Share Your Favorite Christmas Story

December is a busy month, filled with parties and cleaning and treat baking. It is a time to reflect, a time to spend with family and loved ones and not a time where any of us in book club wanted to add to the already full days with anything difficult to read! So we took it easy this December, and asked our members to bring or discuss books that they enjoy during the Christmas season.

These ranged from delightful children's books, tales and traditions, to longer stories. Here's a couple we talked about:

 "Silent Night, Holy Night: The Story of the Christmas Truce" is a short picture book that recounts the 1914 evening during WWI where German and British soldiers paused their battles for a day during Christmas. They played soccer, sang, even exchanged gifts before returning to their battle stations and resuming the war. The book was narrated by Walter Cronkite and illustrated by Robert T. Barrett.

We watched a sweet ad that was put out by a British candy company in conjunction with talking about this touching story. You can view the ad on youtube here: Sainsbury Ad

Another story we talked about was the sweet story of an orphan who is punished for a small infraction at Christmas. The girl is so disappointed that she will not be given an orange (a special treat the children only received once a year). The other children save her a little segment of their own oranges, sharing with her the joy of Christmas. This is a sweet and heart warming story, complete with beautiful illustrations.

The story is re-told by Linda Bethers and Illustrated by Ben Sowards.

This cute story about a grumpy camel who is chosen to carry gifts to the Christ child. Along the way his burden is increased until at the end, though proud, he is brought to his knees before the baby Jesus. It's a very sweet story, filled with humor and meaning. The art is darling and it's a lovely choice.  

The story is by Fredrick H. Thury and Illustrated by Vlasta van Kampen

And finally, we had a lot of fun discussing the pros and cons of the (bribery) tradition that has now become popular, "The Elf on the Shelf." The basic premise is to keep kids good for Christmas, that the elf is always watching, much like Santa has been described in the past. We talked about how the elf can be used to help kids be persuaded less to be good for their own reward but to be kind because that is what Christmas is about. It is a silly but fun little book, and we laughed about how bent out of shape people get about a little children's game.


Mostly we had a great time visiting, talking about Christmas and then there was the Christmas treat spread. Sorry if you missed it! Yum!