Celebrate the season with these kid's holiday books

Celebrate Hanukkah by Deborah Heiligman

Families gather to sing songs, exchange fits, and remember

miracles that happened long ago.

Hanukkah is one of the most joyous holidays on the Jewish calendar, 

in in this book readers find out why.

Author Deborah Heiligman looks at how Jews from the

United States to Israel to Africa and India celebrate the

"Festival of Lights."

The Shortest Day by Wendy Pfeffer

Winter begins on the shortest day of the year, on or about 

December 21.  On short winter days, children walking home

from school drag long shadow behind them.  On long

winter nights, families eat dinner while it's dark outside.

Long agao, people grew afraid when each day had fewer

hours of sunshine than the day before.  Over time, they

realized that one day each year the sun seemed to stop

moving away and then started moving back toward them.

They celebrated this day by exchanging presents and decorating

their houses with evergreens.  Today people still celebrate the

winter solstice, not because they worry that the sun will disappear,

but because they know the days will get longer again.  They

celebrate because it's a new beginning.

Christmas Remembered by Tomie  dePaola

In this wonderful Christmas memoir, Tomie dePaola shares

his love of the season in fifteen vivid memories spanning six

decades filled with delightful twists and turns.

In the thirties at age three, Tomie watched his Irish-Italian family

and their friends prepare for and joyously celebrate the holidays.

It was no wonder that Christmas became his favorite time of the year.

Wherever he lived - as a teenager in Meriden, Connecticut, an art

student in Brooklyn, a novice monk at Weston Priory in Vermont, an

artist and professor San Francisco, or an artist and author in New

Hampshire - Tomie's enthusiasm for the Christmas season was

constant and infectious.

The Family Read-Aloud Christmas Treasury selected by Alice Low

Rejoice! Here is an irresistible celebration of the 

glory of Christmas, filled with all the sights, sounds, and

smells that make this holiday so special.  Well-loved poets

Jack Prelutsky, David McCord, A.A. Milne, E.E. Cummings, and

John Updike bring to life the quiet cheer of snowy days, the joys

of a brand new sled, the thrill of choosing and decorating the perfect

Christmas tree, the mysterious arrival of Santa Claus and his elves, and

of course, the delicious aromas of freshly baked Christmas cakes, apple

pies, and plum puddings. Families can join in their favorite carols and

songs, from "Away in a Manger" to "The Twelve Days of Christmas,"

and read aloud from more than fifty poems and stories, such as

Clement Clarke Moore's timeless "A Visit from St. Nicholas" and

the Christmas pageant from Beverly Cleary's popular Ramona and her Father.