Are you looking for picture books and read-alouds to share with your children this Christmas season? The following books are a collection of our personal family favorites, including Christmas legends and folktales, beloved Christmas carols, art & history connections, and stories that focus on love, joy, and generosity while also celebrating the Greatest Gift ever given!
If you need a way to enjoy the books year after year, one of our favorite Christmas traditions has become our Christmas book countdown! At one time, we simply placed all the books in a basket, but we seemed to only read a few over the course of the month. A few years ago, we placed them into 25 separate bags and opened one per day leading up to Christmas.
We’ve enjoyed the books even more as we look forward to the surprise of which one might be next! We’ve used these 10×12″ muslin bags for our smaller books, but then we found some similar to these 12×16″ muslin bags which fit a much wider range of book sizes. You may even opt for these red muslin bags or just a set of regular drawstring gym bags. We used simple tags available at Walmart or any store that carries basic office supplies, but I also found these lovely pre-numbered gift tags.
If you’re new to this tradition, you can implement it without breaking the bank! Here are a few ideas for getting started:
- If you only own 3-5 Christmas books, make it a weekly countdown starting out.
- If you own anywhere between 5-25 books, instead of using 25 tags, use specific numbers representing specific dates to open each book you own, spacing them out somewhat evenly over the advent season.
- Check out Christmas books at your local library.
- Shop used. Thriftbooks is one of our favorite places to grab discounted books. (Sign up here to get a free book with a purchase of $30.)
This following list will be updated as we check out additional titles this season, and I hope to include a short summary for each book in the coming weeks.
A special thank you goes out to our three oldest boys for helping me sort through a boatload of books to find our favorite family favorites. This post was truly a family effort! (I’ve placed an asterisk by our top 25.)
To see this list in our Amazon storefront, click here.
Christmas Legends & Folktales
The Tale of Three Trees: A Traditional Folktale by Angela Elwell Hunt. This is good for both Christmas and Easter.
The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg.
*Legend of the Christmas Cookie by Dandi Mackall (Earlier editions are under the title Gift of the Christmas Cookie). This sweet story explores the tradition of baking Christmas cookies to share with others and includes a sugar cookie recipe so you can start your own tradition!
*The Legend of the Christmas Tree by Rick Osborne. An “ultimate” favorite of our 14-year-old son. Includes interesting historical tidbits of church history.
Christmas Carols
*The Friendly Beasts: an Old English Christmas Carol by Rebecca St. James. This includes a CD of the song, along with an audio narration. Lovely illustrations and beautiful song!
*Stephen’s Feast by Jean Richardson. Our family has loved this story of Good King Wenceslas . We originally bought it because our oldest son’s name is Stephen.
Oh, Come, Little Children by Anita Reith Stohs
*The 12 Days of Christmas: The Story Behind a Favorite Christmas Song by Helen C. Haidle
*The Little Drummer Boy by Ezra Jack Keats. A favorite author illustrates one of our favorite Christmas carols.
Christmas with Art Connections
The Glorious Impossible by Madeleine L’Engle (Author), Giotto (Illustrator). Illustrated with Frescoes from the Scrovegni Chapel by Giotto, this recounts the main events of the life of Jesus using L’engle’s fabulous storytelling paired with Giotto’s artwork. A great book for Christmas and/or Easter.
If Picasso Had a Christmas Tree by Eric Gibbons. An “ultimate” favorite of our 14-year-old and 10-year-old.
Toddler Boy Favorites (aka, Christmas with Things that Go!)
*Little Blue Truck’s Christmas.
*Construction Site on Christmas Night.
An Otis Christmas.
The Polar Express.
Love, Joy, and a Heart of Giving
*The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski. My favorite Christmas book!
*An Orange for Frankie by Patricia Polacco. Polacco’s books are a gem! She is one of my favorite children’s book authors.
*The Trees of the Dancing Goats by Patricia Polacco. Great story of Jewish and Christian holiday tradition.
A Wish to Be a Christmas Tree by Colleen Monroe.
Why Christmas Trees Aren’t Perfect by Richard Scheider. This one appears to be out of print, but it’s a sweet story of sacrifice with a setting in medieval times.
Bear Stays up for Christmas by Karma Wilson
*The Sparkle Box: A Gift with the Power to Change Christmas by Jill Hardie. This one starts our Christmas picture book advent countdown on December 1. We set up our sparkle box and add to it all season! (This one appears to be out of print, but if you can find it, it’s a great way to kick off the season!)
The Clown of God by Tomie dePaola
Joy to the World: Christmas Stories and Songs by Tomie dePaola. This collection of Christmas songs and stories includes three of dePaola’s books, The Legend of the Poinsettia, The Story of the Three Wise Kings, and The Night of Las Posadas.
*The Carpenter’s Gift: A Christmas Tale about the Rockefeller Center Tree by David Rubel
*Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl Buck. A wonderful gift of service is given by a son to a father.
*Legend of the Christmas Cookie by Dandi Mackall. This sweet story explores the tradition of baking Christmas cookies to share with others and includes a sugar cookie recipe so you can start your own tradition!
Humorous Christmas Stories
*Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree by Robert Barry. An “ultimate” favorite of our 7-year-old son!
*Mortimer’s Christmas Manger by Karma Wilson
How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
Quomodo Invidiosulus Nomine Grinchus Christi Natalem Abrogaverit: How the Grinch Stole Christmas in Latin. A Christmas classic in a classical language!
Christmas within Historical Events
*Christmas Tapestry by Patricia Polacco (Polacco’s books are a gem!)
Christmas from Heaven: The True Story of the Berlin Candy Bomber by Tom Brokaw
Shooting at the Stars by John Hendrix
Christmas in the Trenches by John McCutcheon
Franklin and Winston: A Christmas That Changed the World by Douglas Wood
A New Coat for Anna by Harriet Ziefert
Wintry Days
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. Beautiful illustrations combine with a favorite poem by Robert Frost.
Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
Longer Family Read Alouds
*The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson. When the raucous Herdman children volunteer to participate in the church’s Christmas pageant, the result is rather unpredictable. An “ultimate” favorite read aloud of our family, this one has us in stitches every time. (Note: Be forewarned that the Herdman children display awful, rowdy, uncanny behavior at the beginning of the story, but they are such dynamic characters and go through such a heart change due to the message of Christmas that your heart melts by the story’s end. It’s a reminder of living out Christ’s words “Suffer the little children to come unto me..” )
The Birds’ Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin. A beautiful story of a little girl (Carol) who is born on Christmas Day to the Bird family and lives her short life bringing love and joy to others. (This story may bring both laughter and tears to your family.)
A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck. A humorous book recounting the year in the life of a pastor’s family who moves to a new town. This book introduces delightful elderly characters and includes fantastic themes of friendship. Note: A Season of Gifts includes a bullying/hazing scene (which was not presented as funny), a scene involving drunkenness (but not presented in a good light), and a vague reference to a shotgun wedding.
The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson. An old hermit enjoys his solitary life until he finds himself growing to love a homeless family living under a bridge in Paris. Sweet, sweet story!
The Story of the Other Wise Man by Henry Van Dyke. A short read-aloud featuring a fourth Wise Man who sells everything to buy three jewels for the newborn Christ Child. Although he plans to travel to Bethlehem with the other Magi, he fails to meet up with them to make the journey. Although he spends his whole life searching for the Christ, he eventually gives away all three jewels to help others. In the end, his quest is fulfilled in unexpected ways.
*A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
A Tree for Peter by Kate Seredy
*Gabriel and the Hour Book by Evaleen Stein. A story about a little boy who works daily as a color-grinder at a nearby abbey helping the monks who make illuminated books. We’ve enjoyed this read-aloud multiple times. Free on kindle! Also free audiobook on Librivox!
*A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus. A story of three orphaned siblings who are evacuated from London to the countryside during World War II with the secret hope of finding a permanent family. The climax of this story takes place at Christmastime. Beautiful story!
Advent Devotions & Traditions
*The Advent Jesse Tree: Devotions for Children and Adults to Prepare for the Coming of the Christ Child at Christmas.
Unwrapping the Greatest Gift: A Family Celebration of Christmas by Ann Voskamp
*The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name by Sally Lloyd-Jones. Great for both Advent and Lent.
*Jotham’s Journey: A Storybook for Advent by Arnold Ytreeide. Wonderful, wonderful story with scheduled readings through the advent season, Jotham’s Journey takes us through a trek across Israel as Jotham encounters innkeepers, shepherds – and eventually the Savior – while in search of his family. These books can be intense for younger children, but our family has sincerely enjoyed them. The other three books in this series are: Bartholomew’s Passage, Tabitha’s Travels, and Ishtar’s Odyssey.
Treasuring God in Our Traditions by Noël Piper. A book providing inspiration and focus in the traditions we create within our family.
Download this list to take to the library! Just click here
Do you have favorite book not listed here? Please tell us about it in the comments!