christmas reading

Recently I ordered and received some books from Scholastic. A few are tucked away for T's presents for both Christmas and birthday but a couple were ordered with Christmas reading in mind and T and I have both been enchanted by a couple of my choices.

Merry Christmas, Splat by Rob Scotton is a funny and sweet tale of Splat the Cat and his family. The drawings are so cute and the story has something for both child and parent and I think this is destined to be a classic in our house.

 Splat wants a really big present for Christmas but gets a bit worried about if he's been a good enough cat to get a visit from Santa. So to be extra sure, Splat decides to help his mom get ready for Christmas.

 If you have a small child in your life this will be a story to enchant.

Another one from Scholastic is The Mitten by Jan Brett, based on a Ukrainian folktale. A boy, his Baba, a lost mitten, a forest full of animals all weave a tale of fun.

T loves it.

And I picked up a book I remember reading many moons ago, How Far to Bethlehem by Nora Lofts. A novel about Mary and Joseph and the birth of Jesus. I remember when I was hugely pregnant the Christmas before T was born, feeling empathy for Mary, travelling from Nazareth to Bethlehem on a donkey while in the late stages of pregnancy. This novel takes the bible story and tells it from the perspective of the humans involved. It's all a part of my effort to remove the crazy commercial stress and rush from Christmas and replace it with homemade gifts and family traditions and some of the wonder of a child's Christmas and the joy and peace that is supposed to represent the spirit of the season.