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Christina,

Just reading your exerpt has me wanting to read that book.  For the past several years, I pull a small book off the bookshelf called, CHRISTMAS MIRACLES....STORIES OF TRUE HOLIDAY MAGIC.  It’s by Brad Steiger and Sherry Hansen Steiger.  It gives you that warm and fuzzy feeling that good things can really happen.

Prudence

Christina or to whoever else has read this book:

Would it be appropriate to read aloud to a 12-yr-old?  I’m not familiar with it and didn’t want to make a big mistake, but it sounds like a great read for me to share together with my daughter this month.  Let me know.

Pam

That sounds hilarious, Xtina!  My favorite Christmas pageant scene of all time was in A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY by John Irving, which also happens to be one of my favorite books.  I can’t remember all of the details but I remember little Owen Meany playing the Baby Jesus and it was hysterical.

When I was a little girl, every year my mom would read us “The Birds’ Christmas Carol” by Kate Douglas Wiggin.  This little book was originally published in 1886 and has withstood the test of time.  It is the story of Carol Bird, a sickly little girl born on Christmas Day (the Carol of the title) and the people whose lives she touches even from her sickbed.

A few years ago, the book was reprinted and my mom bought all of us kids copies.  It is best described exactly the way Christina asks her question: The kind of book that tells the story of the holiday, makes you laugh, makes you cry, make you a little kinder and a little more hopeful.

Teresa, as soon as I read the first lines of Christina’s post I thought of ‘A Prayer for Owen Meany’ because the author’s voice sounded the same as that books.  That is one of my favorite books of all time.

As to Christmas books, two of my favorites are by Tomie DePaola.  They are ‘Tony’s Bread’ and ‘jingles, the Christmas Clown’.  Tony’s bread tells the origins of Panettone, an Italian holiday cake but it’s also a love story; thereby, combining two of my favorite topics....food and love.  ‘Jingles’ is the story of how a little traveling circus performer gives the gift of Christmas to the old people of a remote Italian village.  Time to break out the Christmas books!

Tomie De Paola also did a fabulous job illustrating the old Norse legend “The Cat on the Dovrefell.” (sp??) The connection to Christmas is marginal, but it’s an utterly hilarious, enchanting story, perfect for read-aloud to pre-schoolers. The Sci-Fi writer Mary Doria Russell also wrote one, I think called “Angels.” I’d be interested in hearing from anyone who’s read it.

martha

Pamela, yes, you can read it to a twelve-year-old. She can read it herself. I should have said it’s a children’s book, and I think probably about grade 6. It’s short, but the words are probably difficult for most kids. OTOH, anyone would sit still for it because it’s funny and it’s about bad kids, and who doesn’t love that?

I have it in hardcover because I love it so much, and I really enjoyed “having” to read it last night for the book blog.

Beth W, I love “The Birds’ Christmas Carol” by Kate Douglas Wiggin! I haven’t read it for years, thank you for reminding me!

Santa and Martha, Tomie De Paola is one of my favs. When I worked in the bookstore, we always had his hardcovers to sell to the grandmothers.

I haven’t read a PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY by John Irving—I’ll have to get it. Thanks for the recommendation.

I thought someone would say A CHRISTMAS CAROL! This year, we’re getting my husband a copy of the George C. Scott DVD of A CHRISTMAS CAROL. He loves it. It’s a great version.

Of course, I also saw that the Mr. Magoo version is out now, and I love that one.

THE LITTLEST ANGEL by Charles Tazewell.  It makes me cry every time!
I remember years ago there was a TV movie of it with Johnny Whitaker--Jody from Family Affair, anyone?!--my sisters and I loved that.

Time to get all the Christmas decorations out and get busy.

I third the vote for Tomie DePaola.  My dad always read us three books at Christmastime: “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” in later years “The Polar Express,” and “Clown of God,” the last of which is by Tomie DePaola.  It is absolutely heart-wrenching, but it truly is one of the best stories about us taking joy in the love of God.

Okay, here’s the question.

Can you all read these books to your children? Because I’m a great one for tearing up, choking up, and plain ol’ sobbing over heart-wrenching books, be they bad or good. When I was reading the Laura Wilder books to my daughter, when I got to the part about Jack dying, my husband had to read it to her.

If you do read them to your kids—how do you do it???

Oh Santa, I’m glad someone else discovered Owen Meany too!  I adore that book and all of John Irving’s early stuff.

And Xtina, the George C. Scott version of A CHRISTMAS CAROL is one of our absolute favorites along with the Alastair Sim version from the 50’s.

i love that book christina! i had completely forgotten about it until i saw the excerpt.  we did the play version of it at church one year.  it was so great!

i don’t really have a favorite christmas book, but i loved the “holiday of love” anthology with jill barnett, judith mcnaught, and others.  daniel and the angel was my fav story out of the four...it is a definite must read.

Christina, one of my Sunday School teachers read this to us before our regular lessons during Advent.  It’s such a great story about the true spirit of Christmas--and Easter, since it’s because of our Herdman-like qualities that Jesus came.  This is a wonderful book!

Thanks for the recommendations!  I’ll definitely get a copy of the THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER to read to my kids.  It sounds like our kind of book.

I can’t read aloud anything that makes me cry, either.  And I bawl over everything.  (I had to hide LOVE ME FOREVER so that my kids wouldn’t pick it for bedtime reading.)

I’ve had A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANEY in my to-be-read pile for at least a year.  The comments here are making me want to start reading it.  I like John Irving, too, but haven’t read too many of his books.

Christina,

The Herdmans are my favorite family.  I read this book for the first time about ten years ago to my class.  Needless to say, I’ve read it every year since! 

The story is hysterically funny, and yet has such a lesson for adults and children.  In a world that has dictated curriculum, it is one of the few books that I read to the students for just the pure joy of the book.  I think that the greatest lesson in the book lies not in any assignment I might give, but in the discovery of such a wonderful book.

Yes, I do my teacher duty and discuss the book in teacher-student talk.  But, nothing is more telling than the hysterical laughter, or serious silences that the book brings.

The thing that strikes me about the book is that the focus for most of my kids is not the “religious Christmas” aspects, since most attend church.  What they really lock on to is the fact that not every child has a storybook Christmas, or both parents at home, or even a home. 

I love the book!  And when I occasionally have a “Herdman” in class, I love them all the more for it.

I have made it a point to steer clear of the tear jerkers.  Ever since I read THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL to my daughter, (and that had to be at least 6 years ago) and she cried her eyes out, my heart couldn’t bear it.  Heck, the first time she heard the song, CHRISTMAS SHOES I thought I was going to have to put her in therapy.

The only read aloud tradition that we have is that my husband will play a recorded version of TWAS THE NIGHT BFORE CHRISTMAS, read by my late father-in-law.

Prudence

Gannon, I’m glad I’m not the only one that can’t get through The Littlest Angel - I sob my heart out on that one. Every year my two girls have me read it and before we start they get the box of kleenex out for me lol.

The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston is one of my favorites.  It’s set in the Appalachains right around WWI.  Every year a family is chosen to cut down the town’s Christmas tree, and the year it is the narrator’s family’s turn, the father goes off to war.  It’s a very sweet children’s book and illustrated by Barbara Cooney, one of my favorite illustrators.

Christina, I love the narrator in The Best Christmas Pagent Ever.  She completes the story.

Oh yeah, I remember that from ages ago. . . I used to have the book somewhere and I saw that movie.  Boy, memories.  That and Spacecamp.

Lois

Christina, this was the perfect blog for my day since we have been decorating all day. I read the blog and rushed away to pull The Best Christmas Pageant Ever from the books we just put on the Grands’ Christmas shelf. I want to read it again right away. A favorite of the Grands is Carolyn Conahan’s The Twelve Days of Christmas Dogs. It was just published last year, so I guess it is a bit early to call it a tradition. But the kids love it; their favorite part is “ten labs a leaping,” and every one of them shouts with delight “a pug puppy under a tree.”

One of my personal favorite Christmas books is Muriel Jensen’s A Carol Christmas complete with wounded H/H, lots of perfectly imperfect orphans, a Mother Superior known affectionately as Godzilla, and an HEA that would be over the top if this were not a Christmas story.

On a more serious note, I am again rereading Catherine Paterson’s collection of stories Angels & Other Strangers and Madeleine L’Engle’s Miracle on 10th Street, a compendium of her stories, essays, poems, and letters about Christmas.

Sitting here thinking about all these wonderful Christmas books and listening to James Taylor sing “Some Children See Him,” I am already filled with Christmas spirit--not all of it from the eggnog.

Wow, will I come across as really shallow if I confess that my favorite version of “A Christmas Carol” is “Scrooged” with Bill Murray?

We have two books that are must-reads this time of year. My husband always reads the Dickens version of “A Christmas Carol,” and we must, must, must read aloud “A Cajun Night Before Christmas.” But since I’m the only one who can do a good Cajun accent, the reading aloud bit falls to me. It’s great fun, though.

My book order is getting so huge from the recommendations! But I confess, I love a great Christmas book, and yes, THE LITTLEST ANGEL is one of my favorites.

I love the best Christmas pageant ever and the Christmas Carol, but I would have to say my favorite Christmas story is “The Gift the Magi.” My father told me a synopsis of the story when I was very little and without him even reading it word for word, it really captured my imagination.  Then I got a chance to read it when I was about ten and I was hooked.  I read it out loud and sob every year.I often end up reading it out loud to myself for that reason. I had to explain to my fiance that it is a “good cry.”
And I have to watch the Charlie Brown Christmas Special, the cartoon version of the Grinch, White Christmas, and It’s a Wonderful Life for it to feel like Christmas.  I am kind of a Christmas nut, but it’s hereditary

Christina,

I could not read the part of Little House on the Prairie where Jack was lost.  I had to swallow hard several times.  I actually did tear up at Rose’s sacrifice in Eight Cousins-- my daughter ended patting me on the shoulder.  I have no idea how my mom got through Little Women.  I don’t think I will read that to my daughter and I let my husband read the chapter where Charlotte dies in Charlotte’s Web.

I will have to look up some of these Christmas stories, they sound inspiring.

Amanda

Liz, I LOVE ‘Scrooged’ with Bill Murray.  One of my favorite parts is when the Sprit of Christmas Past (Carol Kane) clocks him with a toaster so he’ll pay attention!

One of my all time favorite Christmas tale is ‘A Christmas Carol’ as read by Patrick Stewart.  What a treat!  We were lucky enough to see him do this one-man miracle on Broadway.  It was AMAZING!

Of course, I’d pay good money to watch and hear Patrick Stewart read the want ads!

I was waiting for someone else to bring up Patrick Stewart!  I picked up his version of A Christmas Carol on DVD last year in a bargain bin.  It is now my hands down favorite.  I never thought anyone could top Alistair Sim, but I LOVE this version.  In addition to so many others you’ve all mentioned, I like to watch Love, Actually during the holidays.  In my class, I read Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory” aloud, and cry every year.  I’m a Christmas junkie.