Our Christmas Book Box

A couple of years ago I 'rescued' a gift box from work, brought it home with me and turned it into an ever-so-special box of books that only appears once a year.

Not only is this a great way to avoid being asked to read stories about Santa in June, I find it's another great way to build excitement during advent. I get it down from the loft when we put up our decorations and love seeing Lily's excitement as she reacquaints herself with some old favourites.


Our box includes a variety of books given to us from other generous book-lovers, and fab second-hand finds like these gorgeous vintage pop-up books that my Mum found a while ago.



This year, we have some exciting new additions that I'd like to share with you:

A Treasury of Christmas Stories and Songs
A bargain buy from our local garden centre - just £5! I couldn't walk away. It has some beautiful illustrations and we've already started working our way through the stories and Christmas songs.


Stick Man, Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
We borrowed this from a friend a while back and fell in love. It's another fantastically illustrated and brilliantly written rhyming tale that fans of The Gruffalo need in their collection. It's also going to be on TV this Christmas as the adaptation will premiere on the BBC over the festive period - we can't wait!

Topsy and Tim meet Father Christmas, Jean and Gareth Adamson
Don't be put off by the sticker declaring 'as seen on TV', this isn't the same as the slightly annoying cbeebies series with the great theme tune. It's a charming every day story and Lily LOVES it. Although, she also loves the TV series, despite it's faults.


The Nativity, May Eliot and Richard Johnson
I may be old fashioned, or just stating the obvious, but you can't really have Christmas without Christ. I believe that teaching my children about the wonder of God, bringing them to him and encouraging their relationship with Jesus is possibly my most important task as a parent and so as much as I love Santa and the giving of gifts, for me the spirit of Christmas is in celebrating the birth of a child destined to save us all. That's why I really like this lovely retelling of the Christmas story.


I get that religion may not be for everyone, but even if you're not a regular church-goer, I would still recommend this one as it covers the basics without confusion for little ones and leaves you with a warm fuzzy feeling inside. *Update 2016 - you can buy this book at The Works for just £2*

Usborne Musical Nativity
Who doesn't love Usborne books? We have this re-telling of the Nativity which plays snippets of popular Christmas carols. With it's bright and pretty pictures, durable pages and easy to press buttons it is certainly a winner for both Lily and Ollie and would make a great first Christmas gift. We bought ours from ACHICA back in September but you can get it from sellers like Lisa who you can find here.

Do your children have any favourite Christmas books? I'd love to hear about them in the comments!

Family Fever#ToddlerApprovedTuesday
Anonymous said...

Such a lovely idea! I want to give the preschooler a Christmas themed book on Christmas Eve and this has given me a few ideas, thank you! #TriedTested

The Reading Residence said...

I do like the idea that the box only comes out at Christmas. My kids love Topsy and Tim so I can see them enjoying that, and my daughter is very interested in the Nativity story, and that book looks lovely.

Unknown said...

What a fab idea! So creative! thanks for sharing, will defo be trying this out! Suz x Beauisblue.com

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