So, Halloween happened and before you could hide the wrappers to your kids’ contraband candy, holiday prep was in full swing. Shoot, my Super Target was taking up holiday real estate before mid-October. If you’re a purist and wait until after Thanksgiving to decorate and listen to holiday tunes or you’re like me and took full advantage of Election Day off of school to decorate, one fun way to enjoy the magic of the prep is through books! Here are delightful holiday books that will make you shake your tinsel. Or candles. Or dreidel. Whatever you celebrate, I gotchoo.
Littles
Santa, Please Bring Me a Gnome by An Swerts is a must this holiday season! Cherub-y illustrations? ✔ A gal with a plan? ✔ Learning that getting something different than what you asked Santa for is actually a good thing? ✔ Sweet little Tess wants a gnome for Christmas so she has a friend to go to school with, to sit on the swings with and to even take with her in the bathtub. She plans oh-so-well, but things don’t go as planned. I loved this book!
Meet the Latkes by Alan Silberberg is fuh-nee! This is such a fun way to introduce the story of Hanukkah to kiddos (and anyone who doesn’t know about it). While I am not of the Jewish faith, I really am fascinated by it. This book even helps readers with the Hanukkah vs. Chanukah saying and spelling (because I really never know what is right). The Latke family has a dog named applesauce (brilliant) and the grandfather explains Hanukkah with the Mega Bees (IRL, Maccabees). Such a silly and fun twist on this important holiday!
All of a Kind Family Hanukkah by Emily Jenkins is a must! I read All of a Kind Family earlier in 2020 and saw they had a holiday book out, and had to read it! The illustrations are rich and the kitchen scenes feel so cozy (the girls are all pitching in – who wouldn’t love that?) and so very current (the youngest is throwing a fit because she wants a big kid job (uhm, every other day in this house]).
Gloria Koster shares such a fun spin on a classic in Little Red Ruthie! Ruthie is on her way to Bubbe’s house and encounters that scoundrel the wolf. She outsmarts him at every turn. Get it, girl. Love this!
The Christmas Fairy by Anne Booth is all things holiday and cherub-like. Clara and her fairy peers are working hard to become Christmas fairies. But Clara is a non-stop mover, chatterer and giggler. Not the material for proper Christmas fairies. Ahem. This book is so beautifully illustrated and is such a good reminder that there isn’t a one-sized-fits-all anything.
Nicola Killen’s The Little Reindeer is pure gold in my book. I cannot get enough of these illustrations. Like, gasp. These are elegant and simply and so festive. What’s extra fun – beyond this sweet tale – is the cutouts throughout the book. Perfect for little hands helping turn the pages.
Oh my gorgeous! Get this. Lickity split. Silent Night by Lara Hawthorne is simply beautiful. I am always looking for ways to diversify our bookshelves and I so rarely see black or brown-skinned people in the books including Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. The illustrations are beyond. Definitely a keeper.
If I Got Christmas Spirit by Connie Schofield-Morrison doesn’t make you smile, I don’t know what would. This book is a delight! The Christmas spirit is everywhere – you just have to look and feel. Glorious message. And I am super partial to this cutie because our Hope has the exact same coils.
Prepare to fall in love. Long Ago, on a Silent Night by Julie Berry is a ‘buy’ not ‘borrow’ book. You’ll want to perhaps buy an extra and give to a gal pal who has kiddos. This shares the miracle of Jesus’ birth long ago, but also the beauty and glory in the birth of our own children. Such a spectacular reminder to give thanks.
Maudie Powell-Tuck’s Last Stop on the Reindeer Express is dynaMO! If this isn’t Anthropologie in a book form, I don’t know what is. The cut outs throughout the book, the illustrations, the tale. It’s all just cozy and sweet. You will uh-dore!
Besides the sweet illustrations in Marie Tibi’s The Bear Who Didn’t Want to Miss Christmas, you’ll love the take-away. We don’t have to celebrate a holiday exactly on the holi-date. It can be earlier or later or celebrated differently than we’ve known it before. This resonated with our three smalls because we often do a holly-jolly weekend with my in-laws before Christmas.
Oh my snowman! I couldn’t love this book more! Erin Dealey’s Snow Globe Wishes is all sorts of awesome. Biracial couple, cute-as-pie illustrations and a message that resonates with us all during the rush-rush-rush of the season. Love!
Little Santa is so very, very darling and you will go ga-ga for it. Yoko Maruyama tells the sweetest story about Santa’s kiddo jumping in to help his efforts when he gets a bum foot. I adore these illustrations (see a common theme in all my pictures books I recommend?) and we have read this over and over.
A Christmas Advent Story by Ivy Snow (for real, isn’t that the most fun author’s name ever?!) is a gorgeous book made for little ones and toddlers! The flaps on every page are perfect for Hope to turn and for me to help with ‘first words.’ The story is sweet for Motor to follow along. I love these illustrations and the bright colors and the sing-song text. This is a buy, for sure!
Sheila Anderson’s Kwanzaa book is a delight! The illustraions are sweet and bright. You can feel the energy from the text about this important holiday. Despite the cover – which might look like it’s targeted for really little ones – this book is packed with a punch of information. Motor really liked this one!
Oh my jolly jingles. I love the illustrations in A Christmas Gift for Santa by J. Theron Elkins! All those rosy cheeks and bright colors have me feeling all the holiday vibes! Santa’s been hoofin’ it all over and comes home hoping he got a lil’ something for Christmas. Follow as he searches lo and high-ho-ho for his gift. So dang sweet.
Lara Hawthorne, I have your number for all things beautiful! Another Lara book in this line-up! The same wording as the traditional 12 Days of Christmas you grew up with but with a reboot of the illustrations including diversity. Yass!
Good golly, I love these alphabet books from Greg Paprocki! D is for Dreidel is a darrrrrrling board book showcasing all things Hanukkah. This is a fantastic book to help wee ones understand the holiday AND the illustrations are going to make you giddy. Pure freaking delight!
Ahhhh! The font, the illustrations, the talk of savory latkes! If you don’t fall in love with Hanukkah Bear by Eric A. Kimmel, you are hibernating. See what I did there? 😉 Bubba mistakes a hungry bear for her rabbi and her night doesn’t go as planned. I love this book!
Tad Hills, you sleigh slay! Mistletoe is Tad’s latest and I uh-dore it! Grab this faster than you can gobble up a holiday cookie. If you like Tad’s work with the Duck & Goose series, you will adore the friendship between Mistletoe (mouse) and Norwell (elephant). Please make this a series.
Mike Curato’s Little Elliot series is just the bee’s knees in my opinion. And lucky me, he added Merry Christmas, Little Elliot this year and I am waving my jazz hands for it! Also available in a board book option for smaller hands. Trust me on this one, it’s super sweet and as always, pushes the message of friendship. Swoon.
I love, love, love these interfaith books! I love learning about other faiths and their celebrations. I imagine it’s hard enough trying to find a balance between two holidays like Hanukkah and Christmas in the same timeframe, let alone finding books that speak to both holidays. Eight Candles and a Tree by Simone Bloom Nathan was such a joy! And a huge round of applause for the diversity in this book!
This image doesn’t do this book justice. Christmas in 100 Words by Sophie Beer is board book babeness! The textures, the diverse images, the whole book just oozes ‘holly jolly’ and I am dying over this. Hope ‘read’ this by herself a zillion times after I read it to her. So dang sweet!
Aly Fronis killlllls! This Little Reindeer is a sweet board book is perfect for my Hope and is such a sweet holiday-ish parody on everyone’s fave little piggy tale. I love these illustrations – they just seem jolly and ‘silly goose-ish’ to me. Yes, ma’am, submit order. ✔
Hanukkah celebrator or not, Hanukkah Cookies with Sprinkles by David A. Adler is a delight. Like, seriously. This could be a perfect book for any time of year, any holiday, any faith, just because. This is all about extending yourself and giving back. I’m here for it.
I couldn’t put together a post of delightful books to capture your heart without including one with Mrs. C at the helm! Mrs. Claus Takes the Reins by Sue Fliess is such a sweet, joyful book. I love a sassy little lady who takes charge, especially with these illustrations. Own it, sister! 🤶🏾
Young Adult
Follow high school senior Sophie as she tries to mend a broken heart (or at least be distracted from the broken heart) in 10 Blind Dates by Ashley Elston. Days prior to Christmas, Sophie overhears her boyfriend telling a friend that she’s not fun and he wants to break up with her. She’s devestated, of course. She jets to her extended family’s Christmas gathering as scheduled but she is so NOT wanting to be there. Her darling Nonna decides to take advantage of having Sophie at her house with all her cousins there by having everyone be in charge of setting up a blind date for Sophie. Awkward and potentially disastrous, uhm yes.
Sophie is such a likeable character that I dare you to not read this in less than 3 days. I dare you. This book is all things growing up, figuring out that odd dance of being almost independent and yet having so much heart-work to figure out at the same time, and friendship. I adored this book!
Another delightful YA book for the season is All I Want for Christmas by Wendy Loggia. Compared to the above book, this is more PG, more Christmas-y, more Hallmark movie-ish. I loved both books! Bailey is our adorable main character. All around good gal, works part-time at a book store (clearly we love her more now) and would love nothing else for Christmas than to be kissed under the mistletoe. This gal is sassy but also sweet. She’s not a wallflower, either. So when a fellow junior at her high school approaches her at the bookstore and sparks fly, she thinks she may be getting her Christmas wish.
Enter a second darling dude who has become smitten with Bailey. Bailey likes qualities from both gentleman and doesn’t want to waste her time or lead either of the boys astray. Watch as Bailey learns to enjoy the single-and-ready-to-mingle lifestyle and trust her intuition.
Super fun!
Adult
This, sisters, is what an adult romcom looks like! In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren is fun and light enough where you can pick up where you left off – even if it’s for four minutes. Think a modern version of the movie Groundhog Day with a way cuter cast of characters. And perhaps a little of Sliding Doors when Gwenyth Paltrow had that super cute short ‘do.
Maelyn has spent every single Christmas holiday at a cabin with two other families since, well, forever. Things are about to change and after a mistaken kiss in the cabin kitchen, Maelyn keeps getting the opportunity to see things in a different perspective. Rinse. Repeat. Cuteness, festive, slow-burn type of romance. Get this book and my guess is that you’ll complete the book within three days. Likely sooner! 🎄
More adult options
Read my previous posts on holiday-ish books:
- Find Christmas Camp here
- Find Calm Christmas and a Happy New Year here
- Find Christmas at Fireside Cabins here
- Find The Christmas Swap here
Happy reading, gals!