I love children's books. Heck (how utahn is that word?!), I love most books. I thought I'd share a list of our Christmas stories. Perhaps you'll find a new one for your family to enjoy. Share your favorites so I can find new ones too!
Annika's Secret Wish by Beverly Lewis I like this book because it reminds me of my swedish heritage and my Grandma Kerksiek. It has beautiful pictures and a nice story.
Hannah's Christmas by Melissa Peterson Another book that supports our Swedish heritage.
The Miracle of the Wooden Shoes by Deborah Pace Rowley A story about the true meaning of Christmas and serving others. This story also reminds me of my German Heritage (We are a mish-mash of heritages. Just means we have lots of different traditions.) It might be fun to start the shoe tradition in our family.
The Tomten and the Fox by Astrid Lindgren This is a swedish story. My parents read this to us as children every Christmas. I love the pictures of the isolated farm at night and the story of the little tomten watching over the humans.
The Tomten by Astrid Lindgren The other swedish tomten book from my childhood. Love it still.
This is the Season Beloved of the Year artwork by Simon Dewey I love Simon Dewey's artwork. This pictures go along with the words to the primary song of the same name. There are always timely quotes by prophets and apostles and scriptures from both the Bible and The Book of Mormon.
A Night Without Darkness A Nephite Christmas Story by Timothy Robinson This story tells of events in the Americas among the Nephites leading up to Christ's birth.
Jesus is Born by Sherrie Johnson This book was written by the mother of my good friend from Dallas. It is about the birth of the Saviour from the Nephite point of view.
A New Star in Heaven A Christmas Story from the Bible and the Book of Mormon by Val Chadwick Bagley, text by Tamara Beckstrand This is a lift-the-flap board book and great for a quiet sacrament meeting activity.
The Night Before Christmas A Little Golden Book Edition. This classic story is from a classic publisher. Love Little Golden Books!
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer A Golden Book I love Little Golden Books. Great illustrations for a must have story.
The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore illustrated by Bruce Whatley I love the illustrations in this version of the classic poem.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer by Robert L. May illustrated by David Wenzel This is the original version of the holiday classic. Mr. May wrote this story when he worked bor Montgomery Ward department stores. The store asked him to write a sotry they good give away to customers. Eventually he persuaded the company to turn the copywrite over to him and the rest is history!
The Littlest Angel by Chales Tazewell I love this story and it's retro illustrations. I don't read it aloud often because it is quite long for a picture book. But it is one of my favorites.
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens illustrations by Roberto Innocenti Classic. Must read. I love the illustrations by Roberto Innocenti. It is the original text, unabridged
Books by Jan Brett have such wonderful page layouts. There is another story going on in the pictures on the borders of each page.
Christmas Trolls by Jan Brett Another cute story from Jan Brett. I like the trolls especially.
A New Improved Santa by Patricia Rae Wolff This book has a nice vintage feel with a new twist about Santa. Super cute.
Clifford's First Christmas by Norman Bridwell One of my children picked out this book. Mostly it is one the little kids like to read.
Angelina's Christmas by Katharine Holabird Cute story aout the little dancing mouse. Perfect for little girls.
Carl's Christmas by Alexandra Day While leaving a rott weiler to watch a baby is a little unbelievable, the pictures are cute and you can make up your own story every time.
The Polar Express by Chris Van Alsburg I love Van Alsburg's illustrations and his stories. They are unexpected. I still enjoy the book much more than the movie.
Merry Christmas, Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish I love Amelia Bedelia. She gets into so many predicaments because she is so literal! Funny book.
We Three Kings by Gennady Spirin This book has sumptuous pictures that illustrate the words to the carol of the same name.
The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski illustrated by P.J. Lynch This well know story about a grieving wook carver has pictures that looke carved. I love the story and the textures.
The Animals' Christmas Eve A Little Golden Book Another classic! It's a cute counting book that set in the stable on Christmas Day.
The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado Sweet Christmas story, nice soft illustrations.
Christmas Oranges retold by Linda Bethers illustrated by Ben Sowards Classic story
This is the Star by Joyce Dunbar and Gary Blythe I really like the illustrations in this book. It is also written in a this-is-the-house-that-jack-built kind of style. But to read aloud.
A Normal Rockwell Christmas This book has a collection of stories, poems and carols (sheetmusic included). It is one of my favorites from my childhood. I love each of the stories and what's not to love about Normal Rockwell illustrations.
The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen illustrated by Vladyslav Yerko Vibrant pictures accompany this classic fairy tale. It has 7 shorter stories within it.
White Snow Bright Snow by Alvin Tresselt Fun seasonal book, especially for us snow-free Texans.
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats I've loved this book about snow for a long time.
Dora Saves the Snow Princess by Dave Aikins Not really a Christmas book, but currently one of Hazel's favorite seasonal stories.
The Nativity by Francesca Crespi It's a pop-up book. Lots of fun. It is also a nativity scene (which I collect).
The Christmas Alphabet, The Twelve Days of Christmas, and Winter's Tale by Robert Sabuda More pop-up books. These are intricately cut and beautifully done. These books also don't stay on the bottom shelves and are usually looked at very carefully by little children with the help of a big person.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson Just a fun book to read.
Davey's First Christmas by BethVardon, illustrated by Charlot Byj This is the story that my Grandma used to read to us every Christmas Eve. And we read it every Christmas Eve too.
So that's my list. What are some of your family's favorites?
I love the Tomten books - they are a fave in our household too.
ReplyDeleteI will need to get my Christmas books out - I used to do a Christmas Book Advent Basket. I wrapped the books and we opened one each day. For a few years, I did the same for my kids' classes at school - I included Hannukuh and Kwanza too - it was a big hit.
As a consequence of this, I acquired a large number of books - I keep them in a box during the year, but should probably keep them on the shelves year round.
You have a number of our faves on your list - but I would add What Child is This? by Caroline Cooney, Skipping Christmas by John Grisham, The Forgotten Carols by Michael McLean, The Modern Magi by Carol Lynn Pearson, A Christmas Thief by Carol Lynn Pearson, The Day They Gave the Babies Away by Dale Eunson (these are adult or adolescent Christmas books btw.)
For kids I'd add How Six Found Christmas by Trina Hyman, Morris's Disappearing Bag by Rosemary Wells, Max's Christmas by Rosemary Wells, Star Mother's Youngest Child by Trina Hyman, Christmas in the Barn by Margaret Wise Brown and of course, it's not Christmas here without Babar and Father Christmas by Jean de Brunhoff!!
Thanks for sharing!!
I love children's books and I especially love christmas books. We are reading one every Sunday after we sing. Even Axel likes this tradition.
ReplyDeleteI need more books :)
ReplyDeleteYour blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
ReplyDeleteNot sure where to post this but I wanted to ask if anyone has heard of National Clicks?
ReplyDeleteCan someone help me find it?
Overheard some co-workers talking about it all week but didn't have time to ask so I thought I would post it here to see if someone could help me out.
Seems to be getting alot of buzz right now.
Thanks