Today is Day Four of our 25 Days of Christmas Activities to do with your family. One of our favorite activities is to Read Christmas Books. We have two bins of books that we set aside each year on January 1 which come out again the day after Thanksgiving. Each year, both kids get a new Christmas Book for Christmas. Some years, I agonize over the exact right book to get. These books are from Mom and Dad and I inscribe them with the and “love Mommy, Daddy and sibling.”
How it Started
I have a Christmas Anthology from my aunt and uncle (oh, the stories are always about you, Aunt Vicki) which is inscribed Christmas 1980. And honestly, until more recently, I don’t think we read much beyond the second story when I was a kid. The first piece is “The Night Before Christmas.” The Samuel Clement Moore poem without any frills. But the second story. That’s the one I remember. It is the Christmas legend of the spider.
The spiders come out on Christmas Eve, after the family has gone to bed. They are overjoyed by the beauty of the tree. As they explore the beautiful tree, they leave their sticky, dull webs all over it. Jesus comes into the home and discovers what has happened. And because he knows that the family will be distraught if they come down on Christmas morning and find the tree this way, he changes the spider silk to tinsel. According to legend, this is why we hang tinsel on our trees.
I love that story. That story has stuck in my brain for 37 years. When I was pregnant with Sunshine, I read that story to her in the womb. And because of that story and that book, I decided that I wanted to give a “heirloom quality” book to my children each year at Christmas.
Heirloom Quality
So, when I say heirloom quality, I’m thinking of a couple of things. Each book needs to be hardcover and beautifully illustrated. I also want them to be timeless stories. Ones that they will cherish and love and want to read and pass on to their own children. Sunshine will get her ninth book this year and The Boy will get his seventh. And they love their books and we read them each year beginning the day after Thanksgiving or sometimes, if we can’t wait, on Thanksgiving night.
Read Christmas Books–10 We Love
(in no particular order)
One: Who Will Guide My Sleigh Tonight (Jerry Pallotta)
Unfortunately, it looks like this books is out of print. However, it is still available through Amazon. It is probably the funniest Christmas book we have. Santa debates the merits of all the animals who could potentially guide his sleigh. It makes my kids laugh and laugh. When Sunshine was in first grade, I read it to her class as a guest reader. All of those kids laughed and laughed as well. It is pretty silly when the giraffes get stuck in the telephone wires and the rhinos plow right through a house. And snakes. Did you know Santa doesn’t like snakes?
Two: The Night Before Christmas, illustrated by Jan Brett
I am not sure if there is anyone who illustrates books more beautifully than Jan Brett. The level of detail in her pictures are just astounding. It is a joy to read this story that is so well known because the illustrations never cease to amaze me or my kids. We find new things each time we read.
Three: How Do Dinosaurs Say Merry Christmas (Jane Yolen)
The Boy is obsessed with dinosaurs. Jane Yolen is one of my favorite authors for both kids and young adults. It’s a perfect combination. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Mark Teague illustrates. The dinosaurs in this book are funny and whimsical and do all the right things before Christmas to insure a visit from the big guy.
Four: Olivia Helps with Christmas (Ian Falconer)
Who can resist a pig named Olivia who just wants to help get ready for Christmas? She is so well intentioned and yet, things don’t seem to go her way. This is the original Olivia. The Ian Falconer Olivia. Before TV changed her Olivia. If you don’t think you like Olivia because of the TV series, check this one out.
Five: Cobweb Christmas (Shirley Climo)
I mentioned above that I love the legend of the spiders. The version that is in my treasured anthology of Christmas stories is almost entirely text. In looking for an illustrated version for Sunshine, I found this one: Cobweb Christmas. It expands on the story to include a poor, childless woman who is aunt (Tunda in German) to all. She loves all the animals and invites them in on Christmas Eve. All, that is except the spiders. She cleans well and shoos them all away. They sneak back in and leave their dull grey webs around. In this version, it is Santa who uses his powers to save Christmas by changing the silk to tinsel.
Six: Mortimer’s Christmas Manger
Karma Wilson is another favorite in our house. Perhaps one of the most well loved books in our house is Horseplay. And, she brings us Christmas joy with a sweet mouse named Mortimer whose hole in the wall is chilly and dank. He discovers a great little set up in the living room of the family’s house around Christmas time. The only problem? These statues are in the way. Each night he moves them out and sleeps in the perfectly sized bed with straw. Each day, the family returns the statues to their places.
It continues this way until he hears the father of the family reading the story of Jesus’s birth. Then he realizes the significance of the bed he has been sleeping in. He moves the statues back and moves into this cozy little gingerbread house just down the table. It is so charming and it reminds us of the real reason for Christmas.
Seven: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Dr. Seuss)
Daddy’s favorite is definitely How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It is the first one he will pick out the box to read when it is his turn to do the reading. If you don’t have a copy, this is a must add to your collection. Really, I don’t think I need to say more.
Eight: Llama Llama Holiday Drama (Anna Dewdney)
This books is a great reminder to not let all the things we “need” to do get in the way of slowing down to enjoy time with your family (which is really what this series of 25 Days of Christmas Activities is all about). Llama Llama is dragged around by Mama while shops, wraps, bakes, etc. All Llama Llama wants is to spend time with his Mama.
Nine: Bear Stays Up for Christmas (Karma Wilson)
Did I mention that we love Karma Wilson in our house? Did I mention Hogwash!? Her Bear series of books is also delightful. Bear Stays Up for Christmas is also a sweet book of friendship and family. A story about sharing the joy of Christmas through food and thoughtful gifts. Bear is hibernating, but his friends so want to share Christmas with him. So they try to keep him up. They decorate and share a meal. In the end, Bear is the only one who stays up for Christmas.
Ten: Just Right For Christmas (Birdie Black & Rosalind Beardshaw)
This lovely book, Just Right for Christmas, is the story of how a red piece of cloth purchased by the king is actually made into gifts for the princess down to a little field mouse. As each new person or animal sees the scraps left behind he or she figures out how to make a beautiful red gift for someone they love. It highlights the joy of being able to demonstrate love through simple means.
Plus One: The Christmas Fox (Amik McGrory)
I did the first half of the post from memory. But then, I had to go to the bin to finalize the last couple. And I couldn’t help but pull this extra. The boy is obsessed with dinosaurs, yes, but he is also obsessed with foxes. He has several stuffed foxes and a pretend one or two who pop in and out of our world, so when I saw The Chirstmas Fox last year, I knew that he needed that book to add to his collection.
The illustrations are beautiful and the fox is sweet and humble as other animals invite him to come to the barn on Christmas night. It is almost a little drummer boy story. The fox feels like he cannot go to the barn because he doesn’t have a gift to bring like hay or songs or starlight. In the end, the donkey tells him just to come because “it is enough.” And he enters the barn to see the baby in the manger. Another one that I really enjoy because it reminds of us of the real reason for Christmas.
Notably Missing
You might be wondering why I didn’t include The Polar Express in my list of Christmas Books to Read with your kids. But, that actually was a conscious choice. I love the story. The illustrations. The idea of the boy believing. I hate the last page when he suggests that most lose the ability to believe. That story ruined the jolly fellow for my niece. Around second grade she asked her mother why there would be so many Christmas stories about believing if it weren’t real.
We read it, but I always skip the last page. Now that Sunshine is doing almost as much of our night time reading as the grown-ups are, I am going to have to be even more careful.
Read Christmas Books with Your Kids
I hope you will join us and read Christmas books with your kids. Setting the Christmas books aside each year, allows them to become new again. And, it’s like visiting with old friends. I’ve heard of people who add to the tradition by wrapping the books and letting a child unwrap a new (old) book like an Advent Calendar. But, I prefer to let our kids rummage through our two bins and pull their favorites in their own order.
Oh and I’m always looking for those heirloom quality books and stories, so it you have some suggestions, please leave them in the comments below.
And if you are looking for more great activities to do with your kids this Christmas season, check out all my posts in 25 Days of Christmas Activities to do with your family.
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