Christmas gifts for Children

Family friendly and enjoyable, these children’s books make great gifts. With simple stories and beautiful pictures these books will light up a child’s face.

“Run! Run! Fast as you can! You can’t catch me! I’m the Gingerbread Man!” So goes the story of The Gingerbread Man, adapted by Jim Aylesworth. Created by a little old man and a little old women for their afternoon snack, the Gingerbread  man figured out his fate and when  released from the oven, he ran, ran and ran. Along the way he meets, taunts, then runs from; a butcher with a carving knife, a cow, and a muddy old sow.

Finally the Gingerbread Man meets a fox, a tricky fox, “[and] so ends the tale of the Gingerbread Man”. While not technically a Christmas picture book, gingerbread men are a Christmas cookie staple, and this story is a good way to remember these delicious treats. There’s even a recipe for these yummy cookies on the back of the book! The wonderful pictures that fill this book, illustrated by Barbara McClintock , bring the story to life.

A different type of  story for children to enjoy is that of a Christmas dog. The classic Christmas song goes, “All of the other reindeer…”, or does it? What if it actually says, “Olive, the other reindeer”? That’s what Olive the little dog thinks when she hears that song on the radio in Olive, the Other Reindeer written by Vivian Walsh and J. Otto Seibold, and also illustrated by Seibold. Olive is convinced that Santa is calling out to her so she travels all the way up to the North Pole.

Santa and the other reindeer decide to let Olive come along on their special journey, tying her into the sleigh like all of the other reindeers. But mid-flight they get into a crash! Thankfully Olive can help them out. Throughout the rest of this delightful picture book Olive is able to help Santa and his reindeer out of many scrapes by being herself and using her dog talents. This book is a wonderful Christmastime tale, while also being a book about believing in yourself and being special.