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December 12, 2017

On Our Montessori Bookshelves this Christmas

With Christmas around the corner, one of my favorite things to do with my kids is sit down and read a big pile of Christmas books. If we happen to have a fire in our fireplace and some hot chocolate, even better! Last year, I got a bit tired of reading the same holiday books for more than a month at a time, so this year, I added a few to our collection. With those and a trip to our local library, we have a nice selection of Montessori friendly, and more traditional, books to read from this year! 

2023 update: This is an older post from before we started our Advent Book a Day Tradition. You can read more about how we approach holiday books now in this post on our Advent Book Calendar.


There are so many amazing choices that you can make when it comes to Christmas books. As a Montessori family we try to avoid too much fantasy, and stick to real stories about celebrating the holiday. 

Montessori friendly Christmas books for children


Montessori Friendly Christmas Book Ideas for the Home


In case anyone is looking for some Montessori friendly options for Christmas, I thought I would share the Montessori friendly Christmas books that are on our shelves this year! 





* These books include fantasy and maybe more suited for children in the Second Plane of Development


You may notice that we do have some Christmas classics involving Santa on our shelves as well. In our family, we do have Santa as part of our tradition. We have chosen not to lie to our kids. Our children know that Santa is not real but that it is a fun game that we play together. We tell stories of Santa, read books about him. But, it is not a real thing. You can learn more about how we approach Santa in this episode of Shelf Help

Is reading part of your holiday traditions? Which Christmas books are your favorites? 


12 Months of Montessori

This post was brought to you as part of the 12 Months of Montessori series! This month's theme is holiday! Don't miss these other Montessori and Montessori Inspired posts for the month! 


Find the perfect Christmas books for your little ones. Our Montessori approved list features books that are not only fun but also educational and grounded in reality. Discover our top picks for Montessori friendly Christmas books on our shelves this year. Perfect





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Comments

Christina @ montessoriishmom.com
My son is only one, but we've been thinking of doing something similar with Santa. I don't like the idea of lying to him, but I also have the best memories of believing in Santa as a child. We're planning on just not making Santa the focus and seeing what happens!
Unknown
Unknown said…
I know it would probably take tons more time, but I'd love if you could share a little bit about the books you love (maybe not all of them). I'm always excited for your book posts, but then when it's just the title I'm not really sure if it's something we would like or not...just a thought!
Nicole @ The Kavanaugh Report
I link to amazon because almost all of the books will have a preview there if you are on a computer. So it actually lets you page through the books. But I will keep this in mind in the future.
Nicole @ The Kavanaugh Report
Yes, we just keep is casual. We started the Santa thing before we knew about Montessori so it’s harder for our families to let go then us. We do all the fun parts of it, but I make sure to say “it’s a fun story” and not that it’s specifically real. But we also don’t talk that it’s specifically fake. Henry is at the point where he is starting to really think critically about it. He has also already asked about the tooth fairy and Easter Bunny and we have been honest with him, but still keep the traditions even when he knows it’s us.
Allison
Allison said…
We have always talked about Father Christmas as a fun story and game we play (which was very natural when we were living overseas and I explained that they told a different holiday story -- Sinterklaas). Some of our favourites are The Raymond Briggs Father Christmas (and the sequel where he goes on holiday), The Jolly Christmas Postman, Peter and Lotta's Christmas (Swedish so features the Christmas goat and we also liked that it becomes clear to the children in the story that the Christmas Goat was a fun game but not really Real), Lucia and the Light, The Snowy Day, and The Cat on the Dovrefell. Almost all of these have fantasy elements, so not especially classic Montessori but we have never been strict on that aspect and there are many good discussions to be had at xmas as they get older about what is real and what is pretend and what others might believe differently.
Allison
Allison said…
Oh and "What a Mess and the Cat Next Door" is a favourite from my childhood.