This week I'm sharing five of my favorite Christmas books with you.
We have several holiday themed books, including a few just for fun about Santa Claus or reindeer or whatever. Those are fun for the kids to look at and read once a year.
Then there are a few that rise to the top as "must reads" for us:
1.The Family Read Aloud Christmas TreasurySelected by Alice Low and illustrated by Marc Brown (of the Arthur books & PBS show). We have several treasuries in our holiday book collection, but this one is the one my children reach for most. Full of poems, stories, and excerpts from longer books.
2.Christmas in the Big Woodsadapted from the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, illustrated by Renee Graef. The Christmas chapters in any of the Little House books are always favorites. The illustrations in this are lovely, and the adaptation makes it suitable bedtime reading for a younger child. Our 4 year old loves this one.
3.The Twelve Days of Christmas: A Celebration and History
by Leigh Grant. We have several book versions of this but this one is full of gorgeous illustrations, history, and related poems. (For a close 2nd see this version:The 12 Days of Christmas: A Pop-up Celebration
)
4.The Christmas Day Kittenby James Herriot, illustrated by Ruth Brown. This is a little wordy for a picture book, but if you have animal lovers in your family, it will be a hit. Don't let that boring cover fool you: once again, the illustrations are gorgeous.
5.The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey
by Susan Wojciechowski, illustrated by P.J Lynch. A lovely story to go along with gorgeous illustrations. We sometimes divide this over several nights because there is quite a bit of text on each page but it is definitely worth the time.
What are your favorite Christmas books?
Recommended Resources:
Looking for a great gift for a child? Maestro Classics are a favorite in our house:
3.The Twelve Days of Christmas: A Celebration and History
5.The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey
The Christmas Miracle of Jonathon Toomey is on it's way to our house because of several recommendations. I haven't read it yet but I'm glad to hear your family likes it too. I was hoping it would arrive today because the new tradition this year is Christmas book gifts on St. Nicholas day. That's really more of a present for me because I just love picture books and needed an excuse to indulge.
We just finished The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumor Godden and it was delightful. It's another long picture book but we spread it out over a week and the pictures (Barbara Cooney) are so gorgeous that Lucy doesn't mind looking at the same one for a long time.