CCPL Youth Services: Christmas

It seems really early to be doing a Christmas post, but you know they'll have Christmas decorations up in the stores in like, a week - so why not? Besides, if you're like me, you plan your story times waaaay in advance.

Merry Christmas, Merry Crow by Kathy Appelt. This is about a little crow who spends the whole story gathering things. For what? A Christmas tree of course! I like to make the kids try to guess, and they're all usually totally baffled.

The Three Bears' Christmas by Kathy Duval. I mentioned the other book in this series in my Halloween post. This follows the same formula as the original Three Bears story, but it's a different visitor this time. The kids get SO EXCITED at the end and are screaming "IT'S SANTA!!!!!" (uh, spoilers).

A Creature Was Stirring by Carter Goodrich. This is my FAVORITE book to do at Christmas. It's a play on the old Clement C. Moore poem - in fact, that's on all the left-hand pages of the book. On the right-hand ones is a new poem about a little boy who is also awake in the same house that night. The illustrations are fantastic and it's a great way to introduce a classic poem to kids.

How Do Dinosaurs Say Happy Chanukah? by Jane Yolen. (Illus. by Mark Teague who is AMAZING) I know. You're going, "Ummmm...that's not Christmas." Yeah, I know. I feel really guilty doing a Christmas-only story time though, so I do this one too (even though really, all the books are secular. It's complicated, ok?). I live in a Southern bible-belt town, y'all, so if I don't tell them what Hanukkah's about, who will? Ok - so this doesn't really go into the whole Maccabees and the miracle of the oil or anything, but it does let me show kids that Hanukkah isn't that different from Christmas in some of the celebrations they do.

Santa Baby by Janie Bynum. Ugh. This is SUCH a cute story, but good luck finding it! Last time I looked, it was out of print. :/ This is a story about a baby and mom getting things ready on Christmas Eve. As baby is going down to sleep, they hear things outside. Is it Santa? No! Daddy's home. You sing the whole book to the tune of the old song by the same name. It's great.

Mrs. Wishy-Washy's Christmas by Joy Cowley. This one is a sometimes book for me. It's great for younger kids, but I don't use it all the time. Mrs. Wishy-Washy's animals sneak into her house so they can have a nice, hot bath. She gets angry, but she forgives them, gives them their Christmas presents, and agrees she'll put warm water in the tub.