Christmas Books for Kids

Why it worksThis is the nativity, and it is told entirely by the stable animals tidying up for a guest they have not been told the name of - Mouse sweeps, Sheep fluffs the hay, and the last spread is Mary and Joseph arriving. Religious, but the theology is one page long and the other thirteen are animals doing chores in rhyme, so it works as a plain animal book too.

Worth knowingExplicitly a nativity story, which some families want and some do not - it is not signalled anywhere on the cover, so buy it knowing that.

Why it worksBlue delivers five Christmas trees to five friends, the child counts down the trees left on the flatbed, and the final page lights up for real - a battery-lit tree on the last spread, which is the closest a board book gets to a firework. Secular; no nativity, no church, just trees and animal noises.

Worth knowingThe lights are the whole event and the batteries are not replaceable in most copies, so it has a lifespan. Also the reason a toddler will demand it in July.

Why it worksMouse creeps round a dark house at night finding one Christmas thing at a time - 'What could it be?' - and the answer is always a single named object: a wreath, a stocking, a candy cane. It is a vocabulary book disguised as a hunt, and the question repeats so exactly that a two-year-old answers it before you turn.

Worth knowingNo story arc, just a sequence of objects, so re-reads live entirely on the guessing game. Once the child knows every answer the book is finished. Secular.

Why it worksDuck gets stuck in the chimney in a Santa suit and the rest of the farm animals stage an increasingly stupid rescue, each one getting stuck on top of the last. The typed notes and the 'click, clack' refrain give the child a line to say, and the pile-up in the fireplace is a visual joke that needs no reading at all. Secular start to finish.

Worth knowingIt assumes you already know Duck from Click, Clack, Moo - the character's whole personality is the setup, and a child meeting him here first will find the plot arbitrary.

Why it worksMaisy's friends set out for her house one by one and each gets stuck, lost or snowed under on the way, so the child tracks who is still missing right up to the last knock. Cousins keeps the sentences to one clause, which is why it holds a two-year-old that a longer Christmas story loses. Secular.

Worth knowingCharley being alone in the snow worries some children more than the book expects; he is found within a spread, which is worth saying up front.

Why it worksKind Ox says 'There's always room for a little one here' to a stray dog, a cat, a mouse and finally to Mary and Joseph - the same sentence, six times, so the child says it with you. Religious: it is the nativity, though the word Jesus never appears and the baby arrives on the last page. The line is the point, and it works as a hospitality book in a house that does not do Christmas religiously.

Worth knowingA nativity story, unlabelled as one on the jacket. The dark stable art is beautiful but very dim, which makes it hard to share with a group.

Why it worksIt is written in second person and in the imperative - pick a tree, haul it home, hang the baubles, call the neighbours in - so the book is instructions the child is carrying out rather than a story happening to somebody else. Nothing is celebrated except decorating a tree with people you like; entirely secular.

Worth knowingThere is no plot and no conflict at all, which is exactly why it settles a child down and exactly why some four-year-olds shrug at it.

Why it worksThe only Christmas book on this list about the actual problem of December - too much shopping, too much waiting, and a child who finally melts down in a heap of wrapping paper. The meltdown gets a full spread and Mama's answer is 'Gifts are nice, but there's another: The true gift is we have each other.' Secular. Read it in the week before, not on the day.

Worth knowingNot a book to reach for while the child is already overtired - it names the tantrum so precisely that some children get louder before they get calmer.

Why it worksBear's friends keep him awake through the night to bake, hunt a tree and fill stockings, and 'but the bear stays up!' lands at the end of every stretch for the child to shout. He then gives everything away and finds his own stocking full - a giving story with no religion in it at all.

Worth knowingThe rhyme is bouncy but the vocabulary stretches - larder, wren, hare - so first-time listeners under three will need a couple of asides.

Why it worksThe metre is so strong that a four-year-old who cannot follow a single sentence of it will still sit through the whole thing - and the reindeer roll-call is the part they learn first and recite in the car. Brett's borders run a second, wordless story alongside the poem, which is what gives it re-reads once the words are familiar. Secular; the poem is about Santa, not the nativity.

Worth knowingThe 1823 vocabulary is genuinely hard - kerchief, coursers, sugar-plums, the breast of the new-fallen snow - so expect to be interrupted, or accept that the sound is carrying it rather than the sense.

Why it worksEach truck finishes the firehouse, hands over its work to the next one and finds a wrapped present waiting - so the structure is the same one-truck-per-spread rhythm a vehicle-obsessed child already knows from Goodnight, Goodnight, and the gift is the page turn. Secular; nothing here but trucks, snow and parcels.

Worth knowingLonger and wordier than the original, and the emotional beat - each truck retiring to a new machine - goes over the heads of most three-year-olds.

Why it worksThe longest book in this set by a distance, and the argument it makes - Christmas came without packages, boxes or bags - is one a five-year-old can actually hold and repeat. Seuss front-loads the villainy so the first half is funny rather than moral, which is why children sit through 1,355 words of it. Secular.

Worth knowingAt 1,355 words this is a twelve-minute read and it will not fit into a rushed bedtime - split it at the sleigh going up the mountain. Cindy-Lou Who being lied to by an adult upsets a small number of children more than the theft does.