Children's Christian Christmas Stories
- Published by Random House, Inc., "God Gave Us Christmas" tackles the questions children ask about Christmas from a religious perspective. Little Cub asks his mother a plethora of questions while getting ready for Christmas day. Mama takes on questions about Santa and his place in the holiday without discounting him, the origins of Christmas and how to find God in the world at large. The illustrations follow the polar bear family through their Christmas prep, with a lush color palette that includes bright, vivid paints from illustrator David Hohn.
- Eugene Peterson, the author behind "The Message," teaches children about gifts. Two children, Andrew and Lindsay, run away into the woods outside their house after Andrew is denied his request to open presents early on Christmas Eve. In the woods they encounter an ugly yet kind troll, who teaches Andrew that important gifts are the gifts of the spirit that God bestows. The book's message is aimed at kids who focus too much on the materialistic nature of Christmas. "The Christmas Troll" is published by Nav Press and illustrated by Will Terry.
- "The Twelve Prayers of Christmas," published by HarperCollins, tells the story of the birth of Christ through 12 short poems, each of which focuses on a different personage in the story, from Mary to the innkeeper, and even the donkey who carries Mary into Bethlehem and the Christmas star. Jesus's poem is last. This book is a more traditional Christmas story, told with dramatically lit paintings from gold and brown color scale to nighttime blues and white. The illustrator is James Bernardin, who also illustrated "The Legend of the Candy Cane."
- The focus of "The Legend of the Christmas Stocking," published by HarperCollins, is generosity. Peter's father is away on a ship, and Peter sells newspapers to help out his family. He has stashed part of his salary to help him save up for a model ship just like the one his father is on. On Christmas, however, he gives up his hard-earned savings to help his family celebrate the holiday. The book illustrates the link between generosity and serving God through a sermon delivered by Pastor Spring. The book's Victorian backdrop and highly detailed art, by Jim Griffin, adds a lush backdrop to the holiday tale.