
Janelle
We love “God Gave Us Christmas” by Lisa Bergren.
That pop-up book is one of my favorite childhood memories, too! I have my tattered childhood version and one I picked up at a used book sale that is a later (and not as good) reprint.
Collecting Christmas books is a weakness of mine (or maybe we should just call it a tradition). I actually wrap much of the collection and then we unwrap two per day starting Dec. 1 as our Christmas countdown. Many of ours are still wrapped (including the pop-up), but some of our favorites that are unwrapped (or that I can remember) are Mary’s Treasure Box, Silent Night (illustrated by Susan Jeffers), An Early American Christmas by Tomie dePaola, The Christmas Day Kitten by James Herriot, William and the Christmas Moon (a shadow casting book), Jonathan’s Gifts, Make a Joyful Noise (a Christmas carol pop-up book), anything by Jan Brett, Christmas by Peter Spier, and The Jolly Christmas Postman. I divide the books into two sets and we open one from each set every day. One set is mostly the real Christmas story plus our several versions of “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” the other set is all books just for fun. Most of the above books fit in the “just for fun” category.
My VERY favorite rendition of the Christmas story we save for Christmas Eve and is illustrated by Maud and Miska Petersham. If you can get your hands on that one, by all means do! It starts with prophecy and goes through Jesus’ childhood (the trip to the temple, etc.) It also includes Anna and Simeon and the text is straight from scripture…not to mention the BEAUTIFUL illustrations.
Forgot one!
One Wintry Night by Ruth Bell Graham is the absolute BEST!!!! You must get it! It has a lot more text than the others and tells the story of creation through the resurrection but within the context of a Christmas story. It is BEAUTIFULLY illustrated, too! We use this one as our Bible story time during the 12 days of Christmas (Christmas through Epiphany) or sometimes for the 12 days leading up to Christmas.
We have several versions of The Night Before Christmas, but our favorite is “The Stable That Bob Built”. A VeggieTales Christmas story. It is very cute
We have a 7 month old and a 3 year old so for young ones we enjoy What God Wants for Christmas, The Sweet Smell of Christmas, The Story of Christmas board book, The Legend of the Candy Cane, and the Story of St. Nicholas board book.
We always read (and listen to) Annika’s Secret Wish by Beverly Lewis. We have the CD with it–read by Evie. It’s a favorite.
We also love The Christmas Tapestry by Patricia Polacco. It always makes me cry.
My kids also recommend The Year of The Perfect Christmas Tree.
Who is Coming to Our House, by Joseph Slate – the animals prepare a place for the baby. Sweet and simple for the littles, available as a board book or paperback.
Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl S. Buck. A man remembers the Christmas he was 15 and gave his father a gift from the heart. Beautiful illustrations, wonderfully told story of love and the simple, hardworking life on a farm.
Check out the book Good King Wenceslaus. The pictures are wonderful and the “moral of the story” perfect for any age of child OR adult! It tells the story of the King of Bolivia and his helping a poor family. An added bonus is that your kids will then know all the words to the song and know what they mean! http://www.amazon.com/Good-King-Wenceslas-John-Neale/dp/0802852092/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324056282&sr=1-2
We have an OLD copy (from when I was a child) of “Twas the night before Christmas”. Beautifully illustrated. Every Christmas eve, my husband dons a Santa hat, and reads it aloud!
We are reading through one as a family right now…Christmas Hearts by Tim Roehl. Each chapter is from the perspective of a different person of the Christmas story. It is geared for older children or adults, but our littles do pretty well sitting and listening. It also includes discussion questions at the end of each chapter, but we usually just have the children narrate or we discuss it together. I also would have to agree that The Gift of the Magi is wonderful.
Thanks for this post…I’m seeing some other good books in the responses that I would like to add!
We’ve been finding new (to us) Christmas books this year. So far, we love “Great Joy” by Kate DiCamillo and “Room for a Little One” by Martin Waddell.
Jotham’s Journey is our favorite, and we also enjoy “The Candymaker’s Gift – A Legend of the Candy Cane”.
Like Miranda, we also read the Advent Storybook. I wrote about it here: http://quetzalbilingualacademy.blogspot.com/2011/12/advent.html
Every year when my children were young we would read the book “The Twenty-four Days Before Christmas” by Madeline L’Engle. It is about a family expecting a baby, a snowstorm, a nativity with unusual animals and what Christmas really means. I hope it’s not out of print.
I just found it at Amazon and Barnes&Noble. Hardback, paperback, Kindle and Nook. Wow, a few years ago I had a horrible time finding a copy for a friend.
I do like your blog very much, it’s so refreshing and honest and encouraging. Christmas books – Kingfisher Book of Classic Christmas Stories (selected by Ian Whybrow), A Christmas Carol, We Believe in Christmas (Karen Kingsbury), Badger’s Christmas Day (A. and L, Parry), A Little House Christmas (young picture book version), The Legend of the Candy Cane (Lori Walburg), The Latke who couldn’t stop screaming (L. Snicket), Lion Storyteller Christmas, and numerous board books – favourite is the one with the lamb puppet through it.
We love “Jotham’s Journey”. Best ever advent story.
I come from a Catholic point of view but I highly recommend the Legend of the Poinsetta by Tomie DePaola. I also enjoy many of Max Lucado’s Legends, as well, such as the Legend of the Candy Cane.
I didn’t read all the comments so forgive me if I’m redundant. I don’t have a huge stash, either, and some of the ones we have I’m ambivalent about – like Arthur’s Christmas and some of the Pooh board books.
Someone gave us The Candymaker’s Gift, which tells the true story behind the candy cane. And another cute story we enjoy – but doesn’t have a Christian message, necessarily – is Bear Stays Up for Christmas.
I suppose there are many different versions of The Nutcracker, and my daughter loves reading the one we have – and today we went to see the ballet! It was fun.
Our favorites here are Room for a little one and The Tale of Three Trees. You can find them both on amazon. They are great books.
I love J is for Jesus, it’s a cute story. I think we’ll be bringing it out for years to come. Complete with candy canes
http://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Sweetest-Story-Ever-Told/dp/0310708915/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1324104134&sr=8-1
A few of our favorites:
The Gift of the Christmas Cookie by Dandi Mackall
The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski
A Song in Bethlehem by Marni McGee
The Christmas Journey by Sally Fisher
On my wish list:
Jotham’s Journey and other titles by Arnold Ytreeide
I’ve heard so many wonderful reviews about his books!
Happy hunting!
My favorite children’s Christmas book is The Little Donkey by Gerda Marie Scheidl. It shows us that no one is too lowly to be loved by the King.
I love One Wintry Night by Ruth Graham Bell. I think that’s my favorite. My family has also enjoyed the Jotham’s Journey Triology advent stories.
I LOVE Christmas books! Ones I recommend are:
Humphrey’s First Christmas (Christmas story from the viewpoint of a wise man’s camel)
Bear Stays up for Christmas (love the whole Bear series. It doesn’t mention Jesus and there is a small picture of santa but it’s a very sweet book about friends loving and taking care of each other at Christmas. It’s very nice addition to a collection).
Mortimer’s Christmas Manger. (A mouse tries to kick out the nativity statues to move in to the little stable…until he hears just who this little baby statue is)
An Angel Story by Max Lucado (it’s a read a loud or read alone for older kids, >7 maybe. No pictures. It’s a story about what goes on in the spiritual world between God, the angels and satan as the Christmas story unfolds. Awesome and exciting!)
Fear Not Joseph (the story of Christmas from Joseph’s point of view)
This is the Stable by Cynthia Cotten (sweet rhyming book with great pictures)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (I’m sure you know this one but I’m adding it b/c it’s often overlooked. Though no mention of Jesus I LOVE this story’s emphasis on how “Christmas doesn’t come from a store” added to Christian Christmas books it’s great and fun)
-The Gift of the Christmas Cookie (great to remind kids that others have very little and a nice story about the origins of Christmas Cookies)
Books I love that were already mentioned (or you already have)
-The Crippled Lamb (so worth it to get the bigger copy. Ours has a CD. One of my very favorites!)
-Room for a Little One
-One Wintry Night
My children love Mr Willowby’s Christmas Tree (where the top of the tree keeps getting cut off and passed down to other creatures) and Why Christmas Trees Aren’t Perfect (although desiring to look perfect a small pine sees the joy of housing the forest animals). Both a of good length and meaning.
I’ve also enjoyed Arch Books version of the Christmas story in poem form from the different characters. We have Three Presents for Baby Jesus, Mary’s Christmas Story, and The Shepherd’s Christmas, all of which show accurate interpretations (ie. when the wise men visit Jesus he is a toddler).
Check out the list on Family Man Minstries site. They all look good. Here’s the link:
http://www.familymanweb.com/christmas
Thanks!
You may like my Christmas book for children,
The Rescueteers’ Christmas Mission. I have had great reviews. I am reading the entire book on YouTube. Your kids will enjoy a little Irish storytelling for Christmas. I also have a free eBook & mp3 download available on my website for Christmas.
Best Wishes for the Holidays,
Annette
This blog post inspired me to buy a couple of Christmas books…I found Room for a Little One that has been mentioned lots…and I love it! I also found The First Christmas by Carol Heyer, it is great and also has the salvation message at the end! Merry Christmas!
Good to hear! I’m anxious to add to my collection!
I got these new ones this year – http://www.happylittlehomemaker.com/2011/12/new-christmas-books-read-aloud-thursday/
I also like (board book): Lost Little Donkey. SOOOOOOOO cute.
We are just starting our collection, too.
My kids all love “Where’s the Baby King?” by Karen King. It has lift the flaps on each page which is still a big deal even to the older kids.
. It tells the story of a shepherd boy that saw the angel appear and is looking for the baby king. He is joined by several other people along the way as he relays the message of the angel to each one.
I did a post on some of our favorite Christmas books (and my sister’s doing some reviews on her blog. http://whatsoeveryedo.blogspot.com/2011/12/favorite-christmas-books.html
I hope you find some new suggestions there.
Merry Christmas to you and yours!
I really like “The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Tomey”
http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Miracle-Jonathan-Toomey/dp/1564023206
and of course the Grinch who stole Christmas!
This comment is a little late, but perhaps for next year. This isn’t a book, but radio theater cds. It is called “Traveling Home for Christmas” The description is “four stories that journey to the heart of the holiday by O. Henry, Leo Tolstoy and Anthony Trollope.” The stories include The Gift of the Magi, Christmas Day at Kirkby Cottage, The Shoemaker’s Gift (my favorite, probably because of the baby and the mommy) and Christmas by Injunction. Even our younger children love to listen to these (ages 2 and up – not sure the 2 month old cares so much). Just a thought. Bought it on Amazon.com.
You might be interested in my newest release: My Son. It is a look at the life of Christ through his mother’s eyes. God bless.