some more christmas books

Dec 6, 2010

We finally decorated for Christmas tonight! Whew, we are pretty late this year! All the books are out, the tree is up, the nativities are displayed, and my homemade Advent calender is hung.

Annesley was SO excited for the Christmas tree to be brought in from the top of the car. She was jumping up and down with pure glee in her eyes and singing at the top of her lungs. I think she sang “O Christmas Tree” for a whole hour while Richard got the tree off the car, trimmed the loose branches, and got it set up in the stand. It was hilarious and heart-warming to hear her sing “O Pimpmas Tee, O Pimpmas Tee!” over and over again. The wonder of Jesus’ birth is alive in her heart and she brought it alive for all of us as well.

Last year I wrote about one of our favorite Christmas traditions of decorating our home with Christmas books and reading one book a night for all of December.

I found a few wonderful books at the library last week that I had never heard of before. In case you haven’t heard of them either and are on the hunt for more Christmas books, here are our library finds:

Silver Packages is the lovely story of a poor Appalachian boy who waits eagerly each year for the “Christmas Train” which brings presents to their poverty-laden town. He longs for a doctor kit, but it never comes. He receives socks and mittens and toy cars, but never the doctor kit of his dreams. Eventually he grows up and goes to medical school. Many years later he returns to his home town and tries to thank the rich man who brought the presents, but he can’t because a little girl gets hurt right in front of him and he realizes his duty now is to help her…to be a doctor to her and all the town members…and how that service repays the debt to the rich man more than anything else ever can.

The Gingerbread Doll is an adorable read about a little girl who wants a fancy porcelain doll for Christmas, but her father’s farm didn’t do well that year and her family can’t afford a new doll for her. Instead her mama makes her a gingerbread doll and the little girl learns to treasures her instead.

Prairie Christmas is oh, oh, so incredibly wonderful. I can’t wait till the night we read this book! When I read it at the library, I sat on the floor surrounded by books and cried my little eyes out. LaDawn, one of the librarians, was quite concerned until I smiled up at her and told her I was crying over the wonderfulness of the book. Emma’s mama is a midwife and gets called out to a long birth on Christmas Day. Emma is quite disappointed that her Christmas plans are disrupted, but over the course of the book she learns the real meaning of Christmas and works hard to help the new baby’s siblings have a special Christmas while their mama is laboring in the other room. I think anyone would love this story, but for those of us who attend births regularly, this is sure to be a favorite!

One Small Lost Sheep is the touching story of a little shepherd boy in Bethlehem and how his searching for his favorite sheep brings him to the Christ child. The artwork is simply beautiful and the love for his precious Kivsa will touch any heart.

The Little Fir Tree tells the story of a nurturing father who brings a live tree to his lame son each Christmas and then replants it each Spring. He does this for several years and the little tree always looks forward to his coming. One year, the father doesn’t come for him and the little tree thinks he has been forgotten until the all the family and friends came to the tree with the little boy walking and leading the way.

We love to read Hanukkah books as well and a new one we found this year is One Yellow Daffodil. Through the love of some neighborhood children, a sad and heartbroken elderly man from Poland is able to once again discover the beauty of Hanukkah and remember the childhood he has tried to forget.

What are your favorite Christmas books?