The Best Christmas Books For Kids

The Polar Express Deluxe Gift Package
by Chris Van Allsburg, Liam Neeson (Narrator)
Fifteen years and one Caldecott Medal after its publication, Chris Van Allsburg's The Polar Express is as fresh and magical as ever. And now an anniversary edition, including the hardcover book, a CD and audiotape featuring a reading by actor Liam Neeson and music by composer Michael Moss, and a special bronze ornament designed by Van Allsburg, renews the wonder and charm of this holiday classic. One Christmas Eve, a bathrobe-clad boy boards the mysterious Polar Express train on its way to the North Pole. Arriving in the mystical polar city, the boy is thunderstruck when Santa chooses him to be the recipient of the very first gift of Christmas. Shyly, the boy asks for his true heart's desire--one silver bell from the harness of Santa's reindeer. His wish is granted, and the train begins its return trip. But alas! The boy has a hole in his pocket, and the cherished sleigh bell is lost... forever? Author-illustrator Van Allsburg, who also received the Caldecott Medal for Jumanji and a Caldecott Honor for The Garden of Abdul Gasazi, is a creative talent beyond compare. The timeless splendor of his unique, breathtaking illustrations and quiet story will undoubtedly stay with the reader for a lifetime.


Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree
by Robert Barry
Mr. Willowby, the unwitting hero of this Christmas classic, looks quite a bit like the little mustachioed mascot from Monopoly. But as befits a Yuletide tale, this diminutive millionaire turns out to be a good bit more generous. The Christmas tree in question shows up at Mr. Willowby's home by special order, aboard a big pink truck: "Full and fresh and glistening green--The biggest tree he had ever seen." But it's just a little too big, so he asks his butler, Baxter, to trim off the top few feet that brush up against the parlor ceiling. Baxter realizes that this snipped-off top would make a perfect little tree for "Miss Adelaide, Mr. Willowby's upstairs maid." But she, too, must clip off the top of her tree... which then ends up with Timm, the gardener. Timm's trimming goes on to Barnaby Bear, the tippy-top of Barnaby's tree ends up with Frisky Fox and family, and then Benjamin Rabbit finds the top few inches that Mrs. Fox snipped off. And so it goes, until soon the whole countryside learns that it's simply "grand to have a tree--Exactly like Mr. Willowby." There's many a lesson to be taken from this tale, about recycling and supply-side economics just for starters. But the cheerful illustrations of Robert Barry ensure that you'll have fun just watching as the ever-tinier tree gets passed on to ever-tinier families.