The Story Of Christmas - recommend me a book....

[snowqueenrollo]

I am Pagan but my 8 year old periodically asks about God and I answer his questions as best I can. I do believe in non-biased response as I feel he should find his own way along the journey of faith.
He was looking at a book about the story of Christmas and as yet we've never really broached the religious aspect as it's just never come up.
I would however like to get a really lovely book to share with him about the birth of Christ.
I remember learning about it at school and loving the story of the journey of the wise men etc.

I don't want anything overtly religious or heavy in tone. He is 8 but an advanced reader and could cope with something aimed at 11/12 year olds, but I think I'd like something with nice llustrations and that we will be able to share with the baby when he grows too.

Can anyone recommend me something suitable so my boy can satisfy his curiosity about this?

I'm not sure I quite understand what you are looking for, OP. I would be surprised if he has not learned the story at school since by 8 he will have done it in RE. If you want a beautiful picture book then two of my favourites are How many miles to Bethlehem? by Kevin Crossley-Holland, which is a poetic retelling of the story, and A Christmas Story by Brian Wildsmith are two of my current favourites.

If, however, you are looking for a book about Christianity, something more like this then I suggest you visit your local library. The children's library should have a section of books about religion and you can normally find books about the major world religions there.

You could try the tale of The Three Trees which should be in the library or bookshop. This is a lovely tale which at the level of a child's story is sweet but hits on some of the deeper meaning in the birth, life and death of Jesus. Makes me cry every time!

niminy sorry I didn't say....he is Home Educated so that's why he hasn't done it at school!
Thank you for the suggestions, I'll probably borrow them all from the library and we'll look at them all together.
I just didn't want to do a ham-fisted job of introducing him to this, and had no idea where to start on the library shelves (we live rurally so our libraries aren't so good for 'browsing')
I have lots of resources here about different faiths around the world, but with Christmas looming he is obviously suddenly interested in just the Nativity story and I don't have anything child-centric that is specifically about it.
greenheart I've just looked up Three Trees and it looks really good.

Thank you for the lovely suggestions :)