thursday night after yoga i went to a bookstore and sat in the children’s section and read a pile of new christmas books for children. i do this every year. every year since i used to work in a bookstore in deerfield, illinois while taido was in seminary. one december when i was working late… sidenote: everyone should have to work retail during the holidays at least once. i fully believe that i am both nicer in stores during the holidays and i buy less as a result of working retail for three holiday seasons on the north shore of chicago and being treated like cow dung by wealthy holiday shoppers…end of sidenote. so, one night i had the good fortune to be working late in the children’s section and i was reading christmas books for children. this book had just come out that year and it made me cry and feel happy and sappy and all warm inside. and the illustrations were as lovely as the story. as i sat in the children’s section upstairs in the corner reading, i decided that i would go ahead and buy that book. and one day when i had children i would read it to them every year at christmas. in fact, i would read them all the fun christmas stories i could find. i think this might be about the only thing that i said i would do as a parent before i actually had children that i have managed to follow through on. unlike my commitment to never use pacifiers. i am very patient with people without children who say, when i have children, i won’t ever… because, ahem, i used to be one of those people. such grandiose ideas. outrageous expectations.

anyway, reading christmas stories at christmas is absolutely my favorite holiday tradition. i have a whole tub of books in one of those red and green storage boxes and i get them out for the whole month of december and we read and read them. over and over. when i get that tub out, i will list them all for you, but this one is the best. some are very silly. but most have been carefully chosen with love, just like this week when i read and read christmas stories and then came home and ordered these three. it was hard to choose, but these are the additions to our christmas box of stories for this year.

angela and the baby jesus by frank mccourt

toot and puddle: let it snow by holly hobbie

the all i’ll ever want for christmas doll by patricia k. mckissack

who knew that frank mccourt could take his mother’s sad stories and create something so sweet for children? and toot and puddle are just staples in our house. plus, hollie hobbie says this is the last one. she’s saying goodbye to the characters and moving on to something new. so of course, sweet little opal has to make a final appearance. the last book is sweet in a way that mary polly will just get. and i love that about her. it is set during the depression and the christmas morning treats include things like fruit and nuts. three sisters have to work through a squabble over the little that there is. which just seems real to me. a fight on christmas morning with your siblings. but you’ll love how this fight ends. even better is that the parents make the sisters work it out on their own without their help.

a close runner up was great joy by kate dicamillo. i’m just so excited that she wrote a book for christmas that i almost bought it without even reading it. but i’m saving it for next year, mostly because it’s about a girl and already two out of three of my books for this year center around girls. and i couldn’t give up either of them.

so when my package arrives, i will wrap them all up and we’ll open them up one cold night when our hearts are ready to be warmed with new stories.