Favorite Christmas Books - Secular

In our family, we like to focus on the religious aspect of Christmas, with a bit of santa sprinkled on top.  If you want to read about how we handle the santa thing, click HERE to see last year's post about it.  We do have some secular books, by which I mean they are mostly about things like trees and santa and reindeer and presents and traditions and don't mention the birth of our savior.  Here are some of our favorites:

Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree by Robert Barry
The kids really like reading this one.  Sometimes I find the rhythm of the rhymes a bit awkward, but it is a fun book about the journey of a christmas tree.










Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett
This one isn't really about Christmas, except that there's a gingerbread boy in it, and those are usually made around Christmas.  Similar to the story of the gingerbread man, without the fox eating him in the end.






The Christmas Crocodile by Bonny Becker and illustrated by David Small
This book is really random, about a crocodile that gets sent as a present accidentally. However, the kids think it's funny, and I've always liked David Smalls' illustrations.  And it's fun to give the characters funny snooty voices.









Merry Christmas, Amelia Bedelia! by Peggy Parish
Who doesn't love Amelia Bedelia?  This is our type of humor.  Amelia Bedelia gets everything mixed up, from stuffing stockings to Christmas Carols.










Christmas Magic by Michael Garland
Honestly, not one of my favorites, but one of the kids favorites, and so we read it over and over again.  This was Maren's favorite when she was 3 or 4 and we probably read it 5 times a day.  I have it memorized.








The Nutcracker by Susan Jeffers
This book is beautifully illustrated.  I really like Susan Jeffers books in general.  The story is based on the ballet and simply told.  It is a great book to introduce the story of the nutcracker to your children.











The Night before Christmas and Here Comes Santa Claus both illustrated by Bruce Whatley
I really like the illustrations in both of these books and they are a great addition to the collection.  And I like singing Here Comes Santa Claus.










Silver Packages - an Appalachian Christmas Story by Cynthia Rylant
Just a nice story about giving. And we live near Appalachia, so we like it for that reason too.








Peter Claus and the Naughty List - by Lawrence David
A good reminder to kids to be good!  Peter Claus takes the naughty list and visits the kids written there to help them do good things and get off of it in time for Christmas.