I know it seems early to be thinking about Christmas books, but folks have been hankering for them at the store the past few weeks. So, we dutifully set up a small display (I refuse to go whole hog until the first hard frost) the other day. As I looked at the books I started thinking about my family favorites. The books we read as children and the books I read every year with my family.
I think the book that we always go to is A Child’s Christmas in Wales. My partner and I take turns reading the book aloud while one of us cooks or wraps presents. The gorgeous language captivates us each time. It’s a lovely tradition and one we try to take time for every year. 
The Story of Holly and Ivy with its glorious illustrations is a lovely picture book to share during the holidays. Every year it seems we always run out of this book about an orphan searching for family, a doll yearning for a girl, and a couple wishing for a child to share Christmas with.
One of our store’s bestselling holiday picture books is also one of our favorites. Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree tells the story of a too-tall 
Christmas tree and the folks, and mice, who each get part of it as their tree. The rhyming text is great for littler kids and the illustrations are best described as jaunty and fun. This book is perfect with hot chocolate with marshmallows that are just starting to melt.
One of my all-time favorites is How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I think folks sometimes forget 
that it was a book first, before the cartoon. The language of this Seuss classic has stayed with me my whole life – I feel like I could recite it from memory, I’ve heard it so often. A great book to read to the kids before you see the film.
I also love The Night Before Christmas. One of the beauties of this book is every year at least one or two newly illustrated 
versions come out, so I can add to my collection if there’s one that I particularly love. And lastly, The Tree of the Dancing Goats is one that gets read every year with my nephews, who celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah. This lovely story of friendship celebrates both religious holidays in a joyful way, and, I always try to make sure that we’ve got latkes when we’re done reading.
Readers, please share with us what some of your family holiday reading traditions are. And while it does seem awfully early to think about holiday books, by sharing now, you’ll give some of us booksellers a little more time to get those treasures in our stores.
What a beautiful list. I’m so glad to see Rumer Godden on it.
Love this list! We have a collection of holiday books that come out every year when we put up the Christmas tree – two more Messner family favorites are Eve Bunting’s THE NIGHT TREE and Cynthia Rylant’s SILVER PACKAGES:AN APPALACHIAN CHRISTMAS STORY (the end of which I cannot read without crying, no matter what).
I read Red Ranger Came Calling every year to everyone we’re celebrating Christmas with! I love holiday books and I can’t wait to check out the ones on your list!
Kate Douglas Wiggin’s “The Bird’s Christmas Carol” was a childhood favorite. I re-read it every year. (I love your list. Thank you – several of these were new to me!)
Oh, now you have me humming Christmas carols! We love “The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey” by Wojciechowski and “Rocking Horse Christmas” by Osborne. And my daughter went to a Jewish preschool so our Hanukkah favorite is “Moishe’s Miracle” by Melmed.
Peter Spier’s Christmas.
I knew I needed to join our congregation when I discovered that every Hanukkah, the rabbi brings a teddy bear and reads Eric Kimmel’s THE CHANUKKAH GUEST aloud to the congregation. That’s my favorite picture book of the holiday, though I definitely need to check out THE TREE OF THE DANCING GOATS, which looks great!
Polar Express!
Truman Capote’s A CHRISTMAS MEMORY with artwork by Beth Peck is a gem.
Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree is just so dear and wonderful. What a terrific, nostalgic list this is.
I think we should add the newest addition to the Random House Little Golden Books to this list: The Little Christmas Elf by Nikki Shannon Smith. This one will hold up through the ages.
Hooray for Mr. Willowby. Every year we try for a “Mr. Willowby ” Christmas tree. I would add two titles by Raymond Briggs to the list: Snowman, and Father Christmas.
Jolly Holly to everyone.
One of my recent favorites is Kate DiCamillo’s “Great Joy”. It’s beautifully illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline and has an ending that just makes my heart warm. It also wouldn’t be Christmas without a reading of “A Christmas Carol”, followed by “The Muppet Christmas Carol” (the best film of that story, if I do say so myself).
Wonderful list– i’m checking my inventory!! Who do we need to talk to to get Peter Spier’s Christmas back in print???? Santa’s Favorite Story by Gantshev (another favorite) was gone for a while and now is back, so it can be done!!
All of Robert Sabuda’s pop-up Christmas books: Night Before Christmas; Winter’s Tale; The Christmas Alphabet; The 12 Days of Christmas; and his brand-new one–Chanukah Lights.
Also “the Huron Carol” by Ian Wallace. Gorgeous illustrations of a beautiful 17th-century Canadian hymn.
A new book we discovered this week at The Bookies bookstore in Denver: The Third Gift by Linda Sue Park; illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline. We think it will be one for the ages.
What a great list. One book we loved when my daughter was little, and that we still take out at Christmas at least for display, is Margaret Wise Brown’s “A Pussycat Christmas” illustrated by Anne Mortimer. It’s lovely and evocative. We also liked Jan Brett’s version of “Night Before Christmas” and her other winter stories.
We always loved “The Mitten” by Jan Brett.
I read Cynthia Rylant’s Silver Packages every year; never ceases to make me tear up!
For chapter books: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson and Ramona and Her Father by Beverly Cleary (yes, that counts as a Christmas book, and a realistic one for families with tight budgets during Christmas due to a parent’s unemployment).
(Trying this again-I don’t see my post.)
Cynthia Rylant’s Silver Packages always manages to make me tear up.
For chapter book: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson and Ramona and Her Father by Beverly Cleary (which remains a realistic picture of a family’s tight budget during Christmas…I reread it every year).
Gift of the Magi…of course I am partial to the PJ Lynch illustrated edition from Candlewick. And back in my bookstore days, at the holidays every year we stacked up the Dutton edition of Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening.
I’m crying as I write/nominate to this wonderful list: Morris’s Disappearing Bag by Rosemary Wells. I was already late high school/college but my mother would read it to me and pee her pants laughing. I know that doesn’t sound very holiday-ish but it is so cute.
“NO!” said Morris.
Our family can’t do without Eloise at Christmas; A Wish for Wings That Work, by Berke Breathed; Auntie Claus; and our newest favorite, A Season of Gifts, by Richard Peck. There are parts of that book where we are all laughing out loud!
I, too, love “A Child’s Christmas in Wales,” and “The Story of Holly and Ivy” was a favorite of mine as a child (a LONG time ago — of course I still love it!).
I also like to read the chapter in Maud Hart Lovelace’s “Betsy-Tacy Go Downtown, when the girls go Christmas shopping (an outing which became their own annual tradition), visiting all the stores in Deep Valley and choosing a present in each one (their own “wish list”) before spending their dimes on buying a new Christmas tree ornament.