Last year, I posted a list of books we read for our “Christmas in American History” unit. I decided to re-organize that list of books, removing some that we don’t normally read, and adding a few new ones for this year. Later, I’ll be creating a seperate list, which will contain the books we’re using this year for “Christmas in England,” but won’t necessarily use on a yearly basis.

Biblical/Religious Storybooks

• Jotham’s Journey (This and the following two books are part of an Advent series by Arnold Ytreeide–we read one of them out loud each year)
• Bartholomew’s Passage
• Tabitha’s Travels
• Ishtar’s Odyssey
• The Jesse Tree Kit (This is our other daily religion read-aloud for the Advent season–each day has a short narration as well as a corresponding Bible passage to read.)
• The Very First Christmas
• Three Wise Women of Christmas
• The Visit of the Wise Men
• Fear Not, Joseph!
• The Crippled Lamb
• From Heaven Above
• The First Christmas
• Saint Nicholas: The Real Story of the Christmas Legend
• Lucia, Saint of Light

Christmas in America

• Christmas in Williamsburg
• Felicity’s Surprise
• A Surprise for Caroline
• Josefina’s Surprise
• Kirsten’s Surprise
• Louisa May Alcott’s Christmas Treasury
• The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus
• Addy’s Surprise
• Samantha’s Surprise
• O. Henry’s The Gift of the Magi
• Kit’s Surprise
• An Orange for Frankie
• The Carpenter’s Gift
• Molly’s Surprise
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas
• The Nutcracker Comes to America

Nutcracker Read-Alouds

• The Day Before Christmas
• Degas and the Little Dancer
• The Story of the Nutcracker Ballet
• The Nutcracker
• Nutcracker and Mouse King and the Tale of the Nutcracker

Book Basket Books–(These are any Christmas books we happened to have in the house, some from past “Christmas Around the World” units, and some from previous curriculum, or just for fun!)

• The Family Under the Bridge
• The Light at Tern Rock
• A Christmas Carol (This is a wonderful edition, with beautiful illustrations, and a bonus short story!)
• Nutcracker and Mouse King and The Tale of the Nutcracker
• Christmas in the Trenches
• The Kingfisher Book of Classic Christmas Stories
• The Lion Storyteller Christmas Book
• Too Many Tamales
• The Twelve Days of Christmas (There are many lovely, illustrated versions of this song out there, but this one is my favorite)
• A Child’s Christmas in Wales
• The Autobiography of Santa Claus (This and the following book, although Santa focused, are actually great stories, so I make them available for Turkey and Bunny to read during the Christmas season.)
• How Mrs. Claus Saved Christmas
• A Pioneer Christmas

Winter Books (As long as winter begins during the Christmas season, I’ll include the books we always read on the first day of winter)

• Snow
• Snowflake Bentley
• Sugaring Time
• Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
• Katy and the Big Snow