Christmas Books for Toddlers (Wholesome and Beautiful)
When I am looking for a great book, especially around Christmas time, I want it to be a beautiful Christmas story with beautiful illustrations. In my journey to find the best classic children’s Christmas books, I have come across so many incredible Christmas books that would be great for toddlers. In this post, I want to highlight specific Christmas books that would be great for toddlers. Some of these are board books, others are short stories. I have a whole list of Christmas classics for kids that would include more long Christmas classics. I tried to keep this list to the ones I could see my twin toddlers sitting down in my lap and listening to most of the story.
Young Toddler Christmas Board Books
Room for a Little One
What I like about the book: This book has incredibly beautiful illustrations.
Special Considerations: Talking animals
Christmas in the Manger
What I like about the book: I love the simplicity of this book, identifying and naming all of the people and animals as well as their role in Christmas. It has a poetic style, simple illustrations, and it is a great board book for young toddlers.
Who is Coming to Our House?
What I like about the book: I like the rhyming in this book and all the preparation the animals do for someone coming to their house.
Special Considerations: Talking animals
Sounding Joy
What I like about the book: It encourages the child to imagine and think about what joy sounds like. Great book to keep them curious!
The Mitten
What I like about the book: It is a fun and playful book with beautiful illustrations. I’m a big fan of Jan Brett’s books, especially all of her Christmas books.
Special Considerations: Talking animals
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Poetic, Song or Rhyming Christmas Books
This is the Stable
What I like about the book: I like the rhyming in this book and the simple text.
The Drummer Boy
What I like about the book: I love how this book takes you through the words of this classic Christmas carol in a way that is so touching.
Silent Night
What I like about the book: A great way to slow down and say or sing the words to the song, Silent Night.
The Twelve Days of Christmas
What I like about the book: I like how clear the illustrations are on what the gift is on each day of Christmas.
The Friendly Beasts
What I like about the book: This book is based on an old English Christmas, it is simple, beautiful, and moving as you hear all the gifts the friendly beasts gave to Emmanuel.
The Night Before Christmas
What I like about the book: I love this classic Christmas poem, it is to be treasured.
Pick a Pine Tree
What I like about the book: It shares a real expereince that a young child will likely have when they choose a christmas tree and then decorate it.
Short Christmas Stories
Lucy and Tom at Christmas
What I like about the book: I love how simple and matter-of-fact this story is. It would appeal to a young child’s sense of order and help them see some of the things we do around Christmas time to prepare, like making cards and giving others gifts.
Alfie’s Christmas
What I like about the book: Just like Lucy and Tom at Christmas, Alfie’s Christmas is a sweet story of Alfie preparing for Christmas and all of the excitement that comes leading up to Christmas. A young child could relate to this book very well.
The Crippled Lamb
What I like about the book: The illustrations are beautiful. I also love the deep meaning that Max Lucado has in his books, this one is no exception!
Special Considerations: Talking animals
Mortimer’s Christmas Manger
What I like about the book: I think this book is sweet and creative. Even in a simple fictional story, you can see that Jesus takes care of even a little mouse.
Special Considerations: Talking animals
Merry Christmas Strega Nona
What I like about the book: This book focuses on the preparation during the Advent season leading up to Christmas. Strega Nona is getting ready for the big Christmas feast.
The Three Wise Men
What I like about the book: The illustrations in this book are beautiful. I also liked how it named the three wise men; sharing a perspective we rarely see in Christmas books.
The Musical Orchestra: The Nutcracker
What I like about the book: This book is so fun. On every page, you can press a button and hear a short clip of the classical tune from the musical The Nutcracker.
Gingerbread Baby
What I like about the book: This is a playful book about Matti’s gingerbread baby who escapes from the oven. It is a clever and captivating story filled with excitement and cleverness on the part of Matti.
Special Considerations: A talking and moving gingerbread baby.
The Sweet Smell of Christmas
What I like about the book: This is a unique book because it has scratch-and-sniff parts of the book. I love this new element for the Christmas season that we don’t often see.
Christmas Farm
What I like about the book: This story isn’t just about one Christmas, but the journey of starting a Christmas tree farm, with all the planning, weeding, and caring for the trees. The teacher in me also could see this be a fun word problem book for an elementary child. Throughout the book Wilma shares how many trees she lost in the winter and how many remain.
Itsy Bitsy Christmas
What I like about the book: I thought the story was cute. Personally, I didn’t like that the whole book has talking animals, that is just not my style. However, the message that comes across clearly through the story is that Jesus came for everyone, even a small mouse.
Special Considerations: Only talking animals
Christmas in Noisy Village
What I like about the book: I love the old-school classic nature of this book. The illustrations are endearing, the story is lovely, and overall a Christmas story I will look forward to reading each year with my children.
Christmas Picture Books (No Words)
Peter Spire’s Christmas
What I like about the book: The illustrations are stunning and detailed. This book could spark so much conversation. This is a longer book but something you could spend minutes just looking at one or two pages, especially with a toddler who will be curious what everything is!
The Snowman
What I like about the book: I grew up looking at this book during Christmas time and I think it is adorable. However, now with my Montessori background and being cautious about offering books that show the world based on reality, I see that this book does not do that very well. It shows the adventures of the child and the snowman that he builds, all very unrealistic. Overal beautiful illustrations and a cute book.
Special Considerations: Unrealistic actions by both the snowman and the child.
