Twelve Days of Christmas Books: Day 12 Birth of Jesus

Celebrating The Twelve Days of Christmas Books

On the 12th day of Christmas Books, obSEUSSed gave to me

12 Holy Bible

11 Nights Before Christmas

10 Fancy Festivities

9 Animal Christmas Books

8 I Spy Christmas Tree Games

7 Santa Stories

6 Nativity Activities

5 Grinch Cookies

A Nutcracker

3 Mitten Trees

2 Snowman Earrings

and the Berenstain Bear Family.

ObSeussed's Number One Christmas story is the birth of Jesus.

We like to read it as a family every Christmas Eve.

It can be found in the Holy Bible.

If you don't have a copy, you can get it on Amazon or read it online here in the book of Luke.

Did you know you can get the Holy Bible on Kindle?

Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men. Wishing you JOY this Christmas Season.

I heard this years ago and I always remember what your priorities are:

J-Jesus

O-Others

Y-Yourself

Merry CHRISTmas.

11th Day of Christmas Books: The Night Before Christmas

Celebrating The Twelve Days of Christmas Books

On the 11th day of Christmas Books, obSEUSSed gave to me

11 Nights Before Christmas

10 Fancy Festivities

9 Animal Christmas Books

8 I Spy Christmas Tree Games

7 Santa Stories

6 Nativity Activities

5 Grinch Cookies

A Nutcracker

3 Mitten Trees

2 Snowman Earrings

and the Berenstain Bear Family.

When I was a little girl my mom helped me memorize the whole story of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" by Clement C. Moore. It was so fun to learn and remember each Christmas. I still remember much of it, with a little help.  There are so many different versions available now. 

My favorite version is the one by Mary Engelbreit.

The illustrations are so vibrant in Engelbreit's classic art style. I found a lesson plan to go with this book at Pivotal Points.

My daughter loved the rhyming poem and pictures but did not like to see that Santa smoked a pipe "with smoke that encircled his head like a wreath." We've recently had several discussions about smoking not being healthy and that it can make you sick. She was very worried that Santa would be hurt from smoking. I told her this was an old story and that he probably doesn't smoke anymore now that the doctors told him it is not healthy. Have any of my readers come across similar issues when reading older books?

These are some of the other versions of the Night Before Christmas: The Teacher's, Librarian's, Pirate's, Soldier's, Nurse's, Dinosaur's and Cajun Night Before Christmas.

See some of them below on the Amazon link (see disclosure on my 'About' page.)

Also, don't forget about The Nightmare Before Christmas, by Tim Burton.  There is a great children's book about the story (see Amazon link above).  Here is the life-size Jack Skellington we made for Halloween. See more about Jack and the book here.

10th day of Christmas Books: Fancy Festivities

Celebrating The Twelve Days of Christmas Books

On the 10th day of Christmas Books, obSEUSSed gave to me

10 Fancy Festivities

9 Animal Christmas Books

8 I Spy Christmas Tree Games

7 Santa Stories

6 Nativity Activities

5 Grinch Cookies

A Nutcracker

3 Mitten Trees

2 Snowman Earrings

and the Berenstain Bear Family.

If you haven't heard of Fancy Nancy by now you must either live under a rock, or you don't have a little girl in your house.  The children's book character, Fancy Nancy, loves to turn the ordinary into extraordinary.  

Here we are at our local library storytime Fancy Nancy Party.  They made fancy masks, gave everyone a bling necklace, had fancy cookies and lemonade in tea cups, had the girls do a fashion walk down a red carpet and dance to fancy music on the stage.

Make sure to add glitter and bling to your holiday decorations and festivities this season just like Fancy Nancy's Splendiferous Christmas.  Nancy says splendiferous is the only word that "describes how magnificent, joyous and sparkly Christmas morning is."  She wants Christmas to be fancy with a special tree topper but when things go wrong her grandpa teaches her how to "make eggnog out of broken eggs."

Fancy Nancy Splendiferous Christmas

The Fancy Nancy book series by Jane O'Conner, illustrated by Robin Glasser, helps introduce new 'fancy' vocabulary to young readers. My 7 yr old and I have loved this series for 4 years. The original hard backs are a little hard for her to read because the font is too fancy but all the easy reader books have been perfect for her.


The Fancy Nancy collection seems to be growing every month with new books popping up every time I go to the store. We are adding Fancy Nancy and the Fabulous Fashion Boutique, The Delectable Cupcake and My Family History to our home library this Christmas.

We bought the cupcake one from our school book fair the fashion boutique from Amazon online after Thanksgiving and the Family History one from our local Barnes and Nobel. I've also seen them in our Scholastic book order, at Target and Wal-mart - I told you they are everywhere.

I'm so excited for the family history one because our family does a lot of research and it introduces some great vocab for young readers, like 'ancestors'.

I am also excited for 'The Delectable Cupcake' as I am crazy about cupcakes, see the Cupcake Conference.

Wishing you a Spendiferous Christmas!
 
Here are some more Fancy Nancy items you can click on for more details.

9th Day of Christmas Books: Animal Christmas Books

Celebrating The Twelve Days of Christmas Books

On the 9th day of Christmas Books, obSEUSSed gave to me

9 Animal Christmas Books

8 I Spy Christmas Tree Games

7 Santa Stories

6 Nativity Activities

5 Grinch Cookies

A Nutcracker

3 Mitten Trees

2 Snowman Earrings

and the Berenstain Bear Family.

This is the bear we saw at Yellowstone this summer. We did not want to get any closer.  This poor bear will probably miss Christmas this year while he is hibernating. 

But the bear from Bear Stays Up (by Karma Wilson) won't miss out because his friends come up with all sorts of activities to keep him busy, in the end the friends fall asleep and Bear makes a surprise for them.

My kids love these books that tell of winter animals experiencing Christmas for the first time. It is a great time to explain hibernation.
Another favorite is Froggy. We love the entire Froggy book series by Jonathan London. Froggy's Best Christmas is about he and his friends that normally miss Christmas but they get to have fun experiencing the festivities all together for the first time.

The Mitten, by Jan Brett, has amazing illustrations. ACTIVITY: You can go to Barnes & Nobel online right now for Storytime where you can hear Jan Brett read this book to your kids.

This next book is a favorite from my childhood.  We all love the Little Critter book series by Mercer Mayer. Merry Christmas Mom and Dad is a classic Little Critter tale where he tries to help his parents for Christmas, but always seems to mess up.  I had this on cassette tape when I was a child and still have it but need to find a cassette player so I can play it for my kids. It is a darling story.

This is a funny book that is part of the Moostache series by Margie Palatini.  This is Mooseltoe (Moostache at Christmas time).

Here are some other Christmas Animal Stories I need to check out.

Humphrey's First Christmas by Carol Heyer. The illustrations look beautiful.(Plus my high school mascot was a camel named Humphrey.)  (Spoiler Alert:) It is a story of a stubborn camel who wants to find his blanket, but ends up giving it to baby Jesus in the end. Great message for your children about giving.

The Crippled Lamb, by Max Lucado.  I love reading the special messages in other Max Lucado books and this one looks amazing about a crippled sheep that feels out of place but has a special role on Christmas Eve, helping children learn that we all have a special purpose in life.

8th Day of Christmas Books: I Spy Christmas Tree Games

Celebrating The Twelve Days of Christmas Books

On the 8th day of Christmas Books, obSEUSSed gave to me

8 I Spy Christmas Tree Games

7 Santa Stories

6 Nativity Activities

5 Grinch Cookies

A Nutcracker

3 Mitten Trees

2 Snowman Earrings

and the Berenstain Bear Family.

Do you see what I see? 

Family Fun Activities:

I SPY CHRISTMAS TREE GAME

Sit with your child and look at your tree together. Describe ornaments to see if they can find it. "I spy a penguin, or I spy a santa on a sleigh." Take turns and try to be very descriptive with colors, shapes or objects they are not familiar with.

CHRISTMAS PICKLE

Have you heard of the Christmas Pickle? It is a old German tradition, read more about it here.

We have a Christmas tradition that whoever finds the pickle ornament first on Christmas Eve, gets to open the first present.  One year my mom couldn't find the ornament so she hung a real pickle for my kids to find (see picture below). I do not recommend doing that.  You can buy an ornament like the one below or select another special ornament of yours to be the hidden one. Or print the free one I designed and cut it out to hide it. 

Free Printable Pickle Ornament to hide



I SPY CHRISTMAS BOOKS:

I Spy Books are a favorite around our house.  The Christmas I Spy books keep our kids entertained for hours. They especially like searching for the Seymour wooden boy in the 'Can You See What I See' book by Walter Wick. They also love the Look-A-Like series.

Linking to Tip Me Tuesday at Tip Junkie

7th Day of Christmas Books: Santa Stories

Celebrating The Twelve Days of Christmas Books

On the 7th day of Christmas Books, obSEUSSed gave to me

7 Santa Stories

6 Nativity Activities (say that quickly 6 times)

5 Grinch Cookies

A Nutcracker

3 Mitten Trees

2 Snowman Earrings

and the Berenstain Bear Family.

I found this Santa Baby suit a few years ago and stored it with our Christmas decorations. Our new baby happened to be the right size for it this year so I took him to see Santa.

SANTA BOOKS

We love reading books about Santa.

One in our collection is 'Santa's Toy Shop'. It is a classic little golden book.

I adore the new version of "Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus."  I need to add that to my collection.

SANTA MUSIC

Everyone remembers the classic 'Santa Baby' song by Eartha Kitt (see below at Amazon) but have you heard the Missy Piggy Muppet Version? It is a great silly version for kids.

SANTA MOVIES

We always have to watch the classic TV shows 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town', 'Rudolph' and 'Frosty the Snowman' so we got the 4 disc Christmas Classics set a few years ago and it has been well used. It also comes with a CD of the soundtrack music.

SANTA ACTIVITIES

FREE Personalized video from Santa: This year we found Santa will email your child a personalized video with pictures of them and other details.  Our kids were amazed to see where Santa lives and to find out he has a new reindeer.  You can see my son's video here for an example (probably won't stay posted past Jan.) but you can create your own at the Portable North Pole.

SANTA'S MAGIC KEY

We don't have a fireplace or chimney so we found an idea online that we have used. The Magic Santa Key.  You leave a key for Santa to get into your house. There are some cute printables with poems to go with this at The Idea Room.

Check these out at your local library or bookstore first. See Amazon disclosure on my 'About' page.

6th Day of Christmas Books: Nativity Activities

Celebrating The Twelve Days of Christmas Books

On the 6th day of Christmas Books, obSEUSSed gave to me

6 Nativity Activities (say that quickly 6 times)

5 Grinch Cookies

A Nutcracker

3 Mitten Trees

2 Snowman Earrings

and the Berenstain Bear Family.

Our family enjoys books and activities about the Nativity during the Christmas Season. After all, it is the Reason for the Season. 
I created this wall hanging Advent Calendar with pockets that hold little 1 inch ornaments. The kids take turns adding an ornament to the tree each night before bed.
I found the ornaments, mini 2-foot tree and tree skirt at Big Lots. The first 12 ornaments are a festive set with Santa, snowflakes, snowmen and more. The ornaments I put in the last 12 pockets are from the Nativity so as we get closer to Christmas we discuss each figure and what they represent. The baby Jesus ornament is in the 25th day pocket so we can add it to the tree on His birthday and remember Him.

I hand stiched the numbers onto felt with embroidery thread, then I sewed the pockets on using an applique stitch. I keep the ornaments in the little box after Christmas.

FAMILY FUN ACTIVITY:

We try to act out the nativity on Christmas Eve as we read the story from the Bible. We use towels on our heads for a quick costume, although my mother-in-law just bought some simple animal costumes from Oriental Trading for us to use this year.

We also love the Little People Nativity set so the kids have a hands on activity to retell the story. (See below with books.)

BOOKS:

Here are some great Nativity books that we have in our collection.

First Day of Christmas with Berenstain Bears

The 12 Days of Christmas Books:
I'm going to attempt to share our favorite Christmas books for the Twelve Days of Christmas. We have 3 huge baskets of them so I'll try to share the classics.

For the First Day of Christmas ObSEUSSed gave to me:
The Berenstain Bear Family

Our 5 and 7 year olds love Berenstain Bears right now. They have a variety of Christmas books.

One of the classics we keep out all year is The Bears' Christmas with lots of fun rhyming. It is part of the Dr. Seuss Beginning Reader collection and is the same size as all the Dr. Seuss hardbound book series.

We just picked up the Berenstain Bears Trim the Tree the other night at Barnes and Noble during Grinch night. The one we got has lift-the-flaps so the kids are loving it.
We also like the Joy of Giving because it helps our kids realize that giving to others can bring them happiness during Christmas too.

I love how all the Berenstain Bears books have morals to the stories. We are on a quest to collect any we find at used book stores. We often find them for 50 cents. I love the newer print ones too that you can grab at the store for under $5.00. Check your library for copies first. Then if you like them shop at your local bookstore or online for a copy. Here are some you might enjoy.



If you live in Utah, remember to enter to win a family pass to Thanksgiving Point from ObSEUSSed by clicking here for more details.

Merry Grinchmas!