A Very Bookish Christmas

I love Christmas – I have always loved Christmas. The other day I spotted something on social media that said…

“I used to think that being a kid at Christmas was the best thing ever. Turns out, having kids on Christmas is.”

For me, that phrase is exactly right. Being a child at Christmas was magical. Some people might argue I’m still a child at Christmas, but that’s a different matter. Either way, watching our children at Christmas has always been enchanting. I don’t think I could ever find the right words to describe how it feels.

As a family, we adore Christmas and all the things we get to do together. Things like Christmas concerts at school, Christmas fairs and Christmas markets are always a highlight. Every year, we have traditions at home too, and one big part of that is Christmas stories. I say stories because I’ve talked quite a lot on social media about the Christmas movies we’ve been watching. Movies are a very visual way of telling stories. In fact, this year we’ve made even more effort to cram in as many festive movies as we can together. However, I don’t want to let Christmas pass by without talking about Christmas books. I mean, how could I?

Christmas books have meant even more to me as a parent than they ever did before. Don’t get me wrong, I have always loved reading Christmas stories. I can’t even remember when I first read ‘A Christmas Carol’, but I do know I was quite young. Wow, how I treasured that book. There have been so many movie adaptations, but none quite compare to the book for me. That said, I am an enormous fan of ‘Muppets Christmas Carol’, for a whole bunch of reasons. Anyway, back to parenting…

Nothing comes close to sharing Christmas stories and books with our children. They each have many different tastes when it comes to books, too. As such, I have had the pleasure of reading all types of Christmas books with them. Both Ian and Lewis love books with plenty of humour, for example. So, each year we always laugh together with books like ‘Father Christmas Needs A Wee’ (Nicholas Allan) and ‘Aliens Love Panta Claus’ (Claire Freedman & Ben Cort). A more recent addition to our Christmas book collection was ‘Rudey’s Windy Christmas’ (Helen Baugh & Ben Mantle). If you haven’t read that book, I can assure you it’s packed full of giggles. Most of these laugh out loud books are only short, so they are perfect Christmas stories for bedtime.

Within our Christmas book pile, there are also some traditional style stories. We have a book called ‘The Very Special Christmas’ (Christine Leeson & Gaby Hansen) and that one lights up. Although my children are getting older, they still love that story – but might not admit it. Another book that comes with lights is ‘A Star So Bright’ (M Christina Butler & Caroline Pedler). Our daughter, Olivia, tends to prefer stories like these because of their fairy tale qualities. But when it comes to this type of story, all our children always ask us to read ‘The Jolly Christmas Postman’ (Janet & Allan Ahlberg). Again, they wouldn’t tell you, but I know they still like that story now. That book is perfect. I don’t want to tell you too much, but if you have young children, I’d highly recommend it.

This year, I am now adding some more stories to our collection. So far, I have never read any of Matt Haig’s Christmas books. For whatever reason, I’ve somehow never picked them up. Before our children get much older, I really want to read all these books with them. So, Matt Haig’s books are now going to be placed at the top of our Christmas reading pile. On a final note, we’ve also bought a stunning copy of ‘The Night Before Christmas’ this year. We are saving that one for Christmas Eve, obviously, and I cannot wait. The version in the photo above is our old copy, but this new book is a small pop-up, and it is gorgeous.

Which Christmas stories are your favourites? Do you have a pile of Christmas books that come out at this time of year? I’d love to hear all about them.

On that note, I will finish by saying that I hope you have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a wonderful New Year. Thank you so much for your support this year.  I do hope Santa brings you some lovely things.

Much Love,
R.J.