I know there are not enough good religious Christmas books on the market today for kids, but I feel like my kids and I have found some really solid religious Christmas books, both older and newer. Below, I have compiled our favorite religious Christmas books for kids, with review videos for each, so you can both see inside the book and get a feel for the content.
(If you are looking for a full compilation of the best Christmas books for kids, both religious and non-religious books, you can check out my full review HERE.)
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Best Christmas Books for Kids
God Gave Us Christmas / La Navidad es un Regalo de Dios
This is such a great book that teaches children about the true meaning of Christmas. If you are religious, I highly recommend this book! Mama Bear spends the entire book showing Little Cub all of the magic that God has created in this world, and why God is more important than Santa. This book is available in both English and Spanish.
The Legend of the Candy Cane
You will never think of a candy cane the same again after reading this book! This is a magical, religious book that follows a man that comes to town and puts together a candy shop, that includes candy canes. Instead of them just being another candy, he compares them to being the shape of “J” for Jesus, as well as the same shape of a shepherd’s hook and uses it as a way to share the blessings/learnings of Jesus with others.
The Legend of the Poinsettia
This book tells the story of a religious family that is going to help prepare a blanket for baby Jesus for the Christmas mass. However, once the mom gets sick, the girl cannot finish the blanket by herself, and feels compelled to bring something, so she brings weeds, prays over them at church, and it turns the green weeds inside and outside the church into magical, flowering poinsettias! I am also pretty sure that one of the characters is angel-like!
Christmas Time – It’s All About Jesus
A fun religious book to help teach your kids what Christmas is all about. There are lots of bright colors throughout the illustrations, and the book has a rhythm to it, so you can make your reading as enthusiastic as you would like it to be!
Sounding Joy
This is a really fun, joyful Christmas book! It is religious, and compares the sound of joy today to the sound of joy back when Jesus was born, and reminds everyone why we celebrate the joy of Christmas each year. Also, the illustrations are really great, and the kids really gravitate towards the brighter colors!
The Berenstein Bears & the Joy of Giving
Just when Brother and Sister Bear save some extra money for themselves to get more presents for them instead of spending money on each other, they are reminded of what Christmas is really about. And by the end of the book, they decide to take that extra money they had saved for themselves and donate it.
The Berenstein Bears & the Christmas Angel
What starts out as playing in the snow and then building a snow angel turns into learning about angels and then leads into Christmas and the birth of baby Jesus. This is a relatable, religious Christmas book that keeps it fun for the kids.
The Berenstein Bears: The Very First Christmas
This book does just what it says: it tells the story of the very first Christmas. Although, it does it in a very, bear-y way with all of the characters, including Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus as bears!
The Little Drummer Mouse
This is a fun book with great illustrations. It’s about a mouse and his friends preparing for the birth of “royalty” and how they go about and clean the forest and prepare for his coming. At the end, little mouse makes beautiful music after baby Jesus is born, and both him and Mary rejoice in it!
There Was No Snow on Christmas Eve
This story starts out comparing the traditional holiday weather (cold and snowy) with how the weather was during Christmastime when Jesus was born and proceeds to tell the story of Jesus and why all of the angels sand. This isn’t a full retelling and doesn’t have too many words, so it’s a good story to keep your little ones listening and focused.
Jesus is Born
This is a traditional retelling of the nativity story, with really intricate illustrations. There are more words than your average children’s book, but it goes by quickly when I read it with my kids.
The Nativity
This book is a very traditional retelling of the story of the birth of Jesus and how it came to be. It is also very traditional in the way in which you are used to seeing illustrations in the older churches, including with the colors used in the illustrations. I like it because it is a full retelling and the pictures still keep the kids’ interest.
The Nativity
This is another option for the nativity story. Compared to the story above, there are a lot less words and more unique illustrations. So, it really comes down to the type of material that is going to draw your child in.
Advent Storybook
I love this as an alternative to the advent calendar that is focused on candy or other non-religious activities for the month of December. This book has a new story each day of December (before Christmas) that covers a different theme, and then at the end, there is a lesson related to the bible. They are short, catchy and relatable to get and keep your kids’ attention.
I promise these are the best of the best religious Christmas books for kids that are on the market right now. I hope you are able to check them out, and get to experience the joy of these books with your kids, or maybe as a gift for a special little one in your life!
And, if you are looking for some fun Santa or just holiday books in general (not specifically religious), you can check out our favorite overall Christmas books list HERE.