{"id":5083,"date":"2012-12-13T01:00:40","date_gmt":"2012-12-13T09:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.doorposts.com\/blog\/?p=5083"},"modified":"2012-12-13T00:28:22","modified_gmt":"2012-12-13T08:28:22","slug":"5083","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.doorposts.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/13\/5083\/","title":{"rendered":"Favorite Christmas Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ruby and I had our first sleep-over last night.<\/strong> She has spent the night along with her sister before, but this time it was just Ruby all by herself. Wow! One grandchild at a time is a lot different than seven all at once — just like when our kids were all little. Back then , I started taking just one <\/em>child out at a time, all by himself, for hot chocolate or ice cream, or even just for a walk.<\/p>\n

\"\"So Ruby spent the night. We made a gingerbread house (except I was way too timid to use actual gingerbread,\u00a0and just “glued” some graham crackers together with frosting). We worked on secret Christmas presents, watched “Frosty the Snowman” (actually I fell asleep during it \ud83d\ude41 ), ate peppermint ice cream with a chocolate kiss planted on top, worked our way through a stack of Christmas books, and slept on the living room floor next to the Christmas tree (well, Ruby eventually <\/em>slept).<\/p>\n

\"\"Only one disappointment — I couldn’t find one of my all-time favorite Christmas books to read together!\u00a0The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree<\/a><\/em> is missing! I love this story of a mama’s love and sacrifice. I may have to buy another copy, because this is just part of Christmas to me!<\/p>\n

One of our family traditions started when John and I were first married. We were so broke our first year of marriage that we picked out one used book at a bookstore and gave it to each other for our Christmas present. (I’m sure I must have made<\/em> some other things, but I don’t remember what they were.) Every year since then we have bought one children’s Christmas picture book.<\/p>\n

I would like to share a few of the favorites from our collection over the years.<\/p>\n

First, our hands-down, all-time favorite read-aloud Christmas book is The Best Christmas Pageant Ever<\/a>, <\/em>by Barbara Robinson. <\/em>We didn’t pick this out as a family, and it isn’t a picture book, but I’ve been reading this every year since I was in college (and yes, that was a long <\/em>time ago). We have so many family idioms that originated from this story!\u00a0It’s a great read-aloud, full of humor, but also full of meaning. We can’t read it without me getting goose-bumps, and I can remember a few years when John broke down in tears at the book’s climax. If you’ve only seen the movie, you need to read the book<\/em>. It’s so much better<\/em>.<\/p>\n

OK, here’s a quick sampling of a few<\/em> of our favorites:<\/p>\n

Christmas Day in the Morning<\/a>, <\/em>by Pearl S. Buck, and beautifully illustrated by Mark Buehner. Another sweet story that makes me cry.<\/p>\n

Peter Spier’s Christmas! <\/a><\/em>A great picture book with so much <\/em>to look at, and no text.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>The Friendly Beasts<\/a>, <\/em>with Tomie dePaola’s wonderful illustrations. This has been a favorite since our oldest was a baby, especially if we sing <\/em>the words (it’s based on the old English Christmas carol).<\/p>\n

A Small Miracle<\/a>, <\/em>another wordless favorite, illustrated by Peter Collington. My adult children were re-discovering this one during our St. Nicholas celebration. A rich and winsome story, all told with only pictures. One of my <\/em>favorites.<\/p>\n

Silent Night<\/a>, <\/em>illustrated by Susan Jeffers. This one brings the old carol to life with exquisite illustrations.<\/p>\n

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey<\/a>, <\/em>by Susan Wojciechowski. A beautifully <\/em>illustrated story of the power of love in a lonely man’s life.<\/p>\n

The Gift of the Magi<\/a>, <\/em>the classic O. Henry short story, illustrated by P. J. Lynch<\/p>\n

Who Is Coming to Our House?<\/a> <\/em>by Joseph Slate. <\/em>A board book with a story that centers around the stable. Good, not kitschy, illustrations, which is sometimes hard to find in board books.<\/p>\n

The Very First Christmas<\/a>, <\/em>by Paul E. Maier, which I see is also mysteriously missing on our shelf.<\/p>\n

I think we’re going to \u00a0have to go up into the attic and find a missing box of books! I have grandchildren to read to!<\/p>\n

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