Christmas Books

One of my favorite ways to slow down and enjoy the Christmas season is by reading good books with our kids.  It is too easy to get carried away in "doing" that we forget why we're doing it.   It's also too easy to get so busy that we don't just come together as a family. I want to share a few we've enjoyed, some old, some new.  I love hearing things like, "Oh yeah!  I remember that story!" or "Read this one, Mom!"

*Most mornings, the kids and I read Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room by Nancy Guthrie.  There's a short devotion on advent for every day leading up to Christmas.  It's written for families- simple enough for kids yet full of truth.
*The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson was new to me this year and I loved it!  I got teary at the end of this chapter book.  Imagine children who have never heard the real Christmas story, throw in a lot of humor, and you've got a wonderful read-aloud.  (There were a couple of places I chose to skip- benefit of reading aloud!)
*The Peterkin's Christmas was also new this year.  The Peterkins, from The Peterkin Papers are silly and funny as they get their "you-know-what" ready for Christmas in this picture book.  Sammy and Lucy especially like this one.
*Something else we enjoy is reading a Christmas chapter out of most of our Little House books.  Most (if not all) of the books have one.  Today we read "Mr. Edwards Meets Santa Claus" from Little House on the Prairie.  It was a cozy read that gave us an idea about what a frontier Christmas could have been like.
*Some others, though not all, that we like this time of year:
Snowmen At Christmas by Caralyn Buehner
Silver Packages by Cynthia Rylant
The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg
The Little Fir Tree by Margaret Wise Brown