THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CHRISTMAS CHILDREN’S BOOKS

Rachel Schultz

God and sinners reconciled! This list has been updated for 2025. Merry Christmas! Let’s do a curation of children’s books for it. I have heard of some people who do a children’s book advent calendar where they wrap each of their Christmas books every year and open one each day during the first twenty five days of December. I find that so sweet and think that would help everyone really savor each book. This list has enough titles to do it if you’d like! I also love having them all out all at once. This curation does not include general snow or wintertime selections, which will come later God willing.

I love curating book collections (and I don’t discriminate against “lower” art mediums so movies too) that are beautiful or good in some way to share with others. And I am highly selective! In general what I look for in children’s literature (and all art forms) is a piece that somehow captures some of whatever is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, of any virtue, or praiseworthy.

Books that come out into the house annually for a season are going to be powerful for family culture so we want to find good ones. I consider this work to be refining a child’s palette. I am helping shape an appetite for what is beautiful, as defined by God.

Below is the extremely researched and refined list of favorites that thread our Christmas needle. Should your wants be similar, here is the metric.

1. If it tries to go biblical, it is accurate. Also often a kicker, no imagery of Jesus (second commandment).
2. Does not say someone learned, discovered, found, etc. the “true meaning of Christmas… _______” and then fills in the blank with something that is not the true meaning of Christmas! The true meaning of Christmas is Jesus Christ is the light of the world and whoever follows him will not walk in darkness.
3. Non-Santa, I’m meaning in his modern form. We aren’t like, scared of santa and if our kids KNOW WHO HE IS they will not forget all about the incarnation immediately. He’s a quantity thing.
4. Other stray things like in The Nutcracker or Twelve Days of Christmas, women are modestly dressed and men aren’t effeminate.

You’re maybe thinking this leaves nothing but here they are. Hail the Son of Righteousness. ✨

1. Annie and the Wild Animals written by Jan Brett
2. Gingerbread Friends written by Jan Brett
3. Little Christmas Tree written by Jessica Courtney-Tickle
4. The Story Orchestra: The Nutcracker written by Jessica Courtney-Tickle
5. Winter in the Forest written by Rusty Finch
6. God Bless Our Christmas written by Hannah C. Hall
7. Shooting at the Stars written by John Hendrix
8. A Very Merry Christmas Prayer written by Bonnie Jensen
9. Christmas Cookie Day written by Tara Knudsen
10. The History of Christmas written by Heather Lefebvre
11. Jesus: The Promised Child written by Carine Mackenzie
12. Jesus: The Real Story written by Carine Mackenzie
13. Mary Mother of Jesus written by Carine Mackenzie
14. The Best Baby written by Catherine Mackenzie
15. Jesus Christ the Best King of All written by Catherine Mackenzie
16. The Very First Christmas written by Catherine Mackenzie
17. A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Making of a Tradition written by Lee Mendelson
18. Apple Tree Christmas written by Trinka Hakes Noble
19. An Orange for Frankie written by Patricia Polacco
20. The Twelve Days of Christmas written by Emma Randall
21. Christmas Farm written by Mary Lyn Ray
22. A Christmas Prayer written by Sonja Rescek
23. The Gingerbread Man written by Richard Scarry
24. A Charlie Brown Christmas written by Charles M. Schulz
25. The Special Baby written by Hazel Scrimshire
26. The Lightlings written by R.C. Sproul
27. The Gingerbread Man written by Gail Yerrill

All of these (at time of posting) would be $297 to have the whole slate. All of them are strong and over a long time I have filtered out many ugly or poor ones, even just within the Christmas category!

If it’s helpful, I put most of these as amazon links, so you can source them easily there. A few of these are from a publisher called Christian Focus and they are not currently available on amazon, so I linked to them on the publisher’s website where they are for sale.

If from this list you know of one I’ve missed that sounds like we’d like please tell me!

Lastly, if interested, here is also my running “To Be Vetted” List that I work through overtime in the Christmas category:

1. Christmas Cheer written by Ingela P. Arrhenius
2. Winter Story written by Jill Barklem
3. All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings by Gail Boss
4. Turkey for Christmas written by Marguerite de Angeli
5. The Lion in the Box written by Marguerite de Angeli
6. Great Joy: A Heartwarming Christmas Tale of Compassion & Generosity for Children written by Kate DiCamillo
7. The Littlest Christmas Tree written by R.A. Herman
8. Dogger’s Christmas written by Shirley Hughes
9. If You Take a Mouse to the Movies: A Special Christmas Edition written by Laura Numeroff
10. The Atlas of Christmas: The Merriest, Tastiest, Quirkiest Holiday Traditions from Around the World written by Alex Palmer
11. American Folk Songs for Christmas written by Ruth Seeger
12. The Yule Tomte and the Little Rabbits: A Christmas Story for Advent written by Ulf Stark
13. Christmas is Coming written by Monika Utnik
14. The Story of the Snow Children by written by Sibylle von Olfers
15. Morris’ Disappearing Bag written by Rosemary Wells