Christmas Books

Took this idea from my cousin's blog a tree grows in delano to read some children's Christmas Books with my daughter. (Guess she wasn't too old after all - she claims she had fun.) Although we missed Christmas by a week we went on our weekly trip to the library and decided to find some that would peak our interest. Here's what we found:

If you Take a Mouse to the Movies - Laura Numeroff

This is a Christmas version of the "If you Take. . . " series from Laura Numeroff.
It's a cute story but as Krisha mentioned, I didn't care for it the same as I felt as if it didn't have the same cadence as the If you Take books. The story line is cute and Christmasy but it felt forced into the story. I feel like she could have told a better story with a more consistent flow. Illustration are cute and I'm sure children will love it no matter what.

Noel - Tony Johnston

I have to admit, I picked this book because of the cover and because I like the Christmas song. This book is about young children and older people coming together in a village to celebrate the joy of Christmas. What amazed me about this book is the drawings (which I forgot to take a picture of so I cheated and downloaded a few). The absolutely beautiful drawings in this book are by watercolor artist Cheng-Khee Chee. If you love watercolor art then you will LOVE this book and the artwork along with the story line make a very beautiful Christmas story.

Harold and The North Pole - Crockett Johnson

The story continues of Harold and his adventure with his purple crayon. Harold's imagination takes him to the North Pole as he prepares for Christmas Day. I love Harold as he is a great example of what a little imagination can do. . . in this day and age of all our "high-tech" toys even children can get caught up in our busy world. Taking time to just play does wonders for the soul. I don't see how anyone cannot love Harold - so encourage everyone you know to get out their purple (or whatever color they love) crayon and "let their imagination run wild"

How Santa Lost His Job - Stephen Kreskey

Can you imagine it if Santa Lost his job? In our world today with trying to run a business, streamlining hits the North Pole and even the elves need to think about being cost-efficient. Can our world exist as we know it if we didn't have a Santa? Would we want to have a world without a Santa? Sometimes doing things the old-fashion way may be the best in bringing the right heartfelt touch to certain problems. I think this book was my favorite book of the day!

Christmas Mice - Bethany Roberts

This is a very cute story about holiday mice that are preparing for Christmas by stringing lights, wrapping presents, hanging stocking and are so busy that they forgot about one important "character" in their lives. This story has a great message about sharing the Christmas joy with everyone - including someone that is or may be your enemy.

Side note: why are all  helpful, busy little non-human creatures Mice? Think about it. . Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, etc. . . just curious! It there something about mice I'm not getting?

Max's Christmas - Rosemary Wells

A Ruby & Max Christmas story about how Max has plans to stay up and see Santa Claus, but Ruby is telling Max he can't do that "cause no one ever sees Santa Claus". . . although Max doesn't know why. . .will he find a way to see Santa Claus.

This is the story of a "special" rabbit brother and sister, apparently there is a cartoon called Ruby & Max. I have never seen this before but as my daughter informs me it comes on all the time so she has set our DVR to record an episode for me so I can enjoy Ruby & Max too.

I asked her if Ruby & Max have parents and she said no - so I asked her why but she didn't know so we proceeded to "make-up" stories as to what happened to their parents. I won't post them here as I don't want to lessen the Christmas mood on this page - but she enjoyed the stories and we had so much fun! LOL!!