Andy Stanton, author of Mr Gum
For me it’s not a book, but the poem ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas’ by Clement Clarke Moore. I love the sense of excitement and anticipation that it conveys. And I love hearing it read out when you’re indoors all cosy and warm, with lots of holly and other Christmas greenery and tinsel all dancing and flickering in the candlelight. When I was about eight, I stayed awake to try to catch Father Christmas coming in and around midnight, I saw a bunch of little coloured lights, like miniature UFOs or fireflies, float into the room. It was really weird but I was probably just dreaming…
Chris Riddell, Goth Girl creator and children’s laureate
Candy Gourlay, author of Shine
My all time favourite Christmas story was a short story from one of the American reading scheme books we read when I was growing up in the Philippines. It was called A Tree for Nick by Mary Lou Brown (the story was originally published in 1959). It told the story of a brother and sister decorating a tree for a Christmas tree competition while waiting for their eight-year-old brother Nick to come home from his boarding school for blind children. They are desperate to win the prize and yet Nick dominates all their choices. They leave out the shiny foil decorations in case Nick cuts himself. They leave out the electric lights because Nick burned his hand on them last year. Instead, they hang soft, fuzzy sheep, and sweet candy canes, the shabby old horn that tooted when you blew, and an old music box that tinkled when you touched it. You could feel and taste and hear the tree – but it was nothing much to look at. They knew they they didn’t stand a chance of winning the tree competition. And then Nick comes home. The line that always gets me is when Nick finally meets the tree: “ ‘Whee!’ breathed Nick, his face shining with happiness. ‘This is the prettiest tree I’ve ever seen!’ “ Aaaaah. Here come the tears again.
Chris Priestley, author of Anything That Isn’t this
My Christmas choice would be The Dark is Rising by the inimitable Susan Cooper. The word ‘magical’ gets used a lot to describe children’s books, but it really applies in this case. It is superb from snowy start to finish.
Mick & Brita, co-authors and illustrators of The Beatles and many other books
We often read the chapters in Kenneth Graham’s Wind in the Willows when Moley and Ratty get lost in the Wild Wood and end up in Badger’s kitchen. It never fails to please.
Jackie Morris, author of The Ice Bear
The Bear by Raymond Briggs. But it’s not Christmas, it’s winter. You can keep Christmas.
Liz Kessler, author of Read Me Like a Book and the Emily Windsnap series
I gotta say, the children’s book that always means Christmas for me is the good old The Snowman, by Raymond Briggs. There’s simply nothing like it for summing up everything that is special and cosy and snowy and wonderful and magical about this time of year.
Taran Matharu, author of Summoner: The Novice
I enjoyed reading A Street Cat Named Bob by James Bowen for Xmas, but it’s not really a children’s book. Bob: No Ordinary Cat is the children’s version with some of the adult scenes taken out.
Keren David, author of This is Not a Love Story
The books that sums up Christmas for me is End of Term by Antonia Forest. There’s a character, Miranda West who is Jewish like me, and has to negotiate that “suddenly I’m an outside”’ Christmas feeling that comes around at this time of year. I never came across anyone else like Miranda in any of the books I read, which partly inspired my latest book This is Not a Love Story.
Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of The Last Act of Love
We usually go to my parents’ house for Christmas and I love being able to see all my old books. I always reread something, choosing between Little Women, I Capture the Castle or the Anne books by L M Montgomery. If I get started on Anne of Green Gables, I often carry on and read them all through to Rilla of Ingleside. There are lots of Christmasses described in the Anne books but I also vividly remember my delight at being given them in a boxed set by my parents when I was probably about ten. There’s something about a boxed set that is especially and sumptuously festive.
Lauren St John, author of One Dollar Horse trilogy and Operation Rhino
The children’s book that most reminds me of Christmas is The Tiger That Came to Tea by Judith Kerr, mainly because I bought if for my niece, Summer, one Christmas, and she made me read it to her about 25 times in succession. I also had to crawl around the floor for hours pretending to be a tiger. The tiger’s feast is appropriately Christmassy too!
Sarah McIntyre, author/illustrator of Pugs of the Frozen North with Philip Reeve
First of all a chapter book: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, by Barbara Robinson. When I was in school, my teacher read this to our class and we all loved it. It’s about an almost completely feral family called the Herdmans whose six loathsome children hijack a very proper middle-class church nativity play and turn it into something much more exciting and meaningful for everyone.
And I have a picture book: Toot and Puddle: I’ll be Home for Christmas, by Holly Hobbie (2001) Known for her (now rather kitsch) American girls in bonnets, Holly Hobbie reinvented herself with Toot and Puddle, two pigs who are best friends. We follow the adventures of Toot, who’s fighting storms to get back home from Edinburgh to Puddle, who’s decorating the house for Christmas. The masterful and delicate watercolour paintings create marvelous contrasts between the snow and warmth and make me feel caught up in the festive wonder. My family live too far away to visit each Christmas, so I think that gives the story added poignance.
Rae Earl, author of My Mad Fat Diary
Me and my little boy are Mog fanatics so it has to be Mog’s Christmas Calamity by Judith Kerr. Sainsburys don’t exist where I currently live in Hobart so we are innocently thumbing through a very well worn and loved copy without the ad. I love the fact that Mog is rather grinchy and vaguely terrified about the festive season and opts for the roof rather than the house. It’s a feeling most of us can sympathise with at about 9 A.M on Christmas Day. There’s a beautiful ending obviously. That is the genius of Kerr - manageable anxiety and peril solved beautifully.
Natasha Farrant, author of the diaries of Bluebell Gadsby series
Christmas for me is all about the symbolism of light in the dark. I know it’s not a book as such, but for me the season starts on the first Sunday of Advent with the collect “Give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and to put on the armour of light”, which never fails to send a shiver down my spine and always reminds me how much emotion and meaning can be packed into just a few words. Then, at the other end of the spectrum, on Christmas Eve we light a fire and as many candles as we can, gather whoever is around and read The Night Before Christmas, a big picture book edition illustrated by Christian Birmingham. Everyone has to take turns doing silly voices, then we put out a glass of wine, a mince pie and a carrot for Santa. It’s really not about the book anymore. It’s about snuggling down together and reminding ourselves of what is important.
Piers Torday, author of The Last Wild trilogy
Christmas has always been the best time for books. So much time to read, and even if climate change means that curling up by the fire while the snow piles up outside is a thing of the past, you can pretend by diving into the classics like The Box of Delights by John Masefield or The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. If you prefer something contemporary, I shall be giving my nieces, nephew and god children copies of the very cheering A Boy Called Christmas by Matt Haig or for the younger ones, Coralie Bickford Smith’s stunning The Fox and the Star.
Tony Bradman, author of Viking Boy and Anzac Boys
I can be a bit of a Scrooge when it comes to Christmas, but I can always be cheered up by the story of Scrooge himself - I always try to read Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol at this time of year (I also love to watch the classic 1951 film version starring Alastair Sim - it’s always on one channel or another!). Naturally I’m also a big fan of Father Christmas by Raymond Briggs. And this year I discovered a new book that really does make me feel some Yule-tide magic - the wonderful A Boy Called Christmas by Matt Haig. A Merry Christmas to one and all!
Sally Nicholls, author of An Island of Our Own
Barbara Robinson’s The Worst Kids in the World – recently reissued as The Best Christmas Pageant Ever – is the story of what happens when the worst family in town gatecrash the church Christmas pageant. The Sunday School are horrified when their pretty blonde Mary is ousted by a girl who looks like a teenage refugee mother. But, as the narrator muses, isn’t that who the first Mary really was? A very funny and surprisingly heartwarming reminder of what the Christmas story is really about. Lucy Boston’s The Children of Green Knowe is a book I’ve loved since I first read it as a child. Tolly Oldknowe comes to spend Christmas with his great-grandmother at a manor house haunted by the ghosts of a family who lived there three hundred years before. The scene where they accidentally attend a seventeenth century midnight mass has haunted me for over twenty years.
Site member Some-infinities-katie
Christmas-wise, I grew up with Nikolai Of The North by Lucy Daniel Raby, which is great for 8-12 year olds, if not an even wider audience. In a more YA market, I really enjoyed My True Love Gave To Me by various authors, edited by Stephanie Perkins.
Site member SavsBooks29
My favourite Christmas book is not strictly a Christmas novel but I have somehow made it tradition to read The Princess Bride by William Goldman every Christmas holiday... I really love that book.
Katherine Rundell, of The Wolf Wilder
The book that I think most beautifully captures the ebullient joy of Christmas when you’re young is the Brambly Hedge ‘Winter Story’ by Jill Barklem. The mice make an ice palace, and have an ice ball; as with all the Brambly Hedge books, the illustrations are pitch-perfect and delicious. I’ve bought half a dozen this year for children I love.
Ros Asquith, author of Vanishing Trick
It’s got to be A Christmas Carol (really is worth rereading Dickens once a year) and the sublime Jolly Christmas Postman by Janet and Allan Alhberg.
Catherine Johnson, author of The Curious Tale of the Lady Caraboo
The book that says Christmas to me is Moominland Midwinter - the description of the valley under snow is magic. And the thought of being awake when everyone else is still hibernating is lovely. The first book I ever bought with my own money was a Moomin book. Love all of them
Matt Haig, author of A Boy Called Christmas
My favourite Christmas book is an obvious one, A Christmas Carol. Second only to the Bible, this is a book that invented Christmas, in terms of how we see it today. The ultimate redemption story it’s genius is in bringing us all into the Christmas narrative, because none of us are quite as miserly as old Ebenezer and even he manages to get into the spirit, with the help of those literal spirits. It remains Dickens’ snappiest and most readable book, though written very early in his career.
Site member, Orli Book Worm
Every year, I go back to remembering the love I have for Raymond Briggs’s The Snowman. I find that sometimes hold the closest memory, and my memories of The Snowman include sitting next to the fire, dreading the moment when - (spoiler alert) the snowman melts. It might not be the longest or most complicated book in the world, but it’s beautiful and reminds me of being a little girl!
Katherine Woodfine, author of The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow
There are so many books that I love to revisit at Christmas - Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising, and John Masefield’s The Box of Delights are two especial favourites. But the one book that really says ‘Christmas’ to me more than any other is my mum’s battered old copy of The Christmas Book by Enid Blyton, which we always used read together at this time of year when I was growing up. It may seem incredibly dated to a contemporary reader, but it’s nonetheless a completely charming vision of a traditional Blyton Christmas - complete with plum pudding, yule log, and even an appearance from Father Christmas himself.
Site member TheMileLongBookshelf
The book that most gets me into the Christmas mood is My True Love Gave To Me, an anthology of Christmas stories from top YA authors curated by Stephanie Perkins. There’s something for everyone, and the cover even has fairy lights on it. What more do you want in life?
Laxmi Hariharan, author of The Many Lives of Ruby Iyer
Thought about which book sums up Christmas for me; a bit idiosyncratic perhaps but my mind kept going back to The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Probably because each year goes by in a flash and yet is made up of so many distinct emotions. And then, it’s Christmas and you pause, take a break and look back; before moving forward. And each year I still feel like that little prince, trying to make sense of this insane adult world. Like him I often feel I am neither grown up nor a child, and each year is a voyage to different worlds in my head; where I meet the equivalent of the rose, the cautious fox, the sinister angel and the fox that deceived me.
We want this blog to grow! What are the books that get you in the Christmas spirit? Tell us on Twitter @GdnChildrensBks or by emailing childrens.books@theguardian.com and we’ll add your ideas to this blog!
By email
Margaret: I have just remembered a book by an American, Barbara Robinson which you may not have come across. I anglicised it and made it into a play for middle school children about 35 years ago - my daughter and her friends were in it. It is called The Best Christmas Pageant Ever but was originally published as The Worst Kids in the World. It is about a dysfunctional family of neglected kids who take over the Christmas pageant in a local church and bring a whole new perspective to the nativity story. Although I’m not very religious it always gave me a lump in my throat when I read it to kids. You, or someone in the team, may know it. The character who plays Mary listens to the reading from the Bible: “ I shall be called wonderful counsellor, everlasting God, Mighty Father” etc and says, “My God! with a name like that he’d never get out if First Grade. I would have called him Fred” There is lots of humour as well as some tear jerking moments.
@GdnChildrensBks my childhood favourites were The Polar Express, The Jolly Christmas Postman & Father Christmas. These days it's Hogfather!
— Snowy Cheerily ⛄ (@Hapfairy) December 7, 2015
Carol, via email
Snowmen at Christmas, Caralyn Buehner.
What are the best books to read at Christmas? https://t.co/0wd2GlVYl8 I love the Little House on Prairie snow ins myself! @GdnChildrensBks
— Emily Drabble (@EmilyDrabs) December 7, 2015
@GdnChildrensBks The Jolly Christmas Postman is a fab Xmas read. We love playing the game & doing Humpty's jigsaw :) pic.twitter.com/rYN90m9weR
— Catherine Friess (@cjfriess) December 7, 2015
@EmilyDrabs @GdnChildrensBks And more recently, Forever Rose by Hilary McKay is gorgeous.
— Aoife Walsh (@AoifeMPWalsh) December 7, 2015
@EmilyDrabs @GdnChildrensBks I have to read Eloise at Christmas every year.
— theimpishreader (@theimpishreader) December 7, 2015
@EmilyDrabs @GdnChildrensBks Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden - incredible - and Lotta's Xmas Surprise by Astrid Lindgren.
— Aoife Walsh (@AoifeMPWalsh) December 7, 2015
My choices are obvious - Xmas Carol & Night Before Christmas. There's also a lovely Shirley Hughes Christmas story. https://t.co/R2lyCsHGSL
— Matthew Amer (@MattAmer) December 7, 2015
@GdnChildrensBks And my second is a very much more recent bk but quite an important one I think - Refuge by Anne Booth & Sam Usher.
— LH 'Daisy' Johnson (@chaletfan) December 7, 2015
@GdnChildrensBks I loved: Little Women, Little Town on the Prairie, What Katy Did at School & The Dark is Rising: https://t.co/OaxgTkpSyI
— Vashti (@vashti_z) December 7, 2015
Ooh good question. We'd add Stick Man, His Dark Materials and A Christmas Carol to the list. What about you? https://t.co/fSgtF3AGUZ
— Scholastic UK (@scholasticuk) December 7, 2015
@GdnChildrensBks The Children of Green Knowe by Lucy Boston; Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder are my Christmas choices
— Julia Green (@JGreenAuthor) December 7, 2015
@GdnChildrensBks I re-read Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen every Christmas. Magical, wintry perfection.
— Lauren Fortune (@LaurenAFortune) December 7, 2015
@fionanoblebooks @GdnChildrensBks I LOVE the Dark is Rising, with now read the Box of Delights, which is a new title to me.
— M.G. Leonard (@MGLnrd) December 7, 2015
@EmilyDrabs Faith's absolute favourite is The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder @GdnChildrensBks pic.twitter.com/7Jhoh4cKBH
— Laura (@272BookFaith) December 7, 2015
@JGreenAuthor @GdnChildrensBks Oh, the Christmas chapter in LLHITBW is so vivid and joyous. Laura getting her doll, Charlotte... *sniffle*
— FurnessGirl (@FurnessGirl) December 7, 2015
@GdnChildrensBks @reading_matters "Wombat Devine" brilliant Aussie Christmas picture book with a tender story
— John Young (@JohnYoung18) December 7, 2015
@EmilyDrabs @GdnChildrensBks Little Women! "Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.
— Miriam Halahmy (@MiriamHalahmy) December 7, 2015
@GdnChildrensBks I'd recommend The Wolf Wilder by @kdbrundell as a fabulously snowy festive read. Also A Christmas Carol just because.
— Emma Carroll (@emmac2603) December 7, 2015
@GdnChildrensBks It has to be C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for me, with Raymond Briggs' The Snowman as a close second.
— Emily Buffey (@emilybuffey) December 7, 2015
@GdnChildrensBks A must read - How The Grinch Stole Christmas! 'His heart was two sizes too small'. @EmilyDrabs pic.twitter.com/bZue5m7Q2Z
— Danny D Pearson ✎ (@Danny_D_Pearson) December 7, 2015
@GdnChildrensBks the dark is rising, the last of the spirits are wonderful books
— Mrs Cratchit ⛄️ (@book_magpie) December 7, 2015
https://twitter.com/sophoife/status/673880225013362688
@GdnChildrensBks The wonderful Lucy and Tom at Christmas by Shirley Hughes. Recently reprinted. Just lovely.
— robertwilfort (@robertwilfort) December 7, 2015
@GdnChildrensBks It has to be C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for me, with Raymond Briggs' The Snowman as a close second.
— Emily Buffey (@emilybuffey) December 7, 2015
@GdnChildrensBks One of my best children's Christmas books is Beatrix Potter's Tailor of Gloucester, every word perfect, every page a dream.
— Hilary McKay (@hilary_mckay) December 7, 2015
@GdnChildrensBks my daughter (11) is currently reading - and enjoying - JRR Tolkein’s Letters from Father Christmas.
— LizM (@lizmac39) December 7, 2015
@looseflorence @GdnChildrensBks Harvey Slumfenberger's Xmas Present by John Birningham is another fantastic book.
— robertwilfort (@robertwilfort) December 7, 2015
@robertwilfort agreed! @GdnChildrensBks I love Miss Flora McFlimsey's Christmas Eve - published in 1949, my mum has an old, battered (1/2)
— Lucy Dennison (@looseflorence) December 7, 2015
2/2 & beautiful copy. She bought me my own 2 years ago. My brother Tom & I love Lucy & Tom- not just because of the names! @GdnChildrensBks
— Lucy Dennison (@looseflorence) December 7, 2015
My fave Christmas book is 'A Jumper for Christmas' by Eleanor Newson. The illustrations are so cute @GdnChildrensBKS pic.twitter.com/VOgR4Sig7J
— Generation 2050 (@Gen2050) December 7, 2015
@scholasticuk @GdnChildrensBks I love Lost Christmas. It's a novelisation but has one of the best chapter title ever pic.twitter.com/DKzV1Jm4Ry
— catrad (@catrad) December 7, 2015
@EmilyDrabs @GdnChildrensBks Lucy and Tom's Christmas by Shirley Hughes is wonderful - it captures the excitement in the run up to Christmas
— Stephen Snelson (@steve_snelson) December 7, 2015
@GdnChildrensBks Little House in the Big Woods; Wolf Princess; I Capture the Castle; Little Princess; Inkheart :)
— Rachel Hickman (@hickman_rachel) December 7, 2015
@GdnChildrensBks One Snowy Night, Polar Express, A Pussycat's Christmas, Tosca's Christmas & now A Boy Named Christmas :-)
— LibWithAttitude (@LibWithAttitude) December 8, 2015
@GdnChildrensBks The Santa Trap and The Snow Beast are very popular in my house with 3 and 5yo this year.
— Emma Radford (@EmmaRadford4) December 8, 2015
