The Best Christmas Books for Your Homeschool | Holiday Homeschool Book Recommendations

Hey everybody, welcome to the Wlock Way. I'm Jessica and today's video is going to be all about Christmas books. I have our favorite Christmas advent books, our favorite Christmas picture books, and our favorite Christmas chapter books. So, we are going to be talking about all things Christmas books in today's video. The first thing I'm going to do is start with our favorite Christmas advent books. So, these would be the books that you would read for the 25 days leading up to Christmas. The first one I have is an advent Christmas carol countdown. This has a different Christmas carol every day. It features the Christmas lyrics and then it tells you a little about that carol. There is also um a QR code so that you can scan it and either watch a musical performance or listen to that Christmas carol. We used this in our Christmas morning basket for a few years. It was a really fun advent. We also have eight tiny reindeer which was an advent calendar graphic novel. There was basically like one chapter that you would read each day. Emily did this last year and really enjoyed it. uh the reindeer are missing and you are reading to try to find them. So you can see like here is where it tells you there's a new day and there's normally only like four or five pages or spreads I guess before you get to the next day. This uh advent story book 25 Bible stories is one that we have read for years. It's one of our favorite. It is kind of the simplest um but also the most beautiful like showing why Jesus came. Uh it's about a page a day that you're going to read. It has illustrations. It has uh the portion of the Bible verse, the story, and then a question at the bottom. It's again very simple but beautifully done. Another really cute advent story was how Winston Delivered Christmas. And then there is a sequel that is how Winston Came home from Christmas. They are both adorable stories about Winston, this little mouse. There are um like 24 chapters and then at the end of every chapter there is normally some sort of activity you can do. For example, this activity is writing a letter to Santa. Some of them are crafts. We did not do every activity. I would do the activities only if I had the bandwidth for them. But these were both very cute Christmas inspired um advent stories. Another favorite of ours is unwrapping the greatest gift. We've had two different versions of this. One was the version where when you open it, the tree popped up and it had ornaments. This is just the um the written portion of it. So each day has the different emblem and like this is God is looking for you and then it has the story. It is absolutely beautiful. Um like here are some of the illustrations and then there are always thoughts to discuss and family activities. And then the last one is the Harry Potter a Hogwarts Christmas popup. This is why we switched to this version of Unwrapping the greatest gift because you can only have so many popups. Anyway, the pop-up books are really cool because when you open them, the tree actually stands up inside it. And then inside the little doors that you open every day is some sort of ornament. Like in this case, it is your Hogwarts letter is day one. And then you would hang that on the tree. There's a book that goes with it. And this is how the unwrapping the greatest gift works as well. So you have the little book and you open it, you know, to day one which talks about how you are going to have the sorcerer stone and there's just all these different little information type of things in it. Okay, next we're going to get into the picture books. The first small stack of picture books I have are like interactive. They were some of the first ones that I started reading with Emily when we were trying to do um Mail Time Monday or really getting into like Christmas cards and Christmas letters. So, we have the Jolly Christmas Postman. This is adorable because it has actual like in the book you have the envelope and then when you flip it the letter is actually inside the envelope like this one is a card and I'm going to drop it and then it's you know the postman delivering and then here's another envelope and then inside the envelope you have another card and this inside The card is like a little game that has rules. It's just a super cute way to kind of explain the postman and Santa's mail [clears throat] and all that to a kid. Along the same lines is the crayons Christmas. So, this one again is interactive. You have the letters from the crayons and inside the things that they sent. So, these are like the little pictures that they drew. And then the last one we have is Santa's post. It has five Christmas surprises inside it. So, they don't actually come out, but they do like have lift the flap cards and letters in them. The next set of books I have are the ones that we use when we do um book and movie nights, which we do those once a week during the month of December, and we have done them for forever. Um the Polar Express, this is always the one that we save for Christmas Eve and like always, that's always Christmas Eve. How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Christmas Carol, Home Alone, and Home Alone 2. That's normally a double feature, so that's typically a weekend when I know we're going to be home all weekend. And Elf. This is a book series that is super cute. I don't know if we have all of the Christmas themed ones, but Emily absolutely loves them. It's the How to Catch. So, we have How to Catch Santa Claus, How to Catch the Reindeer, How to Catch an Elf, and How to Catch the Gingerbread Man. They're just really, really cute and funny. Um, they're also a really great way to encourage some like steam building because most of the time the kids are trying to build something to catch whatever it is. So, if you want to encourage some building or some maze type of steam activity, those are really great base books for that. Uh, some other picture books that we love are Olive, the Other Reindeer, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell, The Wild Christmas Reindeer, which actually any of Jan Brett's Christmas books are amazing. Humphrey's first Christmas. Bear stays up late for Christmas. Another Jan Brett uh gingerbread Christmas. And this is the legend of Christmas treasury, but inside it we have the legend of St. Nicholas, the legend of the candy cane, and the legend of the Christmas cookie. If you find these, whether individually or as a treasury, all of them are really great. We have Dasher, Santa's story, Snowman at Christmas, A World of Cookies for Santa. This is actually um the book that inspired our Santa's Tasty Trip Around the World study because we love this picture book so much. The Gingerbread Man loose at Christmas. The Gingerbread Girl because of course it can't always be about the boy. Uh this is one we added last year which was really gorgeous book. Christmas at Hogwarts. It is like the illustrations are so beautiful. And then because we do I'm never going to be able to say right the Jablaka flood where we do like the book flood on Christmas Eve. Um the Christmas book flood was another picture book that we added because it that is exactly what it's about is about the Christmas book flood. Red and Lulu. The last stop on the reindeer express. The reindeer wish. The bear and the star. The little red sleigh. Everybody's Christmas Tree Tough Cookie, The Tree That's Meant to Be, and The Story Orchestra, The Nutcracker. Now, all of our picture books um typically will just go in this basket right here and we will pull randomly like one a day, two a day. We don't have any rhyme or reason for them. They just sit in this basket. And other than our book and movie ones, which we do once a week, we just read through them however suits us during the season. Now, for the chapter books or the books that you might want to consider reading aloud, Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolken. This book is so beautiful. Um, it's actual letters. This is also a really good um a like audio audible version. The true gift. Um, just so that you have an idea, this one is approximately, let's see, I think it's about 85 pages. So, if you're looking for a shorter one, this would be a really great one. Also, the light at turn rock. So, this one is another shorter one. It's only about 65 pages. Um, as well as the best Christmas pageant ever. I think this one is right at 105 pages. So, if you're looking for something like just kind of short and sweet, one of those three would be a really great pick. [snorts] Uh, we also have the last holiday concert, Nutcracked, which is if you have a girl who loves the ballet or you're going to see the Nutcracker, this is a really fun rendition on it. Um, obviously Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol. And then we personally pair this with Who Was Charles Dickens? Both of which are relatively about a 100redish pages. so you can get through both of them during the month of December. Uh Narnia's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. One of our personal favorites, A Boy Called Christmas. And then in this same series, there is also the second book, which is Father Christmas, and the third book, which is The Girl Who Saved Christmas. Actually, I think I have that backwards. I think it's The Girl Who Saved Christmas and then Father Christmas. I think it's first, second, third. Anyway, these are the three books in the series. The one that we are going to be reading this year, which is Let It Glow. It is kind of like a parent trap version of the holidays. One of the girls was raised with um Christian, so Christmas, and one was raised celebrating Hanukkah, and they switch. And so, the one that's used to celebrating Hanukkah celebrates Christmas, and the one that's used to celebrating Christmas celebrates Hanukkah. So, that is going to be a really fun one that we'll be reading this year. The naughty list. Basically, it is a person who's gotten on the naughty list and who's trying to get off of it. Magic in the mountains. Um, this is really kind of a funny one where there is the read the person who's telling the story um has been taken prisoner and the North Pole is no longer safe and Christmas is under attack. Top Elf. Um, these are kind of like elves who are making toys and helping Santa and trying out new ice cream flavors and just kind of all of the elf things, but they go through Santa trials trying to become the best elf. And so that's what this one is about. Juniper's Christmas. And I think there's actually a second one of this one out. Emily did that for book club last year. the Christmas. Basically, Santa brings him a dinosaur. Uh, Christmas Carol and the defenders of Claus and then Christmas Carol and the Shimmering Elf. So, there are actual like defenders for Santa Claus and Christmas. and they kind of like go out and attack and do whatever they need to to save Christmas and [snorts] Santa and all of the things. And then JK Rawlings, The Christmas Pig. If I missed any of your favorite advent books, picture books, or chapter books for the Christmas season, please leave them down in the comments.