Holiday Book Recommendations
The pile of holiday books on our coffee table in the family room gets taller and more precarious each year. Okay, if I am being honest, its at least three tall, lopsided piles. When the holidays are over, I pack up the books along with all our holiday decorations and put them away until the following year. Sam and Emma love when the holiday books get unpacked – they read and pour over the pages for hours – treating them like old friends they haven’t seen in quite awhile.
Admittedly, I buy too many books for Sam & Emma, holiday and otherwise. (Yes, I was that kid that brought a separate suitcase of books along with me on vacation.) And because we celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas in our household, I have an excuse to buy even more holiday books. But everyone else should benefit from my excess, so we have listed all our favorite holiday book recommendations that we have discovered below. For reference purposes, Sam and Emma are 7-year-olds, Joe is 4, and Jack is 1 1/2.
In addition, yesterday a friend (@sarahgai) introduced me to a great new online resource known as Bookshop. A new online platform, Bookshop, has created a centralized online shopping platform for independent bookstores around the country. Since last weekend included Small Business Saturday and knowing how disproportionately COVID-19 has impacted small and local brick and mortar businesses, we thought it might be a good idea to provide links to our favorite holiday books on their site where available. And don’t get me wrong, Amazon or Target boxes frequent my doorstop year-round with great regularity (just ask Ryan!) but we also love the idea of supporting local if and where we can.
Christmas Books
- Dear Santa (This book is Jack’s favorite holiday book.)
- Spot’s First Christmas (This book is Jack’s other favorite; he loves lift the flap books right now!)
- Little Blue Truck’s Christmas (Christmas wouldn’t be the same without jingle bells and Little Blue Truck’s beep, beep, beep!).
- Construction Sight On Christmas Night (The perfect Christmas story for any young child that loves construction vehicles.)
- Leffy’s Christmas Gift (Our Aunt Mary gifted this book to both our families last year and Sam, Emma and Joe all love it. Our kids also love the matching Jellycat elf available here)
- The Great Spruce (Last year I gave this beautiful book out as a holiday gift along with a Christmas Tree Growing Kit available here)
- The Polar Express (A beautiful Christmas classic that should be on everyone’s holiday bookshelf. Can you still hear Santa’s sleigh bells?)
- Stick Man (A fun holiday book by one of our favorite authors, Julia Donaldson. Will Stick Man make it home in time for Christmas?)
Books for Kids Who Celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah
- Daddy Christmas & Hanukkah Mama (Our household is Mommy Christmas and Hanukkah Dada, but this story gets awfully close to our own approach to dual holiday celebrations.)
- The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming (The funniest holiday book I’ve ever read. This book manages to tell the story of Hanukkah in a kid-friendly way while also conveying a message of tolerance. Highly recommend!)
- Eight Candles and a Tree (A great book for all children who celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah with pretty illustrations and fun text.)
- Light the Lights! (A fun story about a family who celebrates both Hanukkah and Christmas. Plus, the main character’s name is Emma – how can you go wrong?)
Hanukkah Books
- Meet the Latkes (A humorous approach to the story of Hanukkah – Sam and Emma love reading about the brave Mega-Bees!)
- Oskar and the Eight Blessings (An award-wining, exquisitely told story set in 1938 when a young boy, Oskar, arrives in New York on the 7th day of Hanukkah to escape the Nazis and meets people who help him in unexpected and moving ways.)
- Dear Santa, Love, Rachel Rosenstein (A very cute story about what its like being a Jewish child during the holiday season, this book encourages an appreciation of family, culture and customs.)
- The Dreidel That Wouldn’t Spin (A beautiful holiday story about the true spirit of Hanukkah.)
Do you or your children have a favorite holiday book? Care to share it with us? We would love to hear your recommendations! And, if you happen to try one of our holiday book suggestions, please let us know what your think.
