christmas books chosen by a (thrifty) librarian

okay, so some of these books were chosen simply because they were available at the frugal muse or at better world books and they looked good to me.  some we haven’t opened yet, so i can’t say whether or not they’re popular, but i will say that all of the books we’ve opened so far have been on regular rotation here.

what we’ve opened so far:

dream snow by eric carle–a lovely, less-well-known christmas title with a bonus button that plays twinkly (non-melodic) music at the end.  a huge hit! (this one is a library copy, but we may need to buy our own copy next year)

away in a manger by jan lewis–found this at frugal muse.  board book with endearing and modern illustrations.  the text is simply the lyrics to two favorite christmas carols.  simple, but really nice to read at bedtime

christmas in a manger by nola buck–library copy, love these illustrations (by felicia bond–see also below) and simple rhyming text

if you take a mouse to the movies by laura numeroff–purchased a used copy.  this one is nicknamed, “caw-corn!”

how the grinch stole christmas by dr. seuss— owned it already.  i thought it might be too long, but so far we’ve read it once a day and he sits for the whole thing.

who is coming to our house by joseph slate–library copy.  recommended by this blogger, thought i’d try it out.

still left to open (owned books)

twelve days of christmas illus. by hilary knight — mr. knight (yes, hilary is a man’s name in england, apparently) has always been one of my very favorite illustrators.

mr. willowby’s christmas tree by robert e. barry — this one is a favorite from my childhood (although i kind of wish i’d bought the single-color illustrated version for nostalgia’s sake…)

morris’ disappearing bag by rosemary wells — possibly my favorite holiday book to use at the library if i’m doing a holiday storytime because it doesn’t directly reference santa or jesus, plus it’s a fun little story.

bob and 6 more christmas stories by sandra boynton — i couldn’t resist.  i’ve loved all of her other board books in this format!

twas the night before christmas by gyo fujikawa — hmmm… this copy is a bit more battered and faded than i’d expected.  we may have to upgrade to bruce whatley’s version next year…

merry christmas, let’s all sing (board book set) by grace lin — three board books, each featuring a different christmas carol illustrated by ms. lin sounds like a winner to me.  we’ll see! (my copy arrived without the cd, so i can’t speak to the quality of that, but i’m not too worried about knowing the tunes…)

christmas is coming:  favorite christmas rhymes to read and sing again and again by allie busby–more carols?  maybe i should have titled this post, “christmas books chosen by a (thrifty) music lover”

still left to open (library books)

counting to christmas by nancy tafuri–not a ton of text on each large, fully illustrated page, thought we’d try it out

three bears christmas by kathy duval–looks funny, but the joke may be lost on the happy baby this year.

minerva louise on christmas eve by janet morgan stoeke — silly chicken

i think that’s all of them.  if i was a really nice blogger, i’d have added thumbnail images of each book cover, but i barely have time to post links here (sorry they’re all mostly amazon.  i usually try to link to smaller vendors…).  if anyone has a very, very favorite christmas book that they don’t see listed here that they’d like to recommend (other than polar express, olive the other reindeer, and the wonderful pop-up book “cookie count” which i already know about), i’m open to suggestions.