Rachael Rachael, a mom of two daughters, is a freelance editor and writer who enjoys gardening and dreams of keeping chickens in her suburban St. Louis backyard. In her spare time, she helps to edit her husband’s science fiction books. Read more of Rachael's work at www.rachaelsjohnston.com or contact her by emailing [email protected].

Looking for some books to snuggle up with around the Christmas tree this year? In our house every holiday season, I set out a special basket of books about Christmas and winter. My daughters like to peruse these books when they aren’t busy dancing to Christmas music or playing with the Little People nativity play set. Here are a few of our Christmas books family favorites.

3 Worth Reading Christmas Books

A little Christmas reading a few years ago.

1.   The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson. I plan to try reading this chapter book aloud to my 5-year-old this year. I have a soft spot for the book because I played the narrator, Beth Bradley, in the stage play when I was 13 years old. It’s a lovely story about how “the worst kids in the whole history of the world” decide to visit their local church because of the promise of free sweets in Sunday school, and they end up participating in – some might say they hijacked – the church’s annual children’s Christmas pageant. The children learn some important lessons about the meaning of Christmas, as do the members of the congregation.

2.   

Letters From Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien. This little-known treasure was written by the author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Tolkien had four children, and each year he posed as Father Christmas and sent detailed, illustrated letters to his children describing events at the North Pole and the antics of Father Christmas’ assistant, the North Polar Bear. As with The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, this is a good read-aloud.

3.   

How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss. This classic deserves to be on any Christmas book list. Our family loves the charming story and illustrations, and we love to cozy up with hot chocolate in the living room and watch the television adaptation, too.

For good measure, a few other quality books in our reading basket include Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner that offers a peek at what snowmen do in the night and explains why your snowman might look a little lopsided, droopy, or otherwise worse for the wear in the morning. We also like If You Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numeroff. Another favorite is Bear Stays Up For Christmas by Karma Wilson, which tells how Bear’s friends help him stay awake to celebrate the holiday instead of hibernating.  What’s on your Christmas reading list?



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Category: Book Reviews

Tags: books