Christmas Books: Reading Together Under the Tree

While it is tempting to have the television on at all times during the holiday season because of all the Christmas specials I challenge you, as I challenge myself, to say "goodbye" to television and "hello" to wonderful classics. Christmas can be a perfect excuse to sit down with your children and read with them. Yes, read with them. Oftentimes it seems parents think they only ought to tell their child to read while they themselves mindlessly surf the internet or watch television or YouTube. Yes, youtube counts as TV! I am definitely guilty of this! It is the parents job to lead. Act out what the child ought to become- a reader. An important example of literacy for your child comes with your own. It ought to be commonplace for a child to see their mother and father sitting quietly with a great book. It is horrible to think my generation and my parents generation are who Allen Bloom was speaking of in his book "The Closing of the American Mind" when he writes:

"...our students have lost the practice of and the taste for reading. They have not learned how to read, nor do they have the expectation of delight or improvement from reading."

How sad is it that so many have lost such a wonderful facet of personal and intellectual growth. However, whether or not our parents or our teachers expressed to us the great importance of getting lost in a wonderful book we need to learn how and in turn teach our children how. Starting with the click of a button literacy can grow in our homes- that is turing off that TV. What better time to turn off that obnoxious blue glow in your living-room than Christmastime? When the soft glow of your Christmas tree enhances the beauty of your home. Sit under it, or more comfortably sit beside it, and read a classic with those wonderful gifts you've had all year long. 

There are so many wonderful books to read during Christmas and most of them are vastly appealing to children of all ages. From "The Velveteen Rabbit" to "The Cricket on the Hearth" there are a multitude of options. We have a bunch that our daughter can read without our help like "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" and "The Night Before Christmas." Then we have others that she can cuddle up next to us these exceptionally cold nights and listen to- Christmas stories by Charles Dickens or O. Henry.

This Christmas season find a good book, with more words than pictures, and read it to a child- your daughter, son, niece, nephew, granddaughter, or grandson. This year my husband, my daughter, and I will read a chapter of "A Christmas Carol" every day until Christmas. So, we will start on the 19th of December. Then, of course, on Christmas we will read about the birth of Christ directly from Luke. I challenge any parent to do the same. This year make some cocoa and some popcorn then pull out a great book and have fun reading together. Merry Christmas.

Here is a short list of Christmas books I have, I like, or I want to read...
1. A Christmas Carol (By. Charles Dickens)
2. The Chimes (By. Charles Dickens)
3. The Cricket On The Hearth (By. Charles Dickens)
4. The Polar Express (By. Chris Van Allsburg)
5. The Night Before Christmas (By. Clement Clarke Moore)
6. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (By. Dr. Seuss)
7. The Very First Christmas (By. Paul L. Maier)
8. The Gift of the Magi (By. O. Henry)
9. The Little Match Girl (By. Hans Christian Andersen)
10. The Tale of Three Trees: A Traditional Folktale (By. Angela Ewell Hunt)
11. A Charlie Brown Christmas (By. Charles M. Schulz)
12. The Christmas Story (By. Jane Werner Watson)
13. The Animals' Christmas Eve (By. Gale Wiersum)
14. The Poky Little Puppy's First Christmas (By. Justine Korman)
15. Corduroy's Christmas Surprise (By. Don Freeman)
16. The Velveteen Rabbit (By. Margery Williams)
17. Room for a Little One: A Christmas Tale (By. Martin Waddell)
18. The Crippled Lamb (By. Max Lucado)
19. The Legend of the Candy Cane (By. Lori Walburg)
20. *Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (By. Tim Burton) 
*This is the poem which the movie was based on made into a book.

Happy Homeschooling!
~Mickaela