christmas books

[loosinas]

please recommend me your fave christmassy books esp oldies but goodies.. lovely nostalgic ones.... thanks!

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey
The Night Before Christmas
The Polar Express
Lucy and Tom's Christmas
The Christmas Eve Ghost

We've got a nice (old) illustrated copy of The Night Before Christmas, and the kids are asking for How The Grinch Stole Christmas again and again ...... and again and we're only in November.

Someone recently recommended The Snow Angel, but I haven't read it myself.

The Box of Delights - John Masefield
The Children of Green Knowe - Lucy Boston

what age for those last two ?

Blue - I love The Children of Green Knowe too - not so keen on the box of delights (prefer The Midnight Folk) - thought Lucy M Boston had gone the way of all...

*loosinas - 8 or 9?

what about the Little House on the Prairie, where Mr Edwards goes to find Santa Claus, or the other ones in the series, not quite so good, but nearly all of them with a Christmas element, from age 4-5 until 9-10, including a good bit of Farmer Boy (excellent snow ball fight) if your dcs are boys

Jesus' Christmas Party (Nick Allan) - 3-5, Jan Pienkowski's Christmas, for retelling the Christmas story - 3 to teen

A Christmas Carol - obv- for 8+

I got "Wenceslas" out today by Geraldine McCaughrean, illustrated by Christian Birmingham. An interpretation of the carol "Good King Wenceslas". Lovely illustrations and message about goodwill.

Another vote for The Children of Green Knowe and The Box of Delights - would say you can read them to your children from age 7 and an 8 year old who's good at reading can tackle them alone. I also like the chapter from The Wind in the Willows where the fieldmice come carolling to Mole's home.

For younger children, Pookie believes in Santa Claus is beautifully nostalgic.Probably out of print but maybe you can get a used one on amazon or elsewhere on the internet.

The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden - I think would meet your brief 100% OP.

There's also a long christmas books thread in the Christmas topic, will try & find it & link. One book mentioned by several people there which I hadn't thought of as Christmassy but of course is - The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper

Should say that The Story of Holly & Ivy would be fine to read aloud from say 5 or so upwards (basically once they're listening to chapter books).

Here's the other christmas book thread.

And another vote for Holly and Ivy...

SecretSpi - someone else who's heard of Pookie! My sister and I used to read our Mum's old copies - wonder where they are now? And I've started re-reading my old Green Knowe box set - though Wikipedia tells me there's one more I haven't got. One for my Amazon wish list.

Takver I love "The Dark is Rising" too - knew I'd forgotten something.

"The Box of Delights" is (was?) available as a BBC adaptation (in 80s I think) - showing my age now

You can still get the Box of Delights dvd, we've had it on rental from Lovefilm.

The Tailor of Gloucester!

I went to order The Story of Holly and Ivy for a present the other day and was disappointed to find that the Macmillan edition (cover - little girl staring raptly at beautiful doll) is no longer in print! They only have a kindle version ?!? The Puffin with a similar cover is also out of print. But I bought the version illustrated by Barbara Cooney, which will probably also be very nice - had by coincidence just come across another book by her called Miss Rumphius which is very good.

have ordered some of the above they looklovely thanks
any more picture book recommendations ?

Just got Church Mice at Christmas - lovely old fashioned detailed pictures.

Oh yes, the Church Mice is (are?) lovely - all of them in fact not just the Christmas one!

Picture books - Mog's Christmas is wonderful, also agree with Lucy & Tom's Christmas (though think it is out of print), and if you can get hold of a copy (why it is out of print I can't imagine, but it does seem to be) The Jolly Christmas Postman.

I saw one at the library earlier for younger children called Granny goes to Bethlehem. Basically the baby Jesus' gran shows up, tidies the stable, criticises the wise men for not bringing proper presents like a pram and tells everyone to go home and let Mary get some rest .

Cat In The Manger - can't remember who by, maybe Michael Murpugo.

Mog's Christmas is great, and Julia Donaldson's Stickman "a stuck man, a stuck man, now who can that be?"

Not so much Christmassy but snowy, The Mitten by Jan Brett. We used to pretend a blanket was the mitten, with everyone choosing an animal to be, and then sneeze ourselves out of it.

Robert Sabuda does the best pop-up books ever and lots of his are Christmassy.