The Best Christmas Books for Kids, From Board Books to Chapter Books

December comes, and every evening you want a Christmas book on the pillow, but the shelf holds one battered copy of a story your child has heard forty times. This list of Christmas books for kids fixes that: 24 published books sorted by age, from board books for toddlers to chapter books a 10-year-old will read alone. It names the best Christmas books for kids to give as presents, and it ends with a simple plan for a book advent calendar.

How to choose Christmas books for kids

Age decides whether a Christmas book works on the night. A 2-year-old needs a short rhyme and a page to point at, a 5-year-old wants a plot with a turn, and an 8-year-old will sit through a whole chapter if the jokes land.

Choose by age first, then by length, then by mood. Three questions do most of the work.

• Age: Does the child follow a plot yet, or do they need rhyme and repetition?
• Length: Can you finish it in one sitting, or does it need a chapter a night?
• Mood: Is it funny, cozy, faith-based or secular, and does your shelf lack one of those?

A good December shelf mixes moods. One funny book (the Grinch), one cozy book (Bear Stays Up for Christmas), one faith book (Room for a Little One) and one wonder book (The Polar Express) cover most evenings.

Length for a bedtime read-aloud

Christmas picture books run longer than people remember. How the Grinch Stole Christmas! has 64 pages, which is fine on a Saturday and long on a school night.

Keep picture books for school nights and longer books for weekends or a chapter at a time. If you want an original Christmas story for tonight instead of a published book, try our Christmas bedtime stories.

24 Christmas books for kids at a glance

All 24 books sit in one table, oldest classics and newest titles together. The ages are a starting point for reading together.

Read-aloud or gift?

A Christmas book does one of two jobs. It is either a read-aloud you share in December, or a gift a child keeps and rereads. Read-alouds can be library copies, and publisher or Common Sense Media ages are named in the sections below.

Gifts should be books a child will open again next year. For gift ideas beyond this list, see why books make the best Christmas gifts for kids.

Christmas books for toddlers (ages 0 to 3)

Christmas books for toddlers should be short, rhythmic and tough enough to survive a grab. All four picks here rhyme, repeat or move slowly, and each one fits in a five-minute bedtime.

Little Blue Truck's Christmas sends the truck from Toad's Trees to deliver a tree to each animal friend. Kirkus Reviews points out the tiny lights that sparkle when the last page turns, a surprise toddlers ask to see again. Bear Stays Up for Christmas has the refrain "but the bear stays up," and Simon & Schuster sells a 2011 board book edition for ages 2 to 4.

Pick a Pine Tree follows a family from the tree lot to a trimming party, in rhyme. Room for a Little One tells the Nativity through animals in a stable, a gentle choice for families who want a faith book.

What makes a toddler Christmas book work

A toddler book works when the child can join in. Look for a refrain to say together, a thing to count, or a light or picture to find. For more ideas outside the season, see our books for 2-year-olds.

Christmas picture books for ages 3 to 6

Christmas picture books are the heart of the season, and this age gets the most choice. Start with two classics and add one modern book a year.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas! by Dr. Seuss came out in 1957.

A Visit from St. Nicholas, the poem most people know as "the night before Christmas," was first printed without a name in the Troy Sentinel on December 23, 1823, and is credited to Clement Clarke Moore. Choose an illustrated edition with art you like.

The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg (1985) won the 1986 Caldecott Medal, and Common Sense Media rates it 4+.

Raymond Briggs gives you two different moods: The Snowman (1978) has no words at all, and his comic-strip Father Christmas (1973), with a Santa who grumbles about the snow, won the Kate Greenaway Medal.

Classics vs modern picture books

Modern picture books add variety to the classics. The Jolly Christmas Postman hides letters and cards in envelope pages, and it won Janet Ahlberg the 1991 Kate Greenaway Medal. Stick Man gets home to his family tree with help from Father Christmas, and Olive, the Other Reindeer stars a dog who mishears a line of the Rudolph song.

For an older preschooler, Red and Lulu follows two cardinals parted when their tree becomes the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.

Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree (1963) passes the top of one tree from a manor house to a bear, an owl and a family of mice. Our books for 5-year-olds list has more picks for this age.

Christmas read-alouds and chapter books for ages 6 to 10

Christmas read-alouds for this age can last a week, a chapter a night. A child of 7 or 8 can also read the shorter ones alone.

Junie B. Jones: Jingle Bells, Batman Smells! is book 25 in Barbara Park's series.

Penguin Random House lists it for ages 6 to 9, and the plot is a Secret Santa swap gone wrong: Junie B. draws tattletale May.

Christmas in Camelot (2001) sends Jack and Annie to King Arthur's court on Christmas Eve; the publisher lists it for ages 7 to 10.

The Story of Holly and Ivy (1958) by Rumer Godden ties a doll in a shop window to an orphan who needs a home.

Letters from Father Christmas collects the illustrated letters Tolkien wrote to his children each Christmas from 1920 to 1943, first published in 1976. The Christmasaurus (2016) by Tom Fletcher takes a boy called William Trundle on a Christmas Eve adventure.

Older picks with a heads-up

Three books here suit the top of the range. Common Sense Media rates A Boy Called Christmas 9+ for its peril, and The Christmas Pig 8+; it follows a boy into the Land of the Lost to find his toy.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is a funny classic, and Common Sense Media rates it 8+ while noting bullying and some dated language. Read it aloud so you can talk about those parts. Save A Christmas Carol for a 9- or 10-year-old, in an abridged edition; see our read-aloud books for kids for longer family reads.

How to set up a book advent calendar

A book advent calendar gives your child one wrapped book every day from December 1 to Christmas Eve. It takes one evening to set up.

1. Count 24 books. One for each day from December 1 to 24, and an extra one for Christmas morning if you like.
2. Shop your own shelves first. Christmas and winter books you already own count, and so do favorites a child has not seen since last year.
3. Borrow from the library. Check out a stack in late November and note the due dates, so the library books go in the first weeks.
4. Add a few new books. Pick two or three from the table above, one per age band if you have siblings.
5. Plan the order. Put short books on busy school nights and the longest book on a weekend or the last days before Christmas.
6. Wrap and mark each one. Plain paper and a small sticker or tag in your own code are enough. Stack them in a basket so the child picks the top one.

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The library trick

Library books make a book advent affordable. Wrap them like the others, and return them after the holidays. Add winter books that are not about Christmas, too; our guide to a winter reading list for kids has ideas.

Your Christmas reading checklist and family tradition

A tradition is a small thing you repeat on purpose. Read the same book on the same night each year, such as A Visit from St. Nicholas on Christmas Eve, and let an older child read one line or one page.

• Pick by age. One or two books from your child's age band in the table, plus one from the band above for a stretch.
• Mix the moods. Funny, cozy, faith or secular, and one book with wonder in it.
• Check the length. Picture books on school nights, chapter books a chapter at a time.
• Count to 24. Own shelves first, then the library, then a few new books.
• Write it down. Keep a list of each year's books inside the cover of a family favorite.

Start the season early with our Thanksgiving books for kids, so reading together is already a habit by December.

A personalized Christmas book gives you one title no shop can sell. KidTeller turns your child's photo into the illustrated hero of a fresh story, written from your own idea typed in free text, such as a sleigh ride to find a lost reindeer.

You can play the narration in your own cloned voice in the app, and order a full-color softcover print that ships to 190+ countries. Printing and shipping take time, so order well before the holidays.