We have a whole stack of Christmas books that come out the day after Thanksgiving every year along with the tree, decorations, and music! Reading Christmas books with the boys is a true delight of the season for me! Here are a few of our favorites, some old and some brand new to us this year…
Who Is Coming to Our House?
This adorable board book is written from the perspective of the animals in the stable awaiting the arrival of a special guest on Christmas Eve. I love the anticipation of Jesus’s birth the book portrays in the animals – it has always made the boys excited as well!
Song of the Stars: A Christmas Story
This book is written by the author of the Jesus Storybook Bible – enough said, right?! Song of the Stars shows all of Creation rejoicing at the coming of the Savior – lions and trees and stars and more!
God Gave Us Christmas
We love all of Lisa’s God Gave Us books, but the Christmas is super sweet. Inquisitive Little Cub starts by asking his mama, “Who invented Christmas?” and she goes on to answer his many questions about the holiday. Little Cub reminds me of our own curious boys!
The Friendly Beasts: an old English Christmas carol
I’m just noticing how many of our favorite Christmas books involve animals…
This beautifully illustrated book also comes with a CD featuring Rebecca St. James singing the featured Christmas carol! The boys recognized the song right away as the music played by their Veggie Tales nativity! They love the animals and I love that we are learning the song better!
The Twelve Dogs of Christmas
Not a single spiritual thing about this book, but I had to mention it because the boys sing through it EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. They absolutely love it. There is also a movie by the same name, which we have enjoyed as a family as well!
One Wintry Night by Ruth Bell Graham
A new book for us this year
The Legend of the Candy Cane: The Inspirational Story of Our Favorite Christmas Candy
The boys always turn their candy canes upside down to show me they turn into a J – and they quickly add “J for Jesus!” That’s the same focus this book takes – telling the legend of the candy cane that points to Jesus! This is a delightful new addition to our Christmas collection this year!
A Christmas Prayer by Amy Parker
Perfect for younger children, this board book features a small child praying prayers of thanks and blessing on Christmas night. The child mentions each of the important figures in the Nativity as she prays, and the charming rhyme will be fun to read with your own child!
Christmas Angels (Read and Share)
From the popular Read and Share series from Tommy Nelson, Christmas Angels tells the stories of the angels that had important jobs throughout the Christmas story, including Gabriel and the angels who greeted the shepherds to announce the Savior’s birth!
The Real Twelve Days of Christmas
I hesitate to add this book because it is out of print, but it is just so unique and wonderful, I had to include it! There is a lot of history behind this Christmas carol, but I didn’t even know a tenth of it until reading this book! The Real Twelve Days of Christmas explains the Christian symbolism found in the song, which was actually used to teach Christian doctrine to children in 16th-century England when persecution was happening! If you can’t tell, this book fascinates me!
What are your favorite, must-read books at Christmas time?
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I'm Erin, a wife, boy mom x 3, writer, and runner in Nebraska! I'm excited to share all my favorites relating to faith, family, fashion, and fitness in this space! Enjoy! 
Hi, this is really in response to your tweet about gifts for your nieces. My girls (6&4) love crafts (saw that mentioned!), anything pretend play (food, dress up, baby doll), books, legos, playdoh, What’s in the Bible DVDs, to name a few. Oh, and games like Pretty Pretty Princess or just classics like Chutes and Ladders are fun.
It’s a bit tricky with the ages b/c the 6&4 could do the same kind of gift but the 2 might not be interested as much. Although my 2 yr old boy likes to dress up with his sisters and be the “daddy” (although I’m not sure HE understands he’s the daddy!) when they play with the baby dolls.
Ok, I could probably ramble some more but I need to go get my husband some breakfast! Hope that helps a little bit.
Love all the book suggestions, we have some, but I want to get some of the ones you suggested!
We own several of these, and I have to agree that they are great! My little one (almost 4) and I just read The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado for the first time last night ~ that is one that I would definitely add to the list! (probably available through your library).
Ooh! I will have to check that out! Thanks Steph!
Hey Erin! 🙂 The boys read “12 dogs of Christmas” to me on Saturday, and it was great! They had certain voices for the different dogs, totally cracked me up! They are SO quick and accurate with their reading, I meant to tell you how impressed I was! That’s one of my biggest things I’m thankful for about being homeschooled, I learned to read well at a young age and raced ahead from there!
We read “one wintry night” around Christmas when I was growing up, what a special book.
Hi Erin,
These are all great book suggestions. I was the illustrator on One Wintry Night and am happy that Thomas Nelson has come out with a lovely new version of the book. It was such an adventure and joy working with Ruth Bell Graham to create this family book.
Thanks for including it in your picks.
I did a blog post today on a few of my favorite Christmas books I read to my children. They’re older now, so perhaps my books are of a different generation. I’m familiar with many of yours here and agree they are quite good. One book I would highly recommend is “The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey” by Susan Wojciechowski. It conveys the Christmas message in both a spiritual and worldly way that is absolutely beautiful. Thanks for the list!