Inside: These are the most magical Christmas books for kids. For the best holiday tradition, share these heartfelt children’s Christmas books with your family every year. Show
The end of every year brings together three of my family’s most important core values:
Because this is our absolute favorite time of year, we try to soak up as much winter holiday spirit (and dessert) as humanly possible. One year, we channeled Clark Griswold with our outdoor lights and put them up before Halloween. Sorry, neighbors! (But hey, science says decorating early makes you happier, so there’s that.) Another year, we planned an elaborate Polar Express† night for the kids, complete with hot cocoa and marshmallows, golden tickets like this, and my husband dressing up as the train conductor. † This site is reader-supported. When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. And then this year, we decided to build up our home library of Christmas books for kids, so we embarked on a quest to find the absolute best children’s Christmas books. Sounds fairly tame, except that we started our quest in August, and we’ve spent three solid months reading every Christmas or winter holiday book we could get our hands on. The Problem With Some Christmas Books for KidsSince becoming parents, we’ve amassed a small but treasured collection of favorite Christmas picture books. These are books we love as much as our kids do, so we don’t mind reading them again and again every December. But early on in our quest to find the best Christmas books for kids, we realized something unfortunate about some of the holiday stories out there: they were long and preachy. I certainly don’t mind reading a longer picture book if my kids are into it. But my 5-year-old bookworm started doing something that made me realize some of the children’s Christmas books may be too long for their target audience. This is a child who would happily listen to me read a stack of 50 picture books in one sitting. But for some of these holiday books, she would turn to me after we were a few pages into the story and say, “Mommy, can we stop reading this now?” As it turns out, kids don’t really want to listen to a lecture disguised as a children’s book. So we focused on finding the best Christmas books that we can share with our children to celebrate the spirit of the holiday season. Related: The Most Meaningful Gifts for Kids Who Have Everything The Best Children’s Books That Will Make Your Child’s Holiday MagicalThe goal of my family’s months-long research project to find Christmas books for kids was simple: find the best books that both kids and parents will enjoy. (Because if our kids are going to ask us to read a Christmas story again and again, it may as well be something we appreciate, too!) Every week, I put a huge stack of books on hold at the library, plus at every visit I browsed the shelves for even more children’s Christmas books—not to mention every Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and other winter holiday book I could find. While we celebrate Christmas in our family, I want my kids to understand, appreciate, and respect the holidays celebrated by other families. All told, my kids and I read hundreds of picture books on the topic of Christmas and other winter holidays. The list below is the cream of the crop from those hundreds of books: the books I loved reading, and the books my kids couldn’t get enough of. Read these Christmas books for kids to get your whole family excited about the holiday season. Related: 42 Experience Gifts That Will Make You Everyone’s Favorite Person Bonus: How to Turn This List Into a Festive Book Advent CalendarFor an extra special way to share these Christmas books with your children, many families enjoy sharing holiday stories through book Advent calendars. Here’s how you start a Christmas book Advent tradition:
Kids love this Advent calendar book-a-day tradition, but if 25 books of Christmas feels like a bit much, you might try another tradition from Iceland called Jolabokaflod, or the “Christmas Book Flood.” For this, you give each other books on Christmas Eve and spend the night reading and drinking hot cocoa. Sounds magical to me! Related: 30 Fun Holiday Activities for Your Advent Calendar {Printable} 32 Most Heartfelt and Meaningful Christmas Books for KidsAnd now for your list of the most magical Christmas books for kids that you’ll want to share with your family every December! But first, a quick warning: I was surprised to find that many of our favorite children’s Christmas books are now out of print. If you see a book on this list you’d like to pick up for your family, you may want to do it this year rather than waiting until next year. I learned the hard way—some books I’d planned on picking up copies of this year are now out of print, and now they’re not available anywhere online. Ack! Also, to keep things simple, you should know that we skipped over any holiday sequels to other children’s books. If a holiday version of one of your kid’s favorite children’s books is out there, go for it! Note: indicates my family’s absolute top favorites on the list. These are the books my kids can’t get enough of! Classic Children’s Christmas BooksWhen it comes to the best Christmas books for kids, you can’t beat the classics. Every family seems to have their own favorite, but after reading aaaaaaaallllllllllllll the classic holiday tales in a short period of time, these are the ones our whole family loved most of all. 1. The Night Before ChristmasOut of all the countless renditions of this Christmas classic, this is the one you need in your home. Not only are the illustrations by Holly Hobbie the most magical I’ve seen for this story (and I’ve seen a lot of versions of this one!), my kids loved that the illustrator featured a child’s perspective in addition to the father’s. Surprising and beautiful and perfect. If you’re looking for a different style of illustration, we also loved the version illustrated by Charles Santore and the fresh retelling by Rachel Isadora. (Beware that the latter isn’t available on Amazon or Barnes & Noble anymore, so you’ll have to check your library.)
2. The Polar ExpressNo matter how many times I read this story, I always get choked up at the end. And even though all my kids know the truth about Santa, something about this book tugs at my heart and makes me want to believe. It doesn’t get more magical than this classic children’s Christmas book. Just beware that it’s a little on the longer side, so grab a mug of apple cider and settle in for a cozy read. 3. The Nutcracker by Susan Jeffers or The Nutcracker in HarlemMany families have a tradition of going to see The Nutcracker ballet every year, but our youngest kids are still too little to appreciate it, so instead we immerse ourselves in retellings of the story. But we couldn’t decide on a favorite between these two! The illustrations are gorgeous in both, and the retellings are unique. This also works great for explaining the story ahead of time to help younger kids follow along with the story when they’re watching it live. (That will make them less likely to “whisper” questions to you asking what’s going on during the show.) For an interactive experience, try The Story Orchestra: The Nutcracker, which has readers press a button on each page to hear a snippet of Tchaikovsky’s music. A beautiful way to experience The Nutcracker! 4. The Little Match GirlThis is a classic holiday story from Hans Christian Andersen that I remember reading as a child, so I wanted to share it with my children too. Fair warning: You will probably cry. But even though this isn’t a cheerful holiday story, it’s still one of our favorites. It’s the reminder we need every year that winter isn’t always a joyful time for too many people around the world. This story always makes us reflect on our blessings and think of how we can help others who may be struggling this holiday season. Of all the classic children’s Christmas books we read together as a family, this one made the biggest impact on my kids. Related: The Ultimate List of the Best Picture Books, Endorsed by Kids And Parents Heartwarming Christmas Books for KidsOut of the hundreds of children’s Christmas books we read, these are the most heartfelt and meaningful stories we came across. You’ll want to share these with your child every year!
Related: The Ultimate List of the Best Children’s Books About Kindness Silly And Funny Children’s Christmas BooksFor a fun break from the heartwarming Christmas picture books, mix in one of these silly, funny tales.
Related: 10 Small But Meaningful Stocking Stuffers That Will Delight Your Kids {Printable} Winter Holiday Books About Traditions Around the WorldThese winter holiday books are a lovely way to introduce your children to how people around the world celebrate their own winter traditions.
Bonus book: Our library didn’t have a copy of Lucia Morning in Sweden, but it’s on our list to pick up a copy next year because we’ve heard great things about it! Bonus! 4 Awesome Christmas Chapter BooksMy oldest reads chapter books constantly, so she set herself a personal goal to read as many Christmas chapter books as she could this year. Every time she found one she loved, she added it to a list for me. Then I read her favorites and whittled it down to the ones we both loved. If you’re looking for a Christmas chapter book that will make a great read-aloud with older kids, this is the list for you!
Your TurnWhat are your favorite Christmas books for kids? Share in a comment below! I'm a mom of four, a Certified Parent Educator, and the author of Happy You, Happy Family. I believe if you want a loving parent-child relationship that will last into the teenage years and beyond, the time for nurturing that kind of relationship is now. The good news? All you need is 10 minutes a day. Start here » What are the best Christmas books for 10 year olds?20 Timeless Christmas Books for Kids Merry Christmas, Strega Nona, by Tomie dePaola. Strega Nona, Big Anthony, and the butcher’s daughter Bambolona get... Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition, by Carol Aebersold and Chanda Bell. This fun book sets out to explain how Santa... The Christmas Quiet ...
What are the best books for a 7 year old?Books for seven-year-olds 1 Charlotte's Web by E.B. White 4.18 avg r ... 2 Little House on the Prairie (Little Hous ... 3 Little House in the Big Woods (Little Ho ... 4 Amelia Bedelia (Amelia Bedelia, #1) by P ... 5 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Ch ... 14 more rows ...
Where can I buy Christmas books for my family?If you prefer buying online, the Book Depository has a great selection. Just click on one of the book covers on this page to be taken to the site. Starting a special library of Christmas books is a lovely way of getting kids involved in your family's preparations for Christmas. Why not start one for your family?
Are there any Christmas chapter books for tweens (aged 9 to 12)?And if you are looking for new Christmas themed chapter books for your tween then this collection includes lots of fabulous possibilities for your holiday reading pile. This list includes Christmas chapter books for tweens (aged 9 to 12 years) that are humorous, inspiring and super engaging.
What is the most read Christmas book?A Christmas Carol has been the quintessential classic Christmas book for generations. Charles Dickens' story follows the embittered Ebenezer Scrooge, a man who hates Christmas and all that it represents. But everything changes for Scrooge when three ghosts visit to retell the stories of his past, present and future.
What is the most popular book for 6 year olds?The Best Books for 6-Year-Olds of 2022. Where the Wild Things Are. ... . Iggy Peck, Architect. ... . National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book of Why. ... . Zoo in the Sky. ... . The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes. ... . Awesome Jokes That Every 6 Year Old Should Know! ... . Junie B. ... . Scholastic Reader Level 1: Silly Milly. Whacky Illustrations.. What is the most famous Christmas story?The classic A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is the most popular Christmas story of all time. Written in 1843, it has been read by generations of adults and children, and it has been adapted many times for plays, movies, and tv, making it the most beloved story to read each holiday season.
What is the best selling children's paperback of all time?Seuss; the Cat in the Hat, with around 11 million copies sold.
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