Every year as we pull out the decorations and recipes and ornaments, we also rediscover our favorite Christmas books! Most of these books are missing their dust jackets, the edges are worn, hot chocolate drops can be found on certain pages and some of them are even from my own childhood. But reading books together at Christmas is one of my very favorite traditions! Here are a few of our favorites...

Song of the Stars: A Christmas Story was new to our family last year, but as the animals sense the coming of Christ, all of nature begins to whisper, "It's time! It's time!" This book is a beautiful song of praise to the coming Savior.

The Crippled Lamb tells the story of Joshua, a little lamb with a crippled leg, who discovers that God hears our prayers and has a special plan for each life!

Jotham's Journey: A Storybook for Advent is the perfect book for reading together as a family! Through adventure and danger, heartache and friendship, it follows the journey of 10 year old Jotham who travels across Israel searching for his family. Our children will plead for just one more chapter...

The Pine Tree Parable tells the story of a farmer and his family who grow Christmas trees from tiny seedlings. Through the process, and an encounter with a special child, the family learns the true meaning of Christmas.

Jesus iWitness is an incredible book for older children who want to know more about Jesus and why we celebrate His birth! While it's not specifically Christmas-themed, the interactive and hands-on fold outs and pictures on each page will draw in older readers.

The Sweet Smell of Christmas is just a sweet, simple, fun book that has scratch and sniff stickers on each page that remind readers of the smells of Christmas. It does not have a Christ-focus, but it is imbedded in my childhood memories of Christmas and our children have enjoyed it year after year!

My Birthday, Jesus' Birthday is a book that young children can relate to! It helps children understand how in some ways Jesus' birth day was very much like their own birth... but in other ways, was so very different! I like that it is also perfect for reading on a child's birthday, not just at Christmas time.

Humphrey's First Christmas is a fun story about Humphrey the camel who carries the wise men bringing gifts to Jesus. While fictional, its focus in the "importance of Christmas and the true meaning of gift-giving."

And this year, we're adding two new books to our Christmas collection--

Jesus Is Most Special is one of our two new Christmas books for 2014! While focusing on how very special the birth of Christ is, this book helps parents explain why His birth is so special in a larger context of the whole biblical narrative...what happens before Jesus is born and what happens after.

The Christmas Promise tells the story of our God who promised to send a king and who fulfilled that promise through Christmas! But Jesus wasn't the king that people expected... "He would be a new King; a rescuing King; a forever King!"