Christmas Picture Books

Welcome to my long awaited Christmas Picture Book blog post.

For many many years now the boys and I have had a tradition of reading a picture book a day through the month of December to countdown to Christmas, and because there are so many books, I've extended it and we now read through 6th January as well. 

Below are all the Christmas books we read for Christmas 2022 with a brief description and/or our reasons for LOVING the book and reading it year after year...

We start off with two humorous animal books - both about animals that are gluttonous and greedy. "Cat and Dog Eat Christmas" is about two animals who simply cannot resist all the delicious Christmas food waiting in the fridge, and Pig the Elf tells the story of Pig, who wants a list a mile long of presents from Santa. Whilst Cat and Dog probably wasn't good enough to make our "permanent" list, it is always fun to read new books that are published from year to year.

Pig the Elf is a yearly staple as we find this series of books by Aaron Blabey hilarious. However, the boys are getting old and I expect that in another year or two, even Munchkin will be ready to retire this book.

Santa Claus is not part of our family's Christmas traditions by an stretch of the imagination and our boys NEVER receive gifts from Santa, but we do enjoy reading books about Santa!!

The left hand photo was another new selection this year and it was cute - even though it is aimed at the much younger crowd. The gist of the story is that Santa is overworked and needs to find a replacement to handle Christmas Eve so that he can take a much needed break.

The right hand photo is a family favourite. We stumbled on it quite by mistake a few years ago and have read it every year since. It takes the idea of kids not believing in Santa and turns and turns it on its head with Santa not believing in a particular boy. A very funny read...

We read this book fairly regularly when the boys were younger and used to watch the show Olivia on TV. We hadn't read it for a few years, so I decided to add it to the list this year. 

Olivia is impatient for Christmas to come and decides to help her family prepare - with varying levels of success.

Another fun book that combines my boys love of everything Ninja and a boy keen to spot Santa on Christmas Eve using Ninja techniques to "trap" him.

Two lovely little stories about what happens when a child is naughty or greedy at Christmas time. The Christmas Peg is a play on the "coal in the stocking" idea and is a favourite with the boys. I suspect we'll be reading this book for a fair few years to come yet. 

The Smallest Gift for Christmas is the story of a boy who believes the bigger the gift, the better.

Through our homeschooling adventure I have often read Snugglepot and Cuddlepie books/stories to the boys so it was fun to find a new Christmas story to add to our reading plan for Christmas 2022. The story was lovely and as always the illustrations were beautiful.

Another new book for us, and while it was interesting to learn more about the unique wildlife that live on Christmas Island, this is not a book we will likely read again. It used the concept of the 12 Days of Christmas song to introduce the reader to the various birds and animals that live there.

A beautiful story about how the tradition of Father Christmas started and a surprise "new" find for us. I think this book will make it on our permanent list for years to come.

We always like to read a few books about Christmas trees. On the left is a beautiful book about how the Christmas Tree for Trafalgar Square is chosen. At the end of the book there are notes about how the tree is chosen each year. The book on the right is a lovely little story in the theme of Charlie Brown's Christmas as a tiny little tree yearns to be chosen for Christmas.

Not everything we read is fiction - these two books deal with historical events.

The ANZAC Billy talks about the families that packed up Billy Cans to send to soldiers during World War I as a young boy worries about just HOW his Billy Can is going to make it to his father when they don't know exactly where he is.

Tea and Sugar Christmas tells the story of the train that came to the outback weekly to supply the remote stations with food and necessities. Once a year was the special Christmas train that everyone waited for most eagerly. Along with a lovely story and Robert Ingpen's beautiful illustrations, this book is full of information about the train and the services it provided from 1915 until it finally stopped running in 1996.

Two books by favourite authors from my childhood. 

"Gifts of the Heart" is one of my absolute FAVOURITE books to read to the boys every year as it deals with hard topics (grief, loss, and poverty) in a sensitive way while also showing the true importance of the holidays.

No Christmas read aloud is complete in our house with Aussie Christmas books.

A Bush Christmas tells the story of a Christmas dinner held in the hot outback while Aussie Jingle Bells is the iconic version of the song by Colin Buchanan.

This is a lovely story about a lighthouse keeper celebrating his last Christmas before retirement, and how that celebration changes when a huge storm arrives and affects their plans.

Another family favourite about a special Christmas decoration and the life he lives as the little girl he is gifted to grows up and experiences life.

Two beautiful books that deal with Christmas during hard times.

Christmas Always Comes deals with how to celebrate Christmas during the Depression when your family is droving and constantly on the move. Jackie French always does a wonderful job of sensitively and beautifully dealing with hard subjects.

Applesauce and the Christmas Miracle is a take on the Nativity story set in outback Australia after a bushfire has destroyed everything and left an expectant family needing shelter. This is a family favourite and thankfully the library gifted us with a cancelled copy of the book so we own it now.

Three beautiful, and very different, books dealing with the story of Jesus' birth. The top left is about a young girl who has one Muslim grandmother and one Christian grandmother and the different stories they tell of Jesus' birth at Christmas time. This is a beautifully written book and I love reading it every year.

The words of The Nativity are taken directly from the book of Luke and the illustrations are just lovely.

Finally, "The Night of His Birth" is written by another favourite author from my childhood and tells the story from Mary's perspective as she marvels at the special job she has been given in birthing and raising the Son of God.

Fun Christmas stories written by two of the first Australian childrens authors I was introduced to when I moved here. The boys and I love wombats so these are two favourites that will continue to be read for a few more years even though their target audience is a MUCH younger crowd.

A fun look at the first traditional Christmas (complete with Christmas tree) celebrated by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The story is told from the perspective of the family dogs and is hilarious to read. True to Jackie French, at the end of the book are historical notes about the origin of the story.

I love Christmas books about animals. 

The Crippled Lamb is a beautiful story about a little lamb who felt very left out because he got sent back to the barn because he couldn't keep up with the flock, only to discover he had a very important job to do.

After reading "All Creatures Great and Small" by James Herriot through the school year, it was extra fun to read "The Christmas Day Kitten" again. A lovely story about a stray mother cat who visits a farm semi-regularly and the safety she finds there.

Finally, two stories, written in completely different styles, about how Christmas can change a "grinch".