Here are a few of our favorites:
Saint Nicholas, The Real Story of the Christmas Legend, by Julie Stiegemeyer
This book provides a very helpful way to explain to children the origin of the legend of Santa Claus. It's wonderful to tie this cultural icon to a real man who was seeking to live out the love of Christ, and the accompanying illustrations are beautiful.
The Legend of the Poinsettia, by Tomie dePaola
It's nice to have a book that shows how Christmas is celebrated in a culture different from our own. We often don't think about the significance of the poinsettia, though it is prominent at this time of year. This book tells the Mexican legend of the poinsettia with simple, colorful illustrations.
Christmas in the Big Woods, adapted from the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder
We've been reading the My First Little House Books series to Millie since before she was two years old. These short picture books are a nice way to introduce little ones to Laura Ingalls Wilder. I think what I appreciate about this particular book is the depiction of Christmas as a very simple holiday, with children who are thrilled just to receive mittens and a peppermint stick in their stockings.
Silent Night, The Song and Its Story, by Margaret Hodges
This lovely books tells the story behind the famous Christmas song, Silent Night. I love the illustrations which depict Christmas in a simpler time and place. This story is particularly special to us, because Franz Gruber, who wrote the music to Silent Night, is an ancestor of my husband's family.
While I do love to read books to the kids that help them learn a bit about the meaning behind certain Christmas traditions, some "just for fun" books are great too!
I am hoping to eventually own at least 25 Christmas books for our family, one for each day of December leading up to Christmas. I've read of families who have written the titles of their Christmas books on slips of paper, placed them in a basket or jar, then each evening selects one slip of paper to choose what book to read that night. However, since I limit myself to purchasing just a couple of books each year, we may still have a few years before we reach that goal.Here are a few other lists of Christmas books:
This one is quite exhaustive, and includes not only read-aloud books, but also movies and parent resource books for Christmas.
I'm also interested in a couple of the children's books on this list by author Catherine Newman, though this is not an exclusively Christmas list.
Then my friend Ginger has her list of their family's Christmas books, several of which I plan to put on my list of books to get for our family.
And last but not least, some suggestions from Madeline at Barefoot Childhood.
Happy Christmas reading!
This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday.
