The Best Children’s Books for Christmas

One of the best things about having kids is the children’s books.  I am a huge fan! What started out as one shelf in our front room for children’s books quickly turned into three shelves and a bookcase upstairs!

I find it really hard to persuade Father Christmas not to buy more books becuase he loves them as much as I do! Today, I am going to share the books that I enjoy sharing with my son, the most, at Christmas time.

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margarey Williams

Be warned that this famous beloved tale isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. At the end the boy has to get rid of his rabbit but because he loved it so much, it becomes real.

The Snowman And The Snowdog (pop up & light up book)

This beloved tale about a boys Snowman coming to life and taking him on adventure is available in lots of formats but the pop up and light up book is a real treasure.  There is something facinating about pages that jump off the page but at the end of this book, the stars twinkle due to a built in sensor and built in tiny lights

 

The Jolly Christmas Postman by Janet Ahlberg

All the Jolly Postman books are amazing.  Children love the little envolpes (from and to fairy tale characters) and finding out what is inside.  The letters sometimes contain a gift like a puzzle or a comic.  This book makes a lovely gift (thank you aunty Heather) and the snowy variation of this book is great to share over the winter months.

Stickman by Julia Donaldson

I don’t own this book, we borrowed it from the library.  Borrowing books is a great way to discover new books for free.  Stickman is about a stick that gets seperated from his family.  He ends up on a dangerous adventure as he tries to get home to his family.  On his adventure he helps Santa who in return helps him get home.

Another, wintery tale by Julia Donaldson is The Gruffalo’s Child.  The sequel to the popular Gruffalo.  The brave Gruffalo Child sneaks out of the cave on a dark snowy night to find the Big Bad Mouse.  Once again, the quick witted mouse out smarts this little Gruffalo.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr Seuss

My son absolutley loved the Grinch.  This descpicable character feelings towards Christmas is quoted as “hate, hate, double hate, loathe entirely”.  His hate for Christmas is very entertaining and when he says “Poo poo to the whos” my son laughs and makes me read that line over and over again.  Don’t worry, in the end, the Grinch learns that there is more to Christmas than giving gifts.

My Rhyme Time Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

This is an all year favourite for bedtime but when I was asking my son to help me pick the books for this post, he inisited on this one as he like the twinkle star nursery rhyme and at Christmas time we change the words to “Twinke twinkle Christmas star”.  The book is filled with traditional nursery rhymes and illustrated beautifully by Miles Kelly.

The Christmas Show by Rebecca Patterson

This book was a gift from my son’s nursery.  He isn’t the easiest kid to keep in line so I am not sure if this book was chosen especially for him in mind or just a lucky chance that he got it.  It is all about the children preparing for the nativity play, the main little boy doesn’t really pay attention and on the big day he gets it all wrong but his performance is still loved by his family and he is told to ignore the mean words of the head angel.  

Thank you for reading

Are any of the above your favourites?  Can you recommend any more that I should add to my collection?

If you enjoyed this post, you may also enjoy:

My top 5 Pop Up Books

Happy Roald Dahl Month – My Childhood Memories of his books

Learning through art with Arty Mouse

If you love the Gruffalo, you may enjoy my review of Good Bubble, The Gruffalo skincare range.

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Pop-up books

Here, I share my collection of pop-up books and what makes them unique and special.

The hardest thing about pop-up books is that they do tend to be a little fragile and because they are very exciting this can cause children to damage them unintentionally.  In addition, some younger children may not have the skills to operate the pop-ups without causing damage which can be upsetting.

You will have to judge when your child is ready for them and may need to supervise the books. For example, only share them at special occasions or as a reward rather than leaving them out for you child to explore alone.

Some of these books are aimed at children specifically and are more hardy. Others are designed to show off the artwork of the author or the beauty of pop-up books.

The Tickle Book  and The Bedtime Book

  • Author:  Ian Whybrow
  • Illustrator:  Axel Scheffler

Tickle Monster and co

These books are designed especially for young children.  They have a rhyming story line that they’ll enjoy listening to.  The book has tabs to pull to cause parts of the story to move or pop-up.  With ‘The Tickle Book’ I tend to tickle my son every time the tickle monster pops up.  ‘The Bedtime’ book is probably better for bedtime as there is no tickling.

Snowman and the snowdog

Father Christmas bought this book for my son so it is no surprise that it is magical.  The first part of the book is a normal picture book following the classic story of The Snowman and the Snowdog.  However, when you reach the last page you are in for a surprise.

snowman-e1528022858184.jpg

The book has a sensor that causes built in lights to switch on and cause the stars in the sky to twinkle and a scene of London at night to pop up.  It is a beautiful ending and my son loves London so he points out the famous sights from the scene.

How to Find Flower Fairies

  • Author:  Cicely Mary Barker

Flower Fairies

This pop up book is written as a collection of discoveries about faeries. The pages are very elaborate scenes that pop up and have notes and journals entries about the faeries.  The front cover and camera on the last page has a holographic image that moves.  It truly is a beautiful book about faeries with so much thought and detail gone into every page.  However, I wouldn’t recommend this be shared with young children.

I’ve created a little clip on Instagram to show how clever and beautiful this book is as seeing is believing…

Goblins

  • Author/Illustrator:  Brian Froud

This tatty old book was produced in 1983 by my favourite artist.  I fell in love with his work which inspired the film Labyrinth (his son was cast as the baby kidnapped by the goblin king).

It is a first edition and I bought it second hand. I probably paid too much for it considering that some of the tags are very fragile but I am so pleased to have a copy.  I do share this with my son on his birthday or if he has been really good and he loves it.  Sadly, he tore the goblins nose on the last page to see the goblins underneath.

There isn’t much of a story but each page has so much detail and the artwork is amazing.  My son loves the last page where you can turn the book upside down to discover more goblins due to how they are drawn – it is genius.  I’ve checked many times to see if this book has been re-released but it hasn’t.

*****

Have you read any of these?  Is there a pop-up book that you think I need to add to my collection – I’d love to hear your recommendations.

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