All the books in our Christmas Book Box
How We Homeschool is taking it easy this December. There will be How We Homeschooled Today posts, but they won’t be daily. There might be longer posts, but they won’t be frequent. And I’m going a bit quiet on Notes. I’m still here, but I don’t want to spend December staring at a screen, and more than that I’m really tired and this is one easy thing to drop. I hope you also have things you can drop this month. Humans might not hibernate but we certainly seem to slow down!
If you’d like to write me a How We Homeschooled Today guest post, send me an e-mail. I love reading your accounts of what homeschool looks like for your family.
All the books in our Christmas Book Box
I mentioned in How We Do Advent that one of our Advent activities is getting out the Christmas Book Box. I initially put all the Christmas books in a box because I got a little fed up of reading Pip and Posy’s Christmas in July, and because when the books have been away for 11 months everyone is much more excited to see them again.
Some of these books are from my own childhood. Some have stood the test of time, others really have not. Lots I picked up for free in a phone box library or for almost nothing in charity shops. They’re not all first class, but that doesn’t seem to bother the children, who have as much love for the rubbish ones from the 1980s as they do for the stone cold classics that I think every home should own. My children are just 6 and 8, so these books are good for babies onwards. Do Christmas books exist for teenagers? A whole new world awaits me on that front.
I would love you to share your own favourites in the Comments (or e-mail me). More Christmas books are always welcome!
PS I can no longer resize images in my posts. I’m baffled, but I also refuse to devote any more time to fixing it. So you have big images. But hey—they’re great images from great Christmas books. Who’s complaining?
For tiny people (but still loved by my not-so-tinies)
Pip and Posy The Christmas Tree by Axel Scheffler
The Christmas Wish (Peter Rabbit, but very much not Beatrix Potter)
Spot’s First Christmas by Eric Hill
Elmer’s Christmas by David McKee
The books I think every family should own
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats (also a delightful short film)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! by Dr Seuss
Father Christmas by Raymond Briggs (Ladybird reading version, comic strip version)
The Snowman by Raymond Briggs
The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore (presumably the best version of this book is the one you had when you were a child, but I can’t provide a link to that)
Dogger’s Christmas by Shirley Hughes
Mog’s Christmas by Judith Kerr
Lucy and Tom’s Christmas by Shirley Hughes
Harvey Slumfenburger’s Christmas Present by John Burningham
Christmas in Exeter Street by Diana Hendry (why does this book not have thousands of Amazon reviews? Published in 2013 and deserves to be a Christmas Classic like the others in this section. Buy or borrow it today.)
The Christmas Story by Robert Sabuda (incredible paper-cut pop-up book which will fill you and your children with awe and delight. But please don’t spend your money on it until your child is past the ‘will rip off every flap I can get my fingers on’ stage.)
All the rest
The Winter Hedgehog by Ann and Reg Cartwright
Winter Story by Jill Barklem (Brambly Hedge)
An Aussie Christmas Gum Tree by Jackie Hosking
Snow in the Garden by Shirley Hughes (I love this book. Stories, poems, and festive activities.)
The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski (I have yet to meet an adult who can get through this without crying.)
One Christmas Wish by Katherine Rundell
The Most-Loved Bear by Sam McBratney (my children adore this, slightly to my bemusement. It’s nice, but I don’t quite share their appreciation!)
How Winston Delivered Christmas by Alex T. Smith (I don’t love this as much as the rest of the world does. To me it reads slightly as if someone listed all the ingredients of a magical children’s book and then put them together. Maybe I need to reread it.)
Stick Man by Julia Donaldson
Angelina’s Christmas by Katharine Holabird
The Best Christmas Present in the World by Michael Morpurgo (about the WW1 Christmas truce, better for older children, Amazon says 7-10)
The Story of the Snow Children by Sibylle von Olfers
The Night After Christmas by Kes Gray
The Night Before the Night Before Christmas by Kes Gray
A Christmas Story by Brian Wildsmith (the Nativity told from the perspective of a girl and her donkey)
Harry and the Snow King by Ian Whybrow (Harry and the Dinosaurs)
Little Grey Rabbit’s Christmas by Alison Uttley
Books from my own childhood that haven’t stood the test of time! (But that my own children love nonetheless)
Teddy’s Christmas by Michelle Cartlidge
Teddy’s First Christmas by Amanda Davidson
The Christmas Robin by David Hately
Happy Christmas, Clem by Beatrice Philpotts
Please do share your own favourites in the Comments!
And if you want more, Sarah Miller of
shared two posts about Christmas books recently, Children’s books for Christmas and (More) children’s books for Christmas.Thanks for reading. If you’re not subscribed, sign up for free and never miss a post! Book lists, guest posts, and the (usually) daily How We Homeschooled Today await you.
In our family (age 12&9) and must read is John Masefield’s A Box of Delights - a bit dated but wonderful language and there’s a DVD from the BBC if reading’s not your thing. We started reading it from about age 8 as it does get scary in places but nothing serious - we’re just a family that get scared by Disney!
A wonderful (wordless) book with 96 stunning illustrations by Peter Collington is "A Small Miracle". The wooden figures in a Christmas crèche come to life to save a poor old woman in a highly original and moving parable.