8 Christmas Books for Toddlers and Preschoolers
Eeeeeep!! It’s finally here!! Christmas time!! Goodness sake, seriously the happiest, coziest, most joyful time of the ENTIRE year in my opinion. I honestly could have bought SO many more books for my little guy and I to read together, but I narrowed it down to my favorite 8 to share here. So, here are my current favorite Christmas picture books for toddlers and preschoolers…but I’ll probably need to add more favorites super soon. Haha! Just click the title or matching picture to check out the book!
Also…SPOILER ALERT: I’ll give a quick synopsis of what each book is about. So just so I don’t spoil any part of the stories for you, you’ve been fairly warned. Haha! :)
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1. Little Blue Truck’s Christmas
If your little one loves the other Little Blue Truck books, this one will NOT disappoint! It’s all about how Little Blue Truck has a job every Christmas to deliver Christmas trees! He starts with 5 trees and one by one gives them to his friends until he has just one left, which he keeps for himself and Toad. ANNNNDDDD…the last page of this book has twinkle lights on it, which Ethan is just OBSESSED WITH. Haha!
This book is perfect for practicing number identification, noticing rhyming, and even very basic, early subtraction skills and concepts!
This one isn’t a story, but it has a TON of amazing Christmas related words and pictures in it that are great for expanding your little one’s vocabulary. There are words for winter, decorations, clothes, things on the tree, craft supplies, food, sweet treats, holiday time activities, words about Santa, toys, and the night before Christmas.
I love this book for growing your little learner’s vocabulary, identifying objects and their colors or positions, and making connections! This is a great one for teaching kiddos to connect the pictures to things they’ve seen in their own lives. Ethan’s favorite new thing to say when he sees something that he also has is “oooh, Ethie too!” It’s the cutest. Haha!
First of all, this is a super cute story. Secondly, it comes with STICKERS…INSTANT kid winner! :) Anyway, this is the story of Oliver the elf who is the littlest in his family. He needs to go around to all the different shops at the North Pole to see which one “fits” him best to work in. So, he visits all the shops, but ends up feeling sad because he is too little to do any of the jobs. But, he ends up meeting a very special, very LITTLE reindeer who needs cheering up and finds that he is big enough to make small, special gifts for the elves around the North Pole, finally finding the perfect fit.
I love this story for encouraging each little one in their current abilities, no matter what they are. :) This is a perfect book for reminding your little one that, even though they’re little, they’re not too little for EVERYTHING and that they have special jobs they can do too. It’s also a good one for teaching perseverance and determination and creativity. AND…it’s part of a series of books about the “littlest” of a lot of things. You can also grab The Littlest Reindeer, The Littlest Pilgrim, or The Littlest Valentine and many others for other holidays too!
This book about the “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” mouse is perfect for counting! It’s super simple and just shows Mouse putting ONE type of ornament on the tree, TWO of another kind, THREE of a different kind, and so on. The illustrations are super cute as always and it wraps up with a simple “Merry Christmas, Mouse!”.
While this book is really simple, it’s totally amazing for one-to-one correspondence, counting, and identifying objects. Your little one could reenact the book with their own ornaments or even just use pom poms or erasers to show the numbers on each page. Easy peasy number sense practice for sure!
This sweet book is told from the perspective of things that would have been found in the manger of baby Jesus, like the star, the shepherds, and Mary. They tell who they are and what their role was during the special time of Jesus’ birth.
I love this book for noticing rhyming words and telling a super simple story of the very first Christmas. This book would be perfect to retell with a Nativity sensory bin activity, like this one.
Who doesn’t love Christmas cookies?! This is a really cute little story about a mama bear and baby bear making Christmas cookies together! It takes you through all the steps from mixing the ingredients, rolling out the dough, cutting and baking the cookies, and finally decorating them.
This story is perfect for practicing sequencing, recognizing shapes, and following directions. I love that you can use this book as a springboard for actually doing the same things the bears do in the book too! We’ll definitely be reading this one when we make and decorate our own cookies this year.
Christmas ABC is an alphabet book with a Christmas related word for each letter of the alphabet! Super simple, but so perfect for toddlers and preschoolers who are starting to get interested in letter knowledge.
This book would is great for practicing skills like letter recognition, letter sounds, and alphabetical order. Ooh, and I have a perfect Christmas alphabet freebie to go along with it to practice Christmasy letter recognition. Just click here to sign up and get access to my Free Resource Library with a ton of exclusive freebies!
Oh, another Llama Llama book! We are big fans in this house. Haha! Anyway, this one tells about lots of things that many people do at Christmas time, like baking cookies, giving gifts, and singing songs. It’s told in the normal “Llama Llama” rhyming rhythm and ends on Christmas morning with “Llama Llama, jingle bells!”.
As always, this one is good for noticing rhyming again! It’s also a fun one for little ones to make connections to their own worlds with. Love these little llama books!
Hope these book recommendations for littles help make Christmas even cozier and happier in your home! :) And, I LOVE including your suggestions in these kinds of posts when I can! So, if you have a Christmas book that’s perfect for little ones, please drop a comment and let me know. :)
Sending you lots of Christmas cheer, friend!
