In honor of the holiday season, today's Top Ten list is devoted to our favorite Christmas picture books. We have a stack of holiday books that we store with all the other Christmas stuff in the basement and just brought up this weekend. Even though my kids are now 11 and 15, they still love our tradition of reading these family favorites out loud in the days leading up to Christmas. Some of these are classics; some are pretty obscure! They're our favorites because the kids have grown up with them:
- The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
- Darby's Christmas Adventure by Ray Bentley, illustrated by Mike Hamby - two former Buffalo Bills who came up with this series about a kid dinosaur named Darby
- Dear Santa: The Letters of James B. Dobbins by Bill Harley - a more recent entry by one of our favorite entertainers; if you don't know who Bill Harley is, you're missing out. He's hilarious and this book is great! Also check out his recent CD/DVD, Yes to Running!
- Carl's Christmas by Alexandra Day - our boys loved this series of wordless books about the sweet dog, Carl.
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss (of course)
- A Cowboy Christmas: The Miracle at Lone Pine Ridge by Audrey Wood, paintings by Robert Florczak
- Merry Christmas, Mom and Dad by Mercer Mayer - my sons LOVED the Little Critter series when they were little.
- Santa Mouse by Michael Brown - a favorite from my own childhood
- The Christmas Star by Marcus Pfister
- The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore, illustrated by Cheryl Harnes
What are your favorite Christmas books for kids?
1 comment:
Have you read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever? I love that one.
Since he is only 3, we are reading a variety of short picture books, like one about the nativity and the Shrek Christmas book and "There was an old lady who swallowed a bell" which is cute.
Great choices though, I will have to look some of them up.
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