Children's Books with a Christmas Theme

When my son was young, we bought quite a few illustrated children's books. We used the library a lot too, naturally. We had access to a used book store and a lovely woman who worked there would look out for great illustrated kid's books for us. And we ended up with a collection of illustrated children's books for all age levels.

The Church Mice series of picture books by Graham Oakley were a big favorite. These books are about a group of church mice, led by Arthur and Humphrey, and Sampson, the church cat. The first book came out in 1972. The books are picture books, with very detailed illustrations, but they have quite a bit of text also. I would say we have them all, but I think several have come out since 1990.

The Church Mice at Christmas features the church mice raffling off Sampson the cat to raise money to have a Christmas party. The stories are always very complex and this one is no exception. Goodreads describes each book in the series as "a picture book for young children" but really they are so much more and appeal to adults also.

At Graham Oakley's website, see this page with illustrations from the book. Oakley writes and illustrates the books.



Next are the Father Christmas books by Raymond Briggs.  We always thought of these as children's books and my son enjoyed them, but I read many comments online that they present too negative a picture of Father Christmas for kids.

Raymond Briggs is a well-known British illustrator and graphic novelist. Among other awards, he received two Kate Greenaway Medals for distinguished illustration.






Per the article on Raymond Briggs at Wikipedia:

Father Christmas (1973) and its sequel Father Christmas Goes on Holiday (1975) both feature a curmudgeonly Father Christmas who complains incessantly about the "blooming snow". For the former, he won his second Greenaway. Much later they were jointly adapted as a film entitled Father Christmas.

The second book is not truly a Christmas book, as it is about what Father Christmas does when he takes a break. He goes to France, Scotland, and Las Vegas. The story is more complex.






The last book I am featuring is one purchased for myself, fairly recently, just because I really like the author, Daniel Pinkwater. Pinkwater is the author of one of my favorite children's books ever, The Wuggie Norple Story.

Daniel Pinkwater is a very prolific writer of children's and young adult books, so I don't know what is typical for him. A lot of his books are funny and quirky.

This Christmas book, however, is a sweet story about a family of wolves who venture close to a small town at Christmas. The book is illustrated by his wife, Jill Pinkwater.

An excerpt from the book:

   We didn't see any humans. They were inside the wooden things with the light shining out through the holes, and the glittering lights on the outsides and the smoke coming out and the snow on top.
   We didn't see the humans, but we could hear them. They were singing. We listened. It was nice. I thought, even if they are dangerous, they are animals, just like we are. Then we threw back our heads and sitting on the hillside above the place where the humans live, we wolves sang, too.