Having this addiction causes me to scour websites, blogs and pinterest for new great books to share with my class. Judging by my Amazon recommendations, you would think I was 4 years old. I'm fairly certain Scholastic's "Red Apple Teacher" designation is really just a kinder way of saying, "Lady-- you have a problem."
Most of the time, perusing book blogs makes me really happy, but do you know what drives me crazy?! Those ridiculous posts called "My Favorite Thirty Thanksgiving Books" or "100 Super Snowman Books." Really?! 100 Snowman books? Let's say, for argument's sake, that we read 3 different books to our children each day-- 1 at morning circle time, 1 before lunch, and another at the end of the day." That's still 33 straight days of snowman books. No one does that. Who has the patience to read snowman books for a solid month? Not me! Plus, we know that young children need to reread their favorite books.
With that little pet peeve in mind, I offer my FIVE favorite Christmas books. These are all secular/Santa books. I will have my 5 Faves of the Religious variety up in another post.
#1 Get Well, Santa! by Julie Sykes and Illustrated by Tim Warnes
(This is an annual favorite of my students!) In this story, Santa gets sick right before Christmas! His cat, little mouse and other friends put him to bed and have to work quickly to get all of the toys ready for Christmas Eve. The students love to chime in on the repeated "Aah, Aah, Aah.... AchoOOOO!" phrase.
#2 Santa's New Suit by Laura Rader
It's a week before Christmas and Santa decides that he is tired of all his old, boring red suits. So he heads into town to shop for a new one. He tries on a bunch, but finally settles on some new duds from "The Snappy Dude." Boy, is Mrs. Claus surprised when he comes home in his new outfit!
#3 Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner and Mark Buehner
This is a sequel to Snowmen at Night - one of our favorite winter books. This cute rhyming book encourages us to imagine what our snowmen do on Christmas Eve while we are sleeping. Do they have Christmas parties and wait for the Snowman Kris Kringle?
#4 Bear Stays Up for Christmas by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman
This is another one of our favorite series. Bear is such a sweet and lovable character! The poor guy wants to hibernate all winter, but his friends Mouse, Hare, Badger, Raven and Wren wake him up and insist that he celebrate Christmas with them. Bear even stays awake while his friends nap, but he doesn't notice the big jolly man in the red suit when he leaves the gifts at the door to the lair.
#5 Santa's Stuck by Rhonda Gowler Greene and Illustrated by Henry Cole
I'm saving the best for last! This cautionary tale makes us laugh every year! Santa delivers presents to one house and when he finishes eating the treats that the children have left out for him, he spies a dessert buffet. Instead of moving on to the next house, he helps himself to more dessert. The trouble comes when he tries to leave but gets stuck in the chimney! The moral of the story-- only leave 2 or 3 cookies for Santa and hide the rest. :)
Now it's your turn to be an enabler! Please share ONE of your favorite Christmas books. Or, if you'd like to give me a twitch, you can link to your pinterest board titled "One Million Magnificent Merry Christmas stories." I will get right to work sifting through all of them.
Have fun playing, reading and learning with your children.
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