It’s Christmas picture book time!!!! I’m so excited!!! Here are just some of the books I’ve collected through the decades of being a mom, picture book lover, and Christmas fan.

Most of these books I found at thrift stores. Some were borrowed from the public library. The picture below shows my latest finds. I read these books aloud for Morning Basket time and then when the grandchildren visit.

I have my original list, titled “Beyond Polar Express” here. (Does anyone else think Polar Express is way overrated, if not downright creepy to have children traveling without parents?)

Then over here on my companion website, I have a bigger list. (Ignore the ad for the calendar, it’s outdated. I’ll be publishing a new one for 2026 soon.)

Then watch these videos on this post to find even more suggestions that I haven’t added to the list on the website yet.

Some people like to read one picture book a day for Advent, where they wrap each picture book, put them under the tree, and unwrap one a day. That’s too much work for me, such that I only could manage that one year, when my children were all at home. My children didn’t care about unwrapping them and being surprised so that was great. Less work for me! Ever since then we’ve just read one or two a day that I kept in a basket. But this year I’m going to decorate with them, after discovering my seasonal/holiday books fit into grooves on the ledges above my front room windows, last Independence Day. So ever since then I’ve been decorating for different holidays with my picture books! Anyway, my married daughter does a shortcut to wrapping by popping the books in simple brown gift bags she decorated. Go here to learn about that. Then she hangs them to keep them inaccessible from the little boys until the appointed time to read aloud. She got the bags on amazon.

Merry Bookmas! Because of Christ and Christmas picture books, the world is abundant!