Reading.

I picked myself up a special treat today, a book called "The curious world of Christmas". I can't wait to sit back and read all of the little holiday tidbits it contains!

Most of our Christmas books have been gifts or gathered over the past year at second hand sales. I must say finding the traditional versions of our favourites isn't as easy as it sounds. I've found lots of "little-hand friendly" books at cheaper variety stores (like Big W in Australia).

Thanks for putting up the list to the winter books. Nice to see so much winter solstice reads on there too.

Thank you for the list Ali love having new book ideas for the kids. We always go to the library and check out new ones every week and read return get more read and return. I keep a list of our favorites every year too and put them on a request form at the library now I can some new ones to the list.

Ali...

It was a very exciting literary week in Canada last week... There is a prize called the 'Giller' and it was won by a Nova Scotian woman and it was printed by our local publisher... Gaspereau Press! The novel is called "the Sentimentalists" Check it out! :)

Thanks for sharing your ideas and the list from SouleMama.

I hope to get a suggestion for a book for my grandson(5) in AZ, where it isn't going to snow and be cold. It's going to be a different Christmas after the death of his sister(6) this September. Any SW Christmas books to suggest?

Hi Ali -- I just finished reading "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" after first reading about it here on your blog. What an amazing book! Thanks for the recommendation.

I *just* came across a Mary Oliver poem from Thirst that was used during a recent church service. I had copied it in my little notebook so I would remember it. It is called "Praying". It is beautiful.

I have been trying to find poems I enjoy reading also. I came across Maya Stein. I found her blog and her poems are amazing. http://papayamaya.blogspot.com/
I highly recommend it!

I just finished Fall of Giants. I LOVED it! I really like how this author mixes history and fiction. I think I learned more about WWI in this book than I did in college US History! There will be two more books in the series. Can't wait! My only "baby" is almost 15 but we still get out the box of Christmas books and DVDs every year. He still loves curling up with a bowl of popcorn and watching all those Christmas specials. My hubby and I are so glad he hasn't decided he is too cool to yule!

Robert Sabuda's pop up books are wonderful. There are several Christmas ones. Some better for little hands than others.

Thank you for the list. I'm also reading "Fall of giants" ...
A kiss

We have many holiday books tucked away waiting to be set out after Thanksgiving as well, that we've gotten over the years. Loving the list from SouleMama,thanks for posting it.
One of our favorite is the Can You See What I See? The Night Before Christmas. We also have Treasure Ship (which we got for our Key West trip) and On a Scary Scary Night (for Halloween). We love it as a family to search together and see all the wonderful bits and pieces in the books.

Yay for reading poetry! Yay, yay and Mary Oliver is great. I think you would like Naomi Shahib Nye; google "Famous"-- it kinda celebrates the every day.

Famousby Naomi Shihab Nye

The river is famous to the fish.

The loud voice is famous to silence,
which knew it would inherit the earth
before anybody said so.

The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds
watching him from the birdhouse.

The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek.

The idea you carry close to your bosom
is famous to your bosom.

The boot is famous to the earth,
more famous than the dress shoe,
which is famous only to floors.

The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it
and not at all famous to the one who is pictured.

I want to be famous to shuffling men
who smile while crossing streets,
sticky children in grocery lines,
famous as the one who smiled back.

I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,
or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,
but because it never forgot what it could do.

We love the "That's Not My..." series for little hands. They have a snowman, reindeer, & Santa version, and maybe more holiday ones. Our kids each get a new book at some point in December & one of those will for sure be added to our collection.

Here is a Christmas book idea for you! I have saved all of my girls' favorite Christmas books over the years (and those collected as an elementary teacher) and want to use them in some way. So, I am going to wrap them all up individually in Christmas paper and set them under the tree. Then, each day in December, my girls can open a book and we will read it. Our collection includes more than 25 books, so I will start Dec 1 and see how far it takes us. And you can bet that this will be documented in my December Daily 2010 album!

thanks for the link to Soule Mama. i was wondering if you have suggestions for 1st Christmas gifts from anna & simon's 1st Christmas? our baby girl, madison, will be 8 months on Christmas day.

Mary Oliver is so marvelous. I saw her speak last fall at our community college on Cape. She was as wonderful in person as on her pages. My favorite: On Angels and Trees.

I just read a book called "The Sabbath World" also about the Sabbath--I'll have to check out this one!

Oh, man do I love Mary Oliver! She is hands down my favorite poet.

We have a tradition that we have done for many years that helps us slow down during the busy-ness of Christmas. Around Thanksgiving I wrap up all our Christmas/winter books and put them under the family room tree (we put up two trees). Every night in December someone chooses a book to unwrap and we read it together as a family. My youngest child is 11 and we still enjoy this tradition. Sometimes we all have a cup of hot chocolate, sometimes I have a special treat, sometimes we barely have time to read one of the short books, but it is a great tradition!

A great book that we love is called Red Ranger Came Calling by Berekly Breathed. A really good story!!