I have a wide variety of Christmas storybooks, (in addition to reading both the Matthew and Luke Christmas stories straight from the Bible on different days), each that tells the Christmas story in a different way. We really enjoyed these, and tried to read one book each day (which also included The Nutcracker and Saint Nicholas).

My personal favorite is The Crippled Lamb, which I’ve owned for almost 15 years.  That book was a little hard for me to read aloud this year in light of Moose’s problems, but I made it through, and the children loved it. We also read both The First Christmas (which Ryan bought for Turkey the Christmas before he was born) and The Very First Christmas.  They sound similar, but are wildly different.  I really like The Very First Christmas; The First Christmas is good, but it places the wise men at the stable the night of Jesus’ birth, so I just skipped the end of it.  Bunny especially enjoyed reading The Three Wise Women of Christmas, and I think we all enjoyed learning a little bit more about Anna, who tends to be easily overlooked because her story in the Bible is so short.  Our final Bible storybook was From Heaven Above, which is based on the Christmas carol by Martin Luther.  The illustrations are especially nice–Turkey and Bunny really enjoyed the close-up of Jesus in the manger.  We will also be using a storybook for Epiphany:  The Visit of the Wise Men. This title gives a more accurate portrayal of the journey of the magi, so I don’t have to worry about editing as I read.  I’ve also found a book that’s already on the schedule for next year:  Fear Not Joseph.  I couldn’t get my hands on it this year, and I couldn’t afford to buy it, so it had to wait, but I’m really excited to have a storybook from Joseph’s point-of-view, because that’s one thing we don’t really have.