Books Talk: Our Favorite Holiday Picture Books

In Episode 186 Sarah and Katie sat down to discuss our favorite holiday picture books for kids. Here is the full list, and we’d love to hear your favorites in the comments!

If you haven’t listened to the podcast episode yet, you can do that here. It’s all about raising kids who love and appreciate books–and what better time to make reading memories than the holidays?

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Katie’s Recommendations…

I begin Advent in my house with a focus on the Nativity and love the book One Night in Bethlehem (Jill Roman Lord) because it asks the reader to step into the shoes of the animals and people present at the first Christmas.

The two titles, The Mitten and The Hat, by Jan Brett are great paired together, and The Mitten has many adaptations, including one by Jim Aylesworth, which develops the human characters more than the Jan Brett version does.

You can never go wrong with an alphabet primer whether it’s the holidays or not! Two of my favorites for the holidays are Greg Paprocki’s D Is for Dreidel (you should definitely check out the rest of his alphabet series, too!) and The ABCs of Christmas. Both have really fun illustrations.

I briefly mentioned Dream Snow, (Eric Carle) a short and sweet tale about a Santa lookalike who rushes to place gifts under the Christmas tree for his five animals.

The vintage version of the classic title, The Night Before Christmas (illustrations by Douglas Gorsline) is my favorite. The detailed pencil sketch drawings conjure up so much childhood nostalgia. If you’re going to pick up any version of this tale, this one’s the one to get!

Sarah’s Recommendations…

I mentioned Room for a Little One: A Christmas Tale (Martin Waddell) in response to Katie’s first recommendation of an interactive, nativity-based storybook for little ones.

Baby Elf’s Christmas (Jane Cowen-Fletcher) is my favorite board book for babies and toddlers (or anyone who loves them).

The Carpenter’s Gift: A Christmas Tale about the Rockefeller Center Tree (David Rubel and Jim LaMarche) and Lighthouse Christmas (Toni Buzzeo) are both tear-jerkers with historically-based stories…which adults may appreciate more than kids do.

In our conversation about prolific winter-writer Jan Brett I mentioned that we love Home For Christmas, The Animals’ Santa, and The Mitten.

The Christmas Magic (Lauren Thompson) is my favorite modern telling of Santa, hands down. It’s just beautiful.

Finally, I talked about how much I love the book lists at What Do We Do All Day?, and specifically mentioned these three: Timeless Christmas Books, New Christmas Picture Books, and Christmas Chapter Book Read Alouds for Families. In the podcast episode, Meagan also mentioned Krampus: The Devil of Christmas, The Night Before Christmas – Illustrated by Arthur Rackham, and A Christmas Carol.