December is just around the corner so I’m hoping it’s not too early to use the C word and share some Christmas Reading Rituals with you!
I thoroughly enjoy reading books with a festive feel to help find some Christmas spirit. As mentioned in last month’s post I started re-reading some Christmas favourites in October.
I love a Christmas romance and I also enjoy reading Christmas stories with my son. We have some family favourites which I’d like to share with you.
Family Christmas Reading Rituals
Slinky Malinki’s Christmas Crackers by Lynley Dodd
We’ve had this a long time – it’s in board book format which means we got it when my son was a baby or toddler. I adore Lynley Dodd’s Hairy Maclary and friends (as mentioned in our Family Reading Rituals post and this is a wonderfully festive rhyming story. We’re more of a ‘dog family’ than a ‘cat family’ but we still love sitting down and reading about Slinky Malinky’s festive mischief and mayhem.
The Jolly Christmas Postman by Janet & Allan Ahlberg
This is a favourite from my childhood so I wanted to purchase it for my boy. I added it to his Christmas Eve box a couple of years ago so we could sit together and enjoy the story for the final bedtime before Father Christmas visited.
The book contains letters which you can open and read as the Jolly Postman delivers each one. It’s fun to “open” each envelope to see what’s inside.
This is a great option to keep little ones amused for a while during the excitement of Christmas Eve.
A Creature Was Stirring (One Boy’s Night Before Christmas) by Carter Goodrich
We picked this one up in a library sale years ago. It’s a beautifully illustrated take on The Night Before Christmas and features a boy’s thoughts on what’s happening alongside the original text. I like the balance between the older style of the original story and the modern additions written from the point of view of a small child.
It’s fun to read together and is another great one to read on Christmas Eve as the children are settling down to sleep.
A Romantic Christmas
I love reading a cosy, heart-warming romance when the nights draw in and I feel like hibernating. For me, Sarah Morgan is the Queen of Christmas romance novels. Last month I mentioned re-reading some of her Christmas stories – Miracle on 5th Avenue and Christmas Ever After.
This month I bought her latest Christmas novel – The Christmas Sisters. I enjoyed the family dynamics in this story and learning more about each of the characters as I continued reading. Not everyone looks forward to a family Christmas and this story portrays how it can affect some people. It was a heart-warming story and I am sure it will become another favourite of mine to re-read at Christmas time!
Non-Christmas Reading This Month
I also read Time’s Convert by Deborah Harkness. This is a follow on from the All Souls Trilogy (A Discovery of Witches) which I blogged about a while back.
Time’s Convert tells the story of Marcus and Phoebe. I enjoyed reading (and learning more) about the American Civil War and the French Revolution. It was also great to see snippets of other characters from the original trilogy. The ending felt a little rushed or unfinished so I wonder if there is more to come. (The New Orleans bloody finale wasn’t as big as I expected). If you enjoyed the original trilogy this is definitely worth a read.
*
I’ve picked up some Christmas themed novels from the library recently and I’m looking forward to getting stuck into them on the lead up to Christmas.
Do you enjoy festive stories or have any Christmas Reading Rituals? What have you been reading lately?