I mentioned this last year, but we have continued this tradition this year and it is such a fun one. I pick 24 Christmas Classics- some we own, but most I get from the library- and during our family reading time each day we will sing a Christmas song and read one of these books. The books vary in length and many of them are picture books. I personally steer away from the commercialization of Christmas stories. Not that all the books we read are specifically about Christ, but they all teach a Christ-like lesson and fill our minds and hearts with that Christmas Spirit. When we run out of books it is Christmas day, and then we read the story of Christ's birth together as a family from the New Testament.
The kids really enjoy this tradition. Even Savanna looks forward to our Christmas books. Some we read every year because we love them so much, others are new. I am always searching websites and blogs that I follow to get new titles. If you have any special Christmas Stories, please share their titles with me! For those that are interested, I will list some of our favorites!
- The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomy by Susan Wojciechowski
- The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
- A Christmas Dress for Ellen by Thomas Monson
- Christmas Day in the Morning by Eve Bunting
- A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
- A Christmas Like Helen's by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock
- A Small Miracle by Peter Collington
- The Tale of Three Trees by Angela Hunt
- The Christmas Promise by Susan Bartoletti
- Apple Tree Christmas by Trinka Noble
- Why Christmas Trees aren't Perfect by Richard Schneider
- One Candle by Eve Bunting
Others we are reading for the first time this year:
- The Story of the Three Wise Kings by Tomie DePaola
- The Last Straw by Fredrick Thury
- Silver Packages by Cynthia Rylant
- A Cowboy Christmas by Audrey Wood
- The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg
- Under the Christmas Tree by Nikki Grimes
- Hurry! Hurry! Have You Heard? by Laura Melmed
- We Were There by Eve Bunting
- One Winter's Night by John Herman
2 comments:
so I was just at Barnes & Noble yesterday looking for "A Christmas Carol" - but all I could find were a full length version - a bit long for a bedtime story or this big pop-up version that was a bit more simple - but it was $20!!! Yeesh! Which copy do you use? And if you use the long version, how much do you read at a time?
I love reading Christmas books during the chreistmas season too...it's quite up lifting and I like the picture books too. I You are such an inspiration Holli and a good Momma!
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