My kids are a hungry book reader because we completely restrict how much screen time they can watch. Reading aloud is also one of the ways to build a community lifestyle around conversation, thoughts, shared stories, and network. I’ll be reading my kids some of our favorite holiday picture books as they eat their meal this month during Advent and Christmas.
We work with small, independent publishers because I generally donate to an upmarket private library filled with gorgeous classic books that my children can easily browse without getting caught up in moral sneer. ( Pastor Jamison Hardy expresses her sincere gratitude for distributing a significant grant to our church body to help fund these libraries )
Smaller publishers are producing new classics and revitalizing older ones with incredible work. Some of my favourite newer titles from my beloved little producers are listed below. I could possibly quad this list, but I guess I should end it there. If you want more tips, check out a similar list I wrote next Christmas.
Christmas Legends Bundle, Living Book Press
A gorgeous Christmas book bundle featuring several revived masterpieces that you might certainly have already seen has been released by one of my favourite little publishers, Living Book Press. The bundle includes The Christmas Reindeer, by renowned children’s animal author Thornton Burgess, The Chimes, The Haunted Man, and The Ghost’s Bargain, by Charles Dickens, Old Christmas, by nineteenth-century American author Washington Irving ( of” Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and” Rip Van Winkle” fame ), and a collection of Christmas short stories from O. Henry, Louisa May Alcott, Elizabeth Gaskell ( a marvelously undervalued nineteenth-century English novelist ), and more.
A homeschool Australian home runs Living Book Press. I purchase as many copies as my finances allows. If you’re on their email list, they have regular sales going on, but I’d wait until the flower for their next 20 % off sales to stock up since they already had their yearly pre-Black Friday sale already under way. Check out their whole Christmas group for publications you’d been hard-pressed to find elsewhere.
Heirloom-Quality Writes for Adults and Children
Next Advent, my personalized Christmas order was Winter Fire, by G. K. Chesterton, via Theology of Home. It’s a wonderfully bound text and threatening reading of some of Chesterton’s lesser-known Christmas papers and passages. A wonderful present for a significant other or a friend.
My True Love Gave to Me: A Children’s Catechism for the Twelve Days of Christmas is one of the Theology of Home Ladies ‘ newest choices this year. The Roman Catholic editor TAN Books just released the book this year. The song’s religious significance is covered in a beautifully described children’s book.
This reserve, which was published by the renowned editor Memoria Press, might be a good choice for a Protestant. It was recently reworked to reflect an older one that I give to my kids on Christmas Day each month:
What does Jesus ‘ disciples in the older version of this book have to do with eleven lords a-leaping, according to Amazon’s excellent description? In the well-known caroline,’ The Twelve Days of Christmas,’ the songs were used to educate children Christian theory during a period of harassment in sixteenth-century England. The sparrow, turtledoves, European hens, calling animals, and other graphics all symbolized components of the Christian faith. You’ll know the phrases ‘ past in” The Real Twelve Days of Christmas” and discover a new appreciation for this well-known carol. I may, however, have to put Theology of Home’s Catholic one to our government because its paintings are so wonderful.
Memoria Press’s Christmas Treasury
To no one’s shock, the different Christmas books our buddies at Memoria provide are great. The main problem for me was finding them, since their website seems not to include a” Christmas” category. But I’ve removed my favorite items from their site completely so you can find them without doing any searches.
They have a wonderfully illustrated version of one of our favorite Christmas stories, Leo Tolstoy’s” Papa Panov”.
If you enjoy 12 Days of Christmas books ( and you should ), then… ), Jan Brett’s type is a must-have family common.
Two other seasonal books include The Big Snow, by Berta and Elmer Hader ( a picture book classic ), and I Saw Three Ships, by Elizabeth Goudge. Goudge was a favorite Christian 20th-century British children’s artist. Goudge’s will be one of the many fresh Christmas titles I purchase each year for our set.
The Little House Christmas Treasury, one of the line ‘ most well-known images, is one final product I’d like to recommend to you. My children always toss them around the house because I always prefer to buy them hardback books, which I much prefer because of how frequently I reprimand them for doing so. It’s probably true that my husband would accuse me of no punishing me firmly or consistently enough to achieve a good result. However, even if I were, I’d like to keep these publications for the grandchildren as well.
From now through Christmas, Memoria is adding a costless version of O Travel O Come, a collection of vintage Christmas writings, essays, and other options, to every order.
Another Annual Song and The Messiah
There’s a” Messiah” sing-along this year in my town, and I ca n’t wait to go. Many, many people love to middle Advent and Christmas family day around George Friedrich Handel’s genius.
I love Cindy Rollins ‘ mom-friendly link to doing so, Hallelujah: Celebrating Advent Practices with Handel’s Messiah. The beautiful, modest preschool publisher Blue Sky Daisies is the author of the second edition. She offers a listen-along guide to each section as well as numerous traditions, Bible verses, and other scripts she developed while mothering 10 (! ) kids. Almost any household would enjoy this friendly book.
I picked up this lovely link to” The Messiah” with next year’s collection of Christmas ebooks for our set. Messiah: The Greatest Sermon Ever Sung requires a visit to open the test images on the Ad Crucem website. One of those cherished Christmas publications that children of all ages can enjoy on their coffee table. It’s also a fantastic visual partner to listening to music for.
The Christian Christmas Tree from Ad Crucem features results of Christmas characters for seasonal artwork for those who enjoy imagery, just like we English degrees who study painting and other subjects. Additionally, you can purchase long-lasting Christmons like those that are featured in the book. Next to the fresh front-door horse bells, which I purchased for too much at a nearby pop-up store, I have many of them, which are my favorite Christmas design! ).
Because God has incorporated symbols into all of creation and history, they are quite wealthy ways to understand the world. Each person uses its own wonderful approach to proclaim a unique quality of Truth.
That is why I think it’s very important to become educated in symbolism, as it enriches one’s musical and career experiences, all the way down to film observing and logo analysis. People communicate to them through symbols in a multisensory way that transcends words. That is why God makes use of them, and why Christians, as well as all educated people, should be important for symbolic literacy.
My favorite series for children’s hymns are those from Klora Press. When I read my children the books, I memorize all these great hymns. Depart in Peace, the song of Simeon, which liturgical Christians sing as we leave the communion altar, is perhaps their most recent addition this year. This prophet sung the same words in the Bible when he finally saw the birth of Jesus.
They also have a beautifully illustrated” O Come, O Come Emanuel” in English and Latin.
The Big Father and His Little Boy, Katie Schuermann’s newest three-part series for children, is a must-read book for every child on your list. It’s a chapter book that’s appropriate for people between the ages of eight and eight. After I dropped it on them, my kids could n’t stop talking about it. Even my 14-year-old found it absorbing.
In child-appropriate depictions, the story is about how our earthly fathers occasionally fail us but our Heavenly Father never will. One of the best active fiction authors of today is Schuermann ( a personal friend ). Well worth far more than the$ 15 sticker price.
Christmas Saints and Other Heroes
To honor Christian heroes who have perished in the name of the faith, you do n’t need to pray to saints. Honoring those who have succeeded us and provided us with good examples to look up to is just and healthy. For me and other liturgical Protestants, that’s part of the value we see in observing the traditional church year.
Saint Augustine Academy Press is recommended for anyone who practices any traditional Christian. I’m over the moon about their English-translated reprint of a 1928 French children’s book, Saint Nicholas: Patron Saint of Children. On Saint Nicholas Day this Advent ( 6 December ), I ca n’t wait to read it to my kids.
Warning: Some of these tales are gruesome. The cover depiction, for example, is of little boys butchered and brought back to life by Saint Nicholas. However, YMMV, my children have already encountered these things in fairy tales.
In our family, we talk about many of the miraculous tales about saints like Nicholas, the bishop of Smyrna, as legends. It’s not that we do n’t believe in miracles, of course, but that we know humans embellish over time and the historical record for most saint miracles is, shall we say, spotty.
My children do n’t have trouble understanding and sorting between stories that are more likely to be true and those that are less likely to be true because they are so well-versed in myths and legends. That’s basic historical critical thinking.
We can admire Saint Nicholas for being a religious father who reportedly punched a heretic in the face ( and later had to repent ). We can admire the Christian virtues that he displayed in self-sacrificing and charity. Idiotatry is not the same as respecting our heritage.
I view Saint Nicholas ( and Saint Lucy, and Saint Ambrose, etc. ) myths and legends about the somewhat weak modern Santa Claus are more intriguing and symbolically rich than the one in legend. Because it is our own religious heritage, we find it fascinating to learn about the lives of dear Christians all over the world.
By the way, I have n’t been able to locate a Saint Lucy picture book that I adore. Contact me using the Federalist email address provided below if you know of one!
Lovely Church Year-Themed Folk Art
Despite the fact that Martinmas is past this year and technically not a holiday holiday, I’ll still snag this new picture book. It is thematically fit for Thanksgiving, however, and that has not occurred yet! ( A note for other Protestant readers: One line in this book says” Saint Martin, pray for us”! )
Folk artist Heather Sleightholm, the author and illustrator of” Snow on Martinmas”, also has some delectable saint prints in her Etsy shop, including this of Saint Lucy.
Some Lighter Fare
If you are looking for lighter fare to round out your Christmas spirit, go visit Purple House Press’s Christmas selection. People who do n’t have my problem will enjoy their resuscitated picture books because one of my flaws is aversion to silliness. If not forcibly cramming up the shelves with porn, you might be able to get Cranberry Christmas in your neighborhood library if you like grump like me.
If you know of a publisher not on this list that should be, please let me know about it via [email protected]! I’ve informed publishers that I boycott those who openly deny artistic, historical, and literary merit, and who, to my knowledge, have excluded them from this list. Anti-white bigotry is just as unacceptable as anti-any-other-skin-color bigotry.
