Best Christmas Books

Enchanting books for the holidays

Christmas is here, and with it the pressure to find the very gift your child has pleaded for all year and trusts Santa Claus to come through on! While you’re out shopping why not take time out to visit the children’s section of your local bookstore?

The holiday season inspires the most wonderful stories of all, and you will enjoy reading about the magic of the winter season to your children as much as they’ll enjoy listening and looking at the beautiful illustrations.

We know that shopping for the perfect book can be a little overwhelming, so we’ve created a list of books that should appeal to all different tastes – both mom, dad’s and the kids’.

If you prefer classic tales with artful, even old fashioned illustrations, then consider these options: 

• The Polar Express, written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg, won the Caldecott Medal in 1986. The illustrations are beautiful, and they’ll envelop you as you read the charming tale of a little boy, laying awake on Christmas Eve eagerly anticipating the ringing bells of Santa’s sleigh, only to hear the hissing and squeaking metal of the Polar Express train instead. The Polar Express invites the boy to journey to the North Pole where he meets Santa Claus himself. This classic tale was made into a movie, but the charm of the story is still best discovered within Van Allsburg’s illustrations. 

 

• No Christmas is complete without The Night Before Christmas, originally published in 1823, and now an American classic, turning Clement C. Moore into a household name. In this Chronicle Books edition, Cooper Edens has compiled a collection of antique illustrations from the late 19th and early 20th Centuries worthy of total wonderment. 
• Candlewick Press recently published a new version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, with illustrations by P.J. Lynch. Their edition is very text heavy, appropriate for children ages 10 and up if they choose to read alone. But it’s a lovely choice for a family evening should you want to introduce your children to the classic tale this year by reading aloud to them. 
• Don’t forget to add Dr Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas to your collection. It’s a must-have!

If your child loves stories with familiar characters, then consider one of these two classics: 

• Merry Christmas, Curious George by H.A. and Margret Rey, tells the story of George, who decorates a Christmas tree for the children staying in a children’s hospital ward, keeping them all giggling with his monkey antics.
• In Angelina’s Christmas, written by Katharine Holabird and illustrated by Helen Craig, Angelina demonstrates both love and consideration for her old neighbor, Mr Bell, who is alone on Christmas Eve. In doing so she magically reveals a special secret about Santa Claus that makes Christmas even more special this year!

Of course, if your taste is more contemporary there are plenty of choices: 

• For a Christmas treat, bring home Robert Sabuda’s Winter’s Tale. Sabuda is the king of pop-up story books, and everyone in your family will marvel at the sheer creativity of his paper constructions that feature the wonders of a winter landscape. Sabuda also designed a pop-up version of The Night Before Christmas that is unbeatable. 
• You may recognize the darling Olive from Nordstrom’s Christmas shopping bags a few years back. Olive, the other Reindeer, written by J. Otto Siebold and illustrated by Vivian Walsh is the charming story of little Olive, a dog who reports to Santa Claus on Christmas Eve under the mistaken impression that he is a reindeer and his services are needed. 
• If you’ve ever wondered why your snowman looks a little wilted the morning after you built him, and were curious about what he got up to at night, then Snowmen at Night by Caralyn and Mark Buehner is your book! The illustrations are not only charming, they’ll keep you giggling the whole way through. 
• Our personal favorite is Auntie Claus by Elise Primavera, the perfect gift from the auntie in all of us. Auntie Claus is Sophie’s terribly mysterious great aunt; she wears a red gown with a fur collar, a diamond key around her neck, and disappears from Halloween right through to Valentine’s Day on ‘business’. Sophie is determined to find out who Auntie Claus is, and as you can imagine, it turns out she is very closely related to Santa Claus himself!

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