Christmas Book Countdown

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I LOVE Christmas books for children, so the past couple of years, we’ve done a Christmas book countdown.



We start on Dec. 1 with 24 wrapped Christmas books.  Every night at bedtime, the boys unwrap one book and we read it (and a couple of other picture books.)  The past two years, I’ve let them unwrap the books randomly, but this year I’m numbering the packages. Our favorites at the beginning of December, so we can read them repeatedly throughout the month and ending with the Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve.

We own 24 Christmas books, mostly bought from garage sales.  Of course, we have a few favorites, and a few we’d like to get rid of.
 
Here are five of my favorites:

The First Christmas (Festive Pop-Up Book) This is my absolute favorite Christmas book, and is the book we will open Dec. 1.  It is a pop up book with gorgeous illustrations and an interactive element on each page.  It tells the story of the First Christmas in a way that children can understand and parents will love.  This book is no longer in print, but is still available on Amazon.


A Bad Kitty Christmas This book is a complete 180 from the previous one, but it is a surprisingly great book for kids!  We picked it up at our school’s book fair and I was less than excited to read it, but was pleasantly surprised.  I’m not a “Bad Kitty” aficionado, but my 6 year old is, and accurately predicted that the trouble-making feline would make amends in the end, and he did.



Are You Grumpy, Santa? A gift from a friend, this cute story is one of our favorites.  The simple, colorful illustrations and funny, rhyming text make a great read…one that you won’t get tired of if you end up reading it night after night.





Christmas in the Big Woods (Little House) I’m a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan (in case you hadn’t guessed) and I love this picture book, based on her novel, Little House in the Big Woods.  It’s neat to read what Christmas was like for Laura and her family in 1871, because our acreage was first settled in 1878 by a very similar family. (Our current house was built in 1907, and some of the doors were salvaged from the original 1878 house.)


Llama Llama Holiday Drama You can’t go wrong with the Llama Llama books, and this one doesn’t disappoint. Llama’s Holidrama meltdown is something that parents can easily relate to during the crazy holiday season. 





The next 5 books are ones that I HAVEN’T read, but want to order for my boys.


Bear Stays Up for Christmas (The Bear Books) Adam got one of the “Bear” books for his first Christmas, and we’ve collected a couple more since then.  They are beautiful stories of friendship between woodland creatures, and a favorite with both boys.



Little Blue Truck's Christmas Little Blue Truck is another family favorite, and we can’t wait to add this one to the collection.





Eric Carle's Dream Snow Pop-Up Advent Calendar We’re also big Eric Carle fans.  I just LOVE his illustrations.  This would make a good Dec. 1st book, but I haven’t ordered it yet, so we’ll probably awkwardly look at it mid December.





Snowmen At Christmas The same snowmen from Snowmen at Night, this book is sure to get some giggles out of my boys.







Olive, the Other Reindeer A modern classic, Olive is a dog who thinks she’s a reindeer. 







Do you have any more suggestions for my Christmas book list?  Send them my way!