A Christmas Book Tradition

Lately, Times and Seasons has been on the subject of children's books, which reminded me of a post I've been meaning to write for a while about one of our family Christmas traditions involving Christmas books. Actually, I'm lazy, so I'll just paste the text that my wife wrote last year on the subject:

One of our very favorite family holiday traditions is reading Christmas books throughout the month of December. Here’s how it works:
Sometime before December, I wrap up all of our favorite Christmas books. On December 1st, I put the wrapped books in big basket under the Christmas tree. Each night the children are allowed to choose a book to open and read together. Besides being a great family activity that we all look forward to each night, we have felt that it really brings the Christmas spirit into our home. Children of all ages can enjoy this tradition. There are so many really good Christmas books that focus on the Savior and the true meaning of Christmas. There are also a lot of really fun and whimsical Christmas books that have good messages and teach the values and characteristics that we would like to impart to our children. There are also many great books about how Christmas is celebrated in other cultures and countries around the world.

It has amazed me how excited the kids are about this time spent together every evening. They never tire of it or the stories, even though they have heard many of the stories before. I think it also relieves some of the angst of waiting for Christmas as they have something to open each night. And it is a good way to count the days until Christmas; as the number of books dwindle, so do the days until Christmas.

If you don’t have enough Christmas books to do the entire month, you could do the week or 12 days before Christmas. The library has many great holiday books that can supplement your collection.

We started doing this a few years ago, with about 10 books that we had. Since then, we've added many, many more, to the point where instead of buying new books, we are trying to figure out which ones to get rid of (We have enough books for each of our three oldest children to open one a night for every night in December before Christmas). Of course, there are still a few gems that we would like to add to our collection.

I asked Kristen for a list of her favorites. She gave me a stack of about twenty books. When I told her that was too many, she cut it down to the following:

Kristen's favorites:

• Christmas Day in the Morning, by Pearl S. Buck


• Christmas Tapestry, by Patricia Polacco


• Why Christmas Trees Aren't Perfect, by Richard H. Schneider


• Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree by Robert Barry


• The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, by Susan Wojciechowski


• Christmas in the Manger, by Nola Buck

My favorites:

• Christmas Day in the Morning, by Pearl S. Buck


• Christmas Tapestry, by Patricia Polacco


• The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, by Susan Wojciechowski


• The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, by Barbara Robinson


• Danny and the Kings, by Susan Cooper


• How the Grinch Stole Christmas, by Dr. Seuss


• On Christmas Eve, by Margaret Wise Brown

And since you asked, here's a list of all of our Christmas books. There are about 30 of these that I haven't read yet -- we purchased them since last Christmas. (Scroll down the page -- for some reason, Blogger inserts a lot of blank lines before the table).

Any other suggestions?

Title	Author	Illustrator
The Amazing Christmas Extravaganza	Shannon, David	Shannon, David
Auntie Claus	Primavera, Elise	Primavera, Elise
Auntie Claus and the Key to Christmas	Primavera, Elise	Primavera, Elise
Bear Stays Up for Christmas	Wilson, Karma	Chapman, Jane
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever	Robinson, Barbara
A Child Is Born	Winthrop, Elizabeth	Mikolaycak, Charles
Christmas	Bruna, Dick	Bruna, Dick
Christmas		Pienkowski, Jan
A Christmas Carol	Dickens, Charles
Christmas Day in the Morning	Buck, Pearl S.	Buehner, Mark
Christmas in the Manger	Buck, Nola	Bond, Felicia
Christmas Is A Time of Giving	Anglund, Joan Walsh	Anglund, Joan Walsh
Christmas Magic	Garland, Michael	Garland, Michael
Christmas Mice	Scarry, Richard	Scarry, Richard
The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey	Wojciechowski, Susan	Lynch, P.J.
Christmas Oranges	Bethers, Linda	Sowards, Ben
Christmas Tapestry	Polacco, Patricia	Polacco, Patricia
Corduroy's Christmas	Hennessy, B.G.	McCue, Lisa
Countdown to Christmas	Peet, Bill	Peet, Bill
Country Angel Christmas	dePaola, Tomie	dePaola, Tomie
The Crippled Lamb	Lucado, Max	Bonham, Liz
Danny and the Kings	Cooper, Susan	Smith, Jos. A.
An Early American Christmas	dePaola, Tomie	dePaola, Tomie
Eloise at Christmastime	Thompson, Kay	Knight, Hilary
The Friendly Beasts: an old English Christmas Carol		dePaola, Tomie
A Gift From Saint Nicholas	Kismaric, Carole	Mikolaycak, Charles
Hark! A Christmas Sampler	Yolen, Jane	dePaola, Tomie
Here Comes Santa Claus	Autry, Gene and Haldeman, Oakley	Whatley, Bruce
How the Grinch Stole Christmas	Seuss, Dr.	Seuss, Dr.
It's Christmas	Prelutsky, Jack	Hafner, Marylin
Jingle the Christmas Clown	dePaola, Tomie	dePaola, Tomie
The Jolly Christmas Postman	Ahlberg, Janet and Ahlberg, Allan	Ahlberg, Janet and Ahlberg, Allan
The Legend of the Poinsettia	dePaola, Tomie	dePaola, Tomie
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus	Baum, L. Frank
The Little Crooked Christmas Tree	Cutting, Michael	Broda, Ron
Merry Christmas, Strega Nona	dePaola, Tomie	dePaola, Tomie
Miracle on 34th Street	Davies, Valentine	dePaola, Tomie
The Mouse Before Christmas	Garland, Michael	Garland, Michael
Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree	Barry, Robert	Barry, Robert
The Nativity from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke		Sanderson, Ruth
A Newbery Christmas	Greenberg, Martin H. and Waugh, Charles G.
The Night Before Christmas	Moore, Clement	Brett, Jan
The Night Before Christmas	Moore, Clement Clarke	Tudor, Tasha
Nutcracker	Hoffmann, E.T.A.	Gustafson, Scott
On Christmas Eve	Brown, Margaret Wise	Calder, Nancy Edwards
One Winter's Night	Herman, John	Dillon, Leo and Dillon, Diane
Peter Spier's Christmas		Spier, Peter
The Poky Little Puppy's First Christmas	Korman, Justine	Chandler, Jean
The Polar Express	Van Allsburg, Chris	Van Allsburg, Chris
Pooh Christmas Songs		Baker, Darrell and Moore, Sparky and Wakeman, Diana
Rocking Horse Christmas	Osborne, Mary Pope	Bittinger, Ned
Room for a Little One: A Christmas Tale	Waddell, Martin	Cockcroft, Jason
Rudolph Shines Again	May, Robert L.	Papp, Lisa
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer	Hazen, Barbara Shook	Scarry, Richard
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer	May, Robert L.	Wenzel, David
Santa Calls	Joyce, William	Joyce, William
Santa Kid	Patterson, James	Garland, Michael
Santa Mouse	Brown, Michael	De Witt, Elfrieda
Santa's Favorite Story	Aoki, Hisako	Gantschev, Ivan
Santa's New Suit	Rader, Laura	Rader, Laura
Silent Night, Holy Night: The Story of the Christmas Truce	Cronkite, Walter	Barrett, Robert T.
Silver Packages: An Appalachian Christmas Story	Rylant, Cynthia	Soentpiet, Chris K.
Spirit Child: A Story of the Nativity	Bierhorst, John	Cooney, Barbara
The Story of Holly and Ivy	Godden, Rumer	Cooney, Barbara
The Story of the Nutcracker Ballet	Hautzig, Deborah	Goode, Diane
The Sweet Smell of Christmas	Scarry, Patricia	Miller, J.P.
Take Joy!	Tudor, Tasha	Tudor, Tasha
This is the Season, Beloved of the Year		Dewey, Simon
The Trees of the Dancing Goats	Polacco, Patricia	Polacco, Patricia
Truffle's Christmas	Currey, Anna	Currey, Anna
'Twas the Night Before Christmas and Other Seasonal Favorites	The Metropolitan Museum of Art	The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Twelve Days of Christmas		Duax, Anne
The Twelve Days of Christmas		Sabuda, Robert
The Twenty-four Days Before Christmas	L'Engle, Madeline	DeVelasco, Joe
A Very Mary Christmas	Englebreit, Mary	Englebreit, Mary
We Wish You A Merry Christmas: Songs of the Season for Young People	Fox, Dan
Welcome Comfort	Polacco, Patricia	Polacca, Patricia
What Could Be Keeping Santa?	Janovitz, Marilyn	Janovitz, Marilyn
Where Is Christmas, Jesse Bear?	Carlstrom, Nancy White	Degen, Bruce
Why Christmas Trees Aren't Perfect	Schneider, Richard H.	Miles, Elizabeth J.
The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree	Houston, Gloria	Cooney, Barbara