Every year I bring up our Christmas books and magazines, tuck them into a basket, and put them somewhere to catch our eyes. Our daily ‘breakfast and storytime’ becomes ‘breakfast and holiday magic’ time. The kids are either laughing or I’m crying, depending on the tale.
Here are a few that we all enjoy:
- The Christmas Ship by Morrisey – inspiring, true to the spirit of the season, paintings of incredible colours and light
- Great Joy by Dicamillo – makes me cry every time, but so simple and so powerful
- The Christmas Orange by Gilmor – what’s not to like about this one? An orange, perfect and mysterious, as an anecdote to greed
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss – great rhythm, great message, a lot of fun to read aloud, Sandra memorized it last year
- The Night Before Christmas illustrated by Jan Brett – the illustrations are like the season – full of many boxes with treasures to be discovered.
- The Baker’s Dozen: A St. Nicholas Tale by Shepard – great visual style, a wonderful message about the difference between honesty and generosity
- The Christmas Kitten by Heriot
- Poetry for Holidays edited by Larrick
Two the kids like better than I do:
- Snowmen at Christmas by Buehner – the rhythm is erratic in this rhyming and playful tale. Tias still likes to find the hidden cats, Santas, dinosaur
- Bear Stays Up at Christmas by Wilson – it was charming when they were younger, but now I find it too simplistic
If you can find it:
- Medieval Holidays and Festivals: A Calendar of Celebrations by Madeleine Pelner Cosman – wonderful resource for learning how the Christmas traditions of that period were so different from our own and yet form the root of them. 12 times 12…
I’m pretty excited about the books I discovered for the kids at a second-hand ship this year. Among them is A Newberry Christmas. I’m so excited to put together a reading treasure hunt for them to follow, with this and some hot chocolate mix and cookies at its end.
What stories are part of your family’s season? Christmas, soltice, wintertime… I’m always looking for wonderful stories, especially since part of our early December traditions include a new book for each child.
Handmade Homeschool 
I know what you mean about crying while reading some of these holiday books! Two that we discovered at the library last week had me in tears–Silver Packages by Cynthia Rylant and Apple Tree Christmas by Trinka Hakes Noble, and there a couple more we brought home which I suspect will have the same result. My kids seemed perplexed at why I was crying, and I was struggling trying to explain the “happy-sad” kind of crying…
We have a great Tomie dePaola illustrated edition of Twas The Night Before Christmas that we all love. My daughter is a fan of Crispin, the Pig Who Had it All, though it’s likely a bit below your kids’ level. The Olden Days Coat is a gorgeous story by Margaret Lawrence; it’s a lengthy picture book.
I just love Christmas reading!
The Christmas Kitten makes me cry, it’s just way toooo sad!
We have required Christmas reading here too – The Family Under the Bridge and Light at Tern Rock, both out of one of the Sonlight packages, and also some awful tat of “fairy magic” books that my very girlie girl insists I read to her too!
We have favorites too.
The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston
Santa Calls by William Joyce
Christmas in Noisy Village by Astrid Lindgren
All picture books.
I have also created a tradition of books in my family for Christmas. My daughter is 14 now and we have given her a Christmas book or two every year. We write the year somewhere inside the book and it’s amazing to look back at them all…we’ve outgrown our basket. I usually give it to her wrapped as an advent gift. We now have a 19 month old so the tradition will live on through him. There are some on your list that I need to get, so thank you. One of our faves is The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey.
Thank you too for posting so faithfully during what must be a very busy time in your household. Checking in on your blog and seeing something new is a little gift to me!
We love Christmas picture books too! The Nutcracker and The Night Before Christmas are 2 books that we own and like, but still take out of the local library to see other illustrators, or other versions.
In our new favourites this year, the kids enjoyed two fun ones : The Legend of Papa Noel (A Cajun Christmas Story) by Terri Hoover Dunham and Auntie Claus by Elise Primavera.
We are also reading aloud and enjoying (so far!) Kringle by Tony Abbott.
Thanks for the great post, we always like having new suggestions for reading!
The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming – I love this book.
Polar Express is another favorite for the illustrations.