Christmas Poetry Teatime Books

We love Poetry Teatime around here, but for all of our good intentions, it got pushed to the side too often this Fall. December has seen the sweetest resurgence and truthfully it’s been just what we needed. It’s calming and centering in the midst of the frenetic energy my two boys possess this month. You can read how we got started with poetry teatime here, and our first favorite poetry books here.

We have read all of the books below in our December Poetry Teatimes. Although they may not all be strictly considered poetry, they are all lyrical and fit quite well.

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Today they kept their hands busy creating snowmen and snowflakes out of marshmallows and toothpicks (and also mapping out a garden plot, because, four year olds…) while I read aloud. #peace

 

• Song of the Stars by Sally Lloyd Jones. From the author of one of our favorite story bibles (The Jesus Storybook Bible), comes this Christmas book told in lyric text: “The world was about to change forever. And it almost went by unnoticed…” The excitement and anticipation of creation around the world builds as the animals cry out “It’s time! It’s time!… The One who made us has come to live with us!” The nativity story is not told from start to finish, but rather the enormity of God’s coming to be born amongst us is celebrated.

• The Christmas Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood. Who couldn’t use some nice examples of quiet in December? Beautiful, soft illustrations beside examples of peaceful holiday moments: “Mysterious bundles quiet… Knocking with mittens quiet… Nutcracker quiet… Lights on [the tree] quiet…”

• My First Oxford Book of Christmas Poems compiled by John Foster. A 90-page, color- illustrated volume of classic poetry by poets such as Sara Coleridge, A.A. Milne, Langston Hughes, Longfellow.  The illustrations are young, but the poetry will grow with your bookworms. 

A simple, sweet addition to one of our teatimes was a dice “game” in which they took turns rolling the die and decorating their gingerbread men with that many craisins; when their man was complete with eyes, buttons, hands, feet, etc they got to eat them up. Idea adapted from our beloved curriculum, A Year of Playing Skillfully which you can read our experience with here.  Also, we rather love the Gingerbread Man, as evidenced by our recent “bookish birthday” theme! 

• Santa Clauses by Bob Raczka. While you can read this cover to cover, it is broken into 25 days of haiku poems that could be read each day leading to Christmas. They are penned by Santa/Bob Raczka (who, incidentally, wrote a Fall fave of ours, Fall Mixed Up) and each poem describes something Santa encounters that day as he is preparing for the big day. 

• Christmas Cookies by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. This is lovely and warm and basically just like a cookie in book form. It’s one of four in the “cookies” series which I included in my character ed shelf at the library for their tangible, yummy application to various traits: “Perseverance means, We tried and tried and tried and finally made the perfect, not-burned batch…. Appreciative means, Thank you so so much for taking the time to bake with me.” 

• The Night Before Christmas by Clement Moore. I dedicated a whole post to this classic. This is one of the first poems I read to my young bookworms, and it’s such a delight. There are a million versions (fortunately they should all be filed on the same shelf in your library, by author, for easy browsing). 

• Little Tree poem by e.e.cummings; story and paintings by Chris Raschka.  This book opens with the text of the poem by e.e.cummings (on a single page), followed by a story inspired by that text. Both explore the journey of a little tree from its beginnings in the forest to its place of honor in a family home. (Out of print. Look for this at your library; I wouldn’t personally pay $54 for this.)

• Winter Lights: A Season in Poems and Quilts by Anna Grossnickle Hines. This is not solely a Christmas book but also includes poems about Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, the Feast of Saint Lucia, and Chinese New Year. It didn’t keep the attention of my youngish bookworms, but is a lovely option for older listeners. 

Do you have any favorite holiday poetry books? I’d love to hear! Connect with me in the comments below, on my Facebook page, or on my Instagram account. This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.