Red and Lulu make their nest in a particularly beautiful evergreen tree. It shades them in the hot months and keeps them cozy in the cold months. Once a year the people who live nearby string lights on the tree and sing: O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree. But one day, something unthinkable happens, and Red and Lulu are separated. It will take a miracle for them to find each other again. Fortunately, it’s the season for miracles. 3-7 years
Christmas From Heaven: The True Story of the Berlin Candy Bombers
By Tom Brokaw, Illustrated by Robert T. Barrett
This is the story of the humble beginnings of what became a beacon of hope to a war-torn country. Gail Halvorsen, a young pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps was assigned as a cargo pilot to the Berlin Airlift, in which U.S. forces flew much needed supplies into Soviet-blockaded Berlin. Lt. Halvorsen offers gum to the German children gathered outside the Tempelhof Air Base. He knows they have very little and decides he will bomb Berlin with candy. 5 and up
The Christmas Truce: A True Story of World War I
By Aaron Shepard
Christmas Day, 1914, My dear sister Janet, It is 2:00 in the morning and most of our men are asleep in their dugouts — yet I could not sleep myself before writing to you of the wonderful events of Christmas Eve. In truth, what happened seems almost like a fairy tale, and if I hadn’t been through it myself, I would scarce believe it. Just imagine: While you and the family sang carols before the fire there in London, I did the same with enemy soldiers here on the battlefields of France! 9-12 years
The Carpenter’s Gift: A Christmas Tale About the Rockefeller Center Tree
By David Rubel, Illustrated by Jim LaMarche
The story opens in Depression-era New York City. Eight-year-old Henry and his father are selling Christmas trees. They give a tree to the construction workers building Rockefeller Center. Through the kindness of the construction workers and neighbors, Henry gets his wish for a home to replace his family’s shack. He plants a pinecone from the first Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. It becomes a Christmas tree for Rockefeller Center when Henry is an old man. After Christmas, the tree’s wood is used to build a home for a family in need. 5-9 years
An Invisible Thread Christmas Story
By Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski
Illustrated by Barry Root
Laura Schroff tells the story of the first Christmas that she and Maurice, a boy she met on the street asking for change, spent together. She shares how Maurice gave her a small white bear, and as she later learns, the one thing he had that he could truly call his own, to show her how grateful he was for their friendship. 4-8 years
The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey
By Susan Wojciechowki, Illustrated by P.J. Lynch
Jonathan Toomey is the best woodcarver in the valley, but he is always alone and never smiles. No one knows about the mementos of his lost wife and child that he keeps in an unopened drawer. But one early winter’s day, a widow and her young son approach him with a gentle request that leads to a joyful miracle. 6-9 years
The Family Under the Bridge
By Natalie Savage Carlson
Armand, an old Parisian living on the streets of Paris, relishes his solitary life. He begged and did odd jobs for money to keep himself warm and fed, and he liked his carefree life. Then one day just before Christmas, a struggling mother and her three children walked into his life. Though he tried to ignore their troubles, Armand soon found himself caring for the family and sharing his unusual home with them. It did not take Armand very long to realize that he had a ready-made family; one that he loved with all his heart, and one for whom he would have to find a better home than under the bridge. 8-12 years
Gifts of the Heart
By Patricia Polacco
Richie and Trisha want to buy Christmas gifts for their family, but they don’t have enough money. Enter Kay Lamity, a new housekeeper…but is that all she is? She comes into their lives like a whirlwind, brimming with positive energy and a can-do attitude. Kay not only straightens them out when it comes to whether or not Santa Claus is real, she teaches them something about gifts: the just-good-enough kind that come from the pocketbook and the unforgettable kind that come from the heart. Because of Kay, Trisha and Richie and their family have a Christmas morning they will never forget. 5-8 years
My favorite Christmas book, A Christmas Memory, by Truman Capote. A beautiful book to share with children.
President Teddy Roosevelt, his wife Edith, and their six children celebrated their second Christmas morning in the White House. They opened stockings filled with presents. But no presents were tucked underneath a big, sparkling Christmas tree. There were no Christmas trees in the White House, or so the president thought.
The president’s eight-year-old son Archie had other ideas. He brought a small tree into the White House. He decorated it with presents and hid it in a closet. Archie revealed his big surprise on Christmas morning.
Archie Roosevelt and his pony Algonquin
The president tells the story in a letter to a friend dated December 26, 1902:
“…Yesterday morning at a quarter of seven all the children were up and dressed and began to hammer at the door of their mother’s and my room, in which their six stockings… were hanging from the fireplace. So their mother and I got up, shut the window, lit the fire taking down the stockings of course, put on our wrappers and prepared to admit the children.
But first there was a surprise for me, also for their good mother, for Archie had a little birthday tree of his own which he had rigged up with the help of one of the carpenters in a big closet; and we all had to look at the tree and each of us got a present off of it. There was also one present each for Jack the dog, Tom Quartz the kitten, and Algonquin the pony, whom Archie would no more think of neglecting that I would neglect his brothers and sisters. Then all the children came into our bed and opened their stockings.”
Author Gary Hines imagines the story in full detail in his book, A Christmas Tree in the White House. Archie enlists his younger brother Quentin’s help and the two raise the tree tied to a bed sheet to the second floor. Does the president know?
Theodore Roosevelt with Archie and Quentin
If you like this article, then please consider sharing it and leaving a comment below. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author
The Teddy Roosevelt Family,https://www.whitehousehistory.org/photos/the-theodore-roosevelt-family
Remembering the Christmas Truce of 1914, Albert Moran of the 2nd Queen’s Regiment wrote: “It was a beautiful moonlit night, frost on the ground, white almost everywhere; and…there were those lights — I don’t know what they were. And then they sang Silent Night, Stille Nacht. I shall never forget it. It was one of the highlights of my life.”
From: Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce by Stanley Weintraub.
The lights shining on the parapets — the tops of the German trenches — were candles. Up and down the lines of the Western Front, stretching from the shores of Belgium through France, soldiers sang Christmas carols and exchanged Christmas greetings across No Man’s Land. This was the Christmas truce of 1914, four months after the start of World War I.
German and Allied Soldiers Together
The truce began with the Germans. They lit candles on the parapets and on their Christmas trees. They sang Silent Night. Their Christmas spirit inspired the Allies. The British, French, and Belgian soldiers responded first by shooting flares into the sky and then singing Christmas carols.
Christmas Day Football
Signs went up. The British wrote “Merry Christmas.” The Germans wrote “Happy Christmas.” Men left the trenches and crossed No Man’s Land to greet each other. They exchanged gifts of chocolate, cakes, and tobacco and played games of football together. For a brief time, the joy of Christmas brought peace again to the men in the trenches on the Western Front.
If you like this article, then please consider sharing it and leaving a comment below. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author
On October 3, 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed a proclamation making Thanksgiving a national holiday. It would be celebrated on the last Thursday of November. Soon after the tradition of pardoning a turkey began.
According to a November 2012 article on Smithsonian.com,a live turkey was delivered to the White House for Abraham Lincoln’s family Christmas dinner in late 1863.
Abraham Lincoln’s son Tad, named the turkey Jack. Tad taught Jack to follow him closely as he wandered around the White House grounds. When the time came to turn Jack into Christmas dinner, Tad protested, saying, “He’s a good turkey, and I don’t want him killed.”
Tad Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln always a kind father and a great animal lover, gave in and pardoned Jack. Lincoln’s pardon was the first for a White House turkey. The tradition continues today.
If you like this post, then please consider sharing it and leaving a comment below. Thank you!Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author
