Top 10 Favorite Christmas Books

I have a lot of Christmas books, so it was hard to choose 10 favorites.  In fact, I went back and forth between a few of them.  Out of the Christmas books I currently have here in England, here is my top 10 list:

1. Give Him my Heart (Debi Gliori)—This book is based on the poem/hymn by Christina Rossetti (“In the Bleak Midwinter”).  It’s a favorite carol of mine anyway, but this book is unique in that it portrays side by side on each page a little girl from modern times and a little girl in the setting of the Nativity.  The illustrations are lovely.

2.  God Gave Us Christmas (Lisa Tawn Bergren)—This is a sweet story about a polar bear family getting ready for Christmas.  The little polar bear asks lots of questions, and the mother bear explains the true meaning of Christmas.  I like that the book emphasizes Jesus as the reason for Christmas, yet it is not anti-Santa either.  Santa is mentioned as a symbol of generosity (which was true of St. Nicholas).

3.  The Wild Christmas Reindeer (Jan Brett)—A young girl elf is training the new reindeer at the North Pole.  She must learn the proper way to treat the wild creatures—with kindness.  As always, Jan Brett tells a wonderful story with amazing illustrations.

4.  Christmas Tapestry (Patricia Polacco)—A pastor’s son learns that sometimes things do happen for a reason.  I love this story about how an antique tapestry brings two people together, told beautifully by Polacco.  You won’t want to miss this one!

5.  Baboushka: A Traditional Russian Folktale (Arthur Scholey)—I really like Christmas stories from around the world.  There are different versions of this story (see Babouska and the Three Kings by Nicolas Sidjakov, which won a Caldecott medal), which is about Baboushka , an old lady who starts out a bit too late to search for the newborn King, after the Magi invite her.  She ventures on a life-long search for the Christ child.

6.  Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree (Robert E. Barry)—I’ve had this book since I was a child.  Mr. Willowby’s Christmas tree is too tall for his huge room.  How many Christmas trees can you get from one huge one?  My son, who lately claimed he was too old for picture books, picked this one up today and commented that it was a really cool book.  It has been a long favorite of mine!

7.  Children Around the World Celebrate Christmas! (Susan Titus Osborn and Christine Langvald)—How do Christians kids around the world celebrate Christmas?  I love reading about different traditions.  This book covers traditions from China, Russia, Mexico, Congo, Saudi Arabia, France, Hawaii, Brazil, Sri Lanka, and Norway.  There is a page for the reader to fill in their traditions, and it also includes recipes and directions to some of the traditions mentioned. 

8.  The Legend of the Poinsettia (Tomie dePaola)—This retold Christmas legend comes from Mexico and is nicely illustrated by dePaola—one of my favorite dePaola books.

9.  The Polar Express (Chris van Allsburg)—The movie adaptation of this book is my youngest child’s favorite movie at the minute.  The book is a classic (and also a Caldecott medal-winner), with enchanting illustrations.  If you like the movie, get the book!

10.  If You Take a Mouse to the Movies (Laura Numeroff)—You wouldn’t know by the title itself, but at least the cover reveals that this is a Christmas story.  I love Numeroff’s other books, so having a Christmas story involving our adorable mouse is a must!

I’m linking this post, which I meant to finish at the beginning of December, to “The Children’s Bookshelf” at What Do We Do All Day?

After writing this post, I found 2 more Christmas books I forgot I had here! Both are excellent. The first is The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado, and the second is a huge classic and a top favorite of ours (can't believe I forgot it)--Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas! What are your favorite Christmas books?

Christmas Sensory Tub

Last year, I used tinsel as a base for our Christmas sensory tub.  To date, that post has been my most popular blog post!  Despite all the views I had, Gabriela actually didn’t care for that tub at all.  This year, I decided to change it up a bit, and she really likes this one!  Hurray!

 

This year’s sensory tub is composed of:

Rice—I used food coloring to color some of the rice red and green, and I left the rest white.  I love it—it reminds me of sprinkles on Christmas cookies!

Foam stickers—Candy canes, gingerbread people and houses, reindeer, and Christmas trees

Mini Christmas bows

Mini Christmas ornaments

Mini bells (I tried jingle bells, but of course the rice kept getting stuck inside)

3 robins (European robin—big Christmas symbol here)

Pieces of tinsel—red, green and gold

A pompom reindeer pin

A gold-painted pinecone ornament

A scented candle (it’s cinnamon—I really would love peppermint or cookie scented, but I don’t have time to search for one—you have to go to the right places to find a good selection of small scented candles here)

The first time I presented this tub to Gabriela, she got tired of it really quickly, so I decided to add something for her to do. 

Additions:  Wooden scoop and plastic red flower cups

I'm linking this post to "More Sensory Tub Ideas" at Our Worldwide Classroom.

Amazing Gingerbread Links!

Do you like my gingerbread girl?

Get your own! | More Flash Toys from TheoWorlds.com

Via Pinterest, I ran across this post from Technology Rocks: Seriously. Follow the link to that blog, and you'll get several links to online gingerbread decorating fun and even some gingerbread printables, ideas, and other websites. If you're doing a gingerbread unit, you must check out this post!

Packages Full of Good Things!

I love packages so much!  The only thing I don’t like is the fact that I now have to pay VAT on packages that have contents of a certain value (£40 or more), even if they’re personal gifts.  Grrrrr….  My parents sent us a box full of Christmas presents, but because the contents were worth over £40 we had to pay nearly £30 in VAT and customs charges before they would deliver it to us.  Oh well…at least we got the package in the end…and before Christmas, too!

Anyway, we received 4 packages in December, so I thought I’d mention them all in one post.  The first one was from Kylie in Australia (Our Worldwide Classroom).   I was a recipient in the Pay it Forward Bloggy Love giveaway that she did, and I received some very lovely Australian gifts!  The kids and I were so excited when the package came.  I’m in the process of putting together continent boxes, and I had nothing from Australia except some coins and stamps.  Anyway, she sent me this lovely Australian souvenir tea towel and a boomerang!

I will be “paying it forward” as soon as I am able to.  I am planning to buy a few lightweight English gifts to give away to 3 of my readers.  They’ll be suitable for continent boxes if you do those, but I think anyone would enjoy getting the gifts…unless you’re from England already!  I’m not sure when I’ll be doing this…I literally have to save my spare change to do it.  The postage will likely cost far more than the gifts!  We literally have just enough money for groceries at the moment, but this IS something I want to do.  Kylie was so wonderful to send me something all the way from Australia, and I really want to bless someone else the same way, even if it is something small.  So anyway, keep your eyes open for my “Pay it Forward” post!

The same day I received Kylie’s package, we also received a box from the church in Chicago that sent us a box in the fall (see this POST).  They sent some small gifts and food items, which I won’t post pictures of; however, they also sent some more things I can use for Tot School.  Let me know if you have any ideas for any of these.  The small gardening tools will be perfect for a garden sensory tub!  I also got yo-yos (the cloth button things), cocktail sticks and picks, 5 small Valentine tubs,  dollhouse furniture, 3 small silver containers with clear plastic lids, scrapbooking materials, small heart erasers, and another metal box with little plastic drawers (so now I have enough for an alphabet box…or boxes)!

     

My parents’ package had mostly Christmas gifts, but I’ll just mention a few of the things they sent.  Back in October (the day before we left the US) we visited a local antique mall where I found this geometrical peg board…it was missing 3 blocks, but I decided to buy it anyway.  I asked my dad if he could make the blocks, and I wrote down the measurements for him.  I forgot all about it, but he made them and put them in the package!  I plan to paint them to match, but I almost hate to because they’re so beautiful in their natural wood color!

I also got a Penguins Toob, which I had my mom order with my Amazon gift card (which I got with my Swagbucks, but the card didn’t come in until just after we left).  I put them in my Antarctica box.  Someday I’ll do a post on my continent boxes, but they’re far from being done!

My mom also got me a Montessori book (my request), which I’m quite excited about.  It’s called Teach Me to Do it Myself: Montessori Activities for You and Your Child by Maja Pitamic.  No, I’m not going Montessori in my homeschooling.  I already have curriculum I like, but I am doing a lot of Montessori activities with Gabriela (my 3-year-old) already.  So I was happy to get this book which is full of wonderful activites, lots of pictures and easy instructions.

One more thing I’ll mention that came in my parents’ package is the Pick and Draw game that I won in a give-away that Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations had!  I won this the day before leaving for England, and I had to have it sent to my parents’ US address, so I had to wait until they could forward it on to me.  They mailed it in our Christmas package.  I wrote a separate post about Pick and Draw HERE.  This game is fabulous!

We also received a package full of American goodies from some friends of ours—food items that we can’t get here in the UK.  It came just before Christmas and was a HUGE blessing to us!  All of these packages were blessings!  I feel blessed…I really do.  : )

Tot School: Gabriela’s Christmas

This is a 2-part post.  The first part focuses on the Christmas activities Gabriela did prior to Christmas break.  I just never got around to posting about them.  I actually didn’t get to do everything I wanted because she came down with a nasty cold and was too miserable to do anything the last few weeks.  This meant that she watched Polar Express repeatedly.  I love that movie, but I’m SO tired of it!  The second part will show you what Gabriela got for Christmas!  Thankfully, all of us were well and healthy on Christmas, and the kids were excited and very happy.  Since New Year’s Day, both girls have had the flu.  Moriah is better, but Gabriela is still a bit poorly.  So I’m not sure what this week’s Tot School will be like!

Part 1:  Tot School (the week before Christmas break)

1.  Ballet and Baby Doll…at the same time…yeah.

2.  Funny…I don’t remember giving her this activity.  I think I took the photo!  She’s playing with Isaac’s mini train set and hooking the cars together.

3.  We were given this growing Christmas tree.  You put it in water, and it grows over a period of several days.  Gabriela really enjoyed this.  She begged to see her tree in the water several times a day.  This is what it looked like when we finally stopped.  It was much smaller before. 

4.  Gabriela was a little angel in our church’s nativity play.  Her main role was carrying a star on a stick down the aisle for the wisemen to follow.  When nothing else was going on, she sat by Mary (her sister) in the stable.  

5.  Making gingerbread men.  We didn’t go overboard with the decorating because we didn’t have much to decorate with except raisins.  I frosted them and let the kids put sugar sprinkles on.  We made other things from the gingerbread, too, including bears, horses, houses, angels, Christmas trees, and even an airplane.

6.  We played “Find the Gingerbread Baby” with Gabriela.  We hid him, and Gabriela had to find him.  Do you see him in the first picture???

7.  Watched this YouTube video of the Gingerbread Man story/record I remember as a child.

8.  Playdough Christmas Tree.  I got this wonderful idea from Mari-Ann at Counting Coconuts.  The play-doh is peppermint scented and has glitter in it.  We used buttons and sequins to decorate the trees.  I really wish we could have used beads, but I didn’t have any.  Sequins don’t stay on as well.  You can find the playdough recipe at My Montessori Journey.  All 3 of my kids did this activity, and all 3 of them LOVED it!

 

9.  After they got tired of decorating trees, I let them use Christmas cookie cutters with the playdough.

Part 2:  The Christmas Presents

1.  Woodlands Wonders:  Woodland Stores (strawberry-shaped store)—she loves these little animals.

2.  Fisher-Price Cash Register.  My cousins had one of these when we were little.  My aunt and uncle still have it at their house, and my kids played with it when we were there last.  It was always my favorite toy when I visited them as a child!  My only complaint with this newer version is that it doesn’t seem as sturdy, and the coins frequently end up “standing” inside the drawer, and the drawer jams.  You can wedge your finger in and wiggle the coin until it goes down, but it’s very annoying.

3.  Dora the Explorer:  A set of 5 small board books and a new DVD.  These are definite favorites so far!

4.  A toy hair set in a case.  It includes a blow dryer that makes a blow dryer sound if we ever get batteries put in it.  It also includes a mirror, diffuser, brush, comb, hair clips, and pretend lipstick. 

5.  Popping Polly (parts are interchangeable, so you can create different characters)

6.  Pair Bears game

7.  Kitten lunch bag—we go on a lot of picnics when the weather is nice, and she’s wanted her own lunch bag.

8.  Octons building set—a charity shop find

She got a lot of little things too…I won’t list them all!

For more Tot School posts, visit 1+1+1=1.