Kids can pass the time until Christmas with family treasury
How many days left?
Have you been counting them? You probably know the exact number already because you’ve asked Mom or Dad many times. How many days ‘til Christmas?
You’re very excited. You can hardly wait. So maybe you should spend some of that wait-time with “The Family Christmas Treasury.”
Like most kids, you love it when someone reads one of your favorite Christmas stories aloud. You probably enjoy singing Christmas carols, too. “The Family Christmas Treasury” will help you do both by including the words to some of those songs you love, along with several holiday story favorites.
What, for instance, happens when a curious monkey decides to see how many trees are in a Christmas Tree Farm? In the first story here, “Merry Christmas, Curious George” by Margret and H.A. Rey, the man with the yellow hat loses his little best friend while looking for a holiday tree.
But George is just fine! He’s found another adventure, of course, and he makes a very big mess. George has also made new friends — including a jolly one who’s wearing a fuzzy red suit.
During the holidays, your family all joins together, along with friends and other people you love. But what if someone was missing? In “Lyle at Christmas” by Bernard Waber, everyone’s favorite crocodile prepares to spend the holidays with the Primm family, Lyle’s mom and Bird, but something’s wrong in the neighborhood.
Old Mr. Grumps just can’t get into the holiday spirit. He’s sad and no matter how hard everybody works to cheer him up, he still has the “holiday blahs.” It gets so bad that Mr. Grumps’ cat, Loretta, runs away.
Christmas just isn’t the same without Loretta, though. Mr. Grumps becomes even sadder, which Lyle just hates. He would do anything to fix it — and so he does!
Everybody in the little town of Calabria waits eagerly for their Christmas Eve feast. It’s held at Strega Nona’s house on the hill… but this year, there’s a problem. In “Merry Christmas, Strega Nona” by Tomie de Paola, the feast might have to be canceled! Is there anyone who can save it?
Is there anything your child loves better than a modern Christmas classic about now? If not, well, then you need “The Family Christmas Treasury” because it’s filled with classics of all kinds.
Not only will kids find eight stories that feature characters they love — characters like Lyle the Crocodile, Curious George, Santa, Tacky the Penguin, and others — but this book also includes lyrics and music to eight Christmas carols that will surely be familiar to your whole family.
And if you’ve somehow escaped hearing those Christmas songs, there’s a CD included with this book and a code for free downloads, too. That’s a bonus no child will be able to resist.
If there’s an eager 2- to 7-year-old in your house who’s eager for the holiday to finally arrive, here’s the book to have around. For both of you, “The Family Christmas Treasury” is one you won’t want to be left without.
View publishes Terri Schlichenmeyer’s reviews of books for children weekly.