2011: Merry Christmas, Mouse!, by Laura Numeroff, illustrated by Felicia Bond
2012: Christmas Time, by Gail Gibbons
2013: One Wintry Night, by Ruth Bell Graham, illustrated by Richard Jesse Watson
2014: The Amazing Christmas Extravaganza, by David Shannon
2015: Twelve Lizards Leaping, by Jan Romero, illustrated by Christine Mau
2016: Crispin, the Pig Who Had it All, by Ted Dewan
For Biblical Christmas content, I’d have to say One Wintry Night, with its beautiful illustrations and retelling of the Biblical narrative starting way back in Eden, is the most lovely of these books. But the most accessible–and therefore my choice for young children–is Crispin, the Pig Who Had it All! Crispin is a pig in more than one sense of the word; he is greedy, selfish, and unappreciative…and an actual pig. When he receives an empty box for Christmas which contains “the only thing [he does] not have”, he is furious and dumps it outside. When the empty box draws imaginative neighborhood children in, Crispin is first possessive, then finally interested and engaged. He keeps thinking that the only reason the children come to play is because of what he has, but he eventually realizes that, through shared play, they come to play just because of who he is…a friend.
Rushing to Read 