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Christmas is just twelve short days away and, while we are busy preparing, I always like to take time out every day to snuggle up in front of the fireplace and read a few good books. Between our own books and the ones we have on loan from the library, we have quite a collection to choose from but we always have a few particular favorites that we can read over and over again. So, in celebration of these last 12 days before Christmas, we give you 12 of our favorite holiday books.
Favorite Christmas Books
Wake Up, Santa Claus! by Marcus Pfsiter
On the most important day of the year, Santa sleeps in and the day is becoming a (hilarious) disaster. He can’t get his reindeer to fly and his sack of toys won’t fit through the door. Then Santa wakes up and realizes it is all a dream. While the “just a dream” story is overplayed for us adults, the kids find it absolutely hilarious.
A Little House Christmas Treasury: Festive Holiday Stories by Laura Ingalls Wilder
This delightful collection of Christmas stories from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House series. My daughter particularly loves these stories and enjoyed hearing about how people prepared for and celebrated in the “olden times”.
The Christmas Tree Fairy by Marion Rose
The beautifully illustrated story of a girl named Meredith who always wanted to fly and wore her tattered fairy wings everywhere. As she is dreaming of flying, the Christmas Tree fairy drops her wand and needs Meredith to help retrieve it. On the way to return the wand, she comes across others with dreams like hers and she learns what it truly means to give.
Christmas Trolls by Jan Brett
We are huge Jan Brett fans and this is a definite favorite. A young girl named Treva is preparing for Christmas when she realizes that things are disappearing. It turns out some neighborhood trolls have been trying to steal Christmas and, upon seeing them grabbing and shoving one another and shouting “mine”, she decides to teach them the true meaning of the holiday.
The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett
Teeka is so excited that Santa asked her to get his reindeer ready to fly on Christmas Eve. After yelling at the rowdy reindeer to get them to listen, Teeka learns that she needs to treat the animals with kindness if they are going to be ready for Christmas. This book is filled not only with a lesson of kindness, but also stunning painted illustrations of all the preparations that are being made for the big day.
Lucia and the Light by Phyllis Root
This is a truly stunning story about the winter solstice and return of the sun. It even features a fearless female heroine who confronts the trolls who took the sun and, with the help of her white cat, brings it back to the Earth. A heartwarming story and with such rich language that I personally enjoy reading it again and again.
Olive the Other Reindeer by Vivian Walsh
Olive, the dog gets confused one day while listening to the radio when she hears “All of the other reindeer”, and thinks the song is talking about her. She decides to get to the North Pole to help Santa make all his Christmas deliveries, despite the fact that she is not a reindeer. My oldest son loves hearing this story after seeing the animated special on TV.
Max’s Christmas by Rosemary Wells
My boys enjoy watching Max and Ruby the cartoon so they love reading about Max’s efforts to avoid bedtime on Christmas Eve. When Max defies Ruby and stays up late anyway, he has a very special encounter with Santa Claus himself!
Christmas Is… by Gail Gibbons
Okay, I threw this one in here for me because I love Gail Gibbons’ nonfiction books for explaining things to children. This book does a wonderful job of explaining some of the traditions, symbols, and origins of Christmas to young children using simple text and colorful illustrations.
Santasaurus by Niamh Sharkey
My youngest son is in a dinosaur phase so he loves looking at this cute storybook about a dinosaur town that is getting ready for Christmas and the delivery of presents from Santasaurus. Kids will enjoy seeing the parallels between their Christmas traditions and those of the little dinosaurs in this unique storybook. Little ones will especially love all the colorful pictures.
And what list of holiday books would be complete without these two classics:
There are so many other wonderful holiday stories out there that we didn’t have room to include on this list. Tell Little Lake County what some of your family’s favorites are!
Find more book suggestions on our Bookshelf!
by Dawn T. (Volo)
Dawn is a former 1st grade and early childhood teacher turned to stay at home mom to 2 boys Dawn and her boys love journeying around Lake County and the Chicago suburbs to check out new places to play, restaurants, farms, gardens, museums, or anything that might be of interest to families with young children.
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