Five Favorite Christmas Picture Books

I was not going to do this. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, after all. I try not to discuss our Christmas traditions much until after Thanksgiving. In addition to this, I have errands to run and things to {finally} help my mother with, now that my children’s chicken pox is officially noncontagious. But you asked, you did! And I do so love to talk books.

So here’s the deal.

I have a decent Christmas picture book collection, in my opinion. But some of them far outshine the others, and those are the titles I’m going to share this morning. At the bottom of this post, I’m going to put a Mr. Linky widget. I ask all of you to share the bestest of the best books from your Christmas collections. It’s okay if some of yours are the same as mine, but what I’m really hoping is that we’ll be able to introduce ourselves to titles we’ve not heard of before, with the ultimate aim of improving each of our collections.

Sound like fun?

Here’s my contribution to the list. I’m doing this in reverse order, ending with my absolute, incontestable favorite.

5. An Amish Christmas by Richard Ammon

   My children enjoy this story of simple joys on Christmas. I think it subtly teaches them that Christmas need not be elaborate to be rich.

4. The Grumpy Shepherd by Paddie Devon

   I love the Christmas theme of grumpiness or sorrow turned to joy by the coming of the Christ Child. When Dickens wrote his classic Christmas story, he was playing upon the ancient theme!

3. The Story of Christmas

   The text of this book is taken straight from the King James, which is common for a number of Christmas books. The reason this makes the list of favorites is the artwork, a wonderful example of Pennsylvania folk art style.

2. The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski

   The illustrations in this book are wonderful, and the story is priceless. It doesn’t get better than this…except when it does, of course.

1. The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston

   You all know I’m a Barbara Cooney fan, right? This really is a beautiful book. But the reason why it is my number one favorite of all time is because it never fails to bring tears to my eyes. I do not tire of reading it, even though my little ones ask for it over and over. It is truly a timeless tale, I think, and the message of secret self-sacrifice is one that every mother can identify with, I think.

I’m going to leave the Linky live for a couple of weeks, so tell your friends that we’re having a little pre-Christmas party and let’s see if we can work up a list of seriously excellent Christmas picture books for ourselves. I mean…for our children. He he.

Someday I’ll have to share with you my wishlist, which is equal in length {at least} to this list. I might like my collection, but there are also a number of wonderful Christmas tales I do not yet own. {Emphasis on yet.}

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!