Pan Macmillan has a wonderful range of fun Christmas books that will make fantastic presents for your children this year. Whether they find them wrapped up under your special tree early on Christmas morning, or you choose to share some reading time together with a new Christmas book before then, there’s something for everyone to enjoy this holiday.
Here’s my top picks of the new children’s Christmas books available from Pan Macmillan, I hope you enjoy some extra special reading time with your family this festive season.
Santa Selfie
Santa takes a break from the chilly North Pole and the hard work of Christmas to go on a warm holiday, leaving the delivery of presents to his trusty elves. But poor ol’ Santa has a hard time relaxing, and whether he’s doing yoga or swimming on the cruise ship or taking in the sights of Paris or Sydney, he’s recognised wherever he goes and his starstruck fans ask for selfies.
Santa Selfie is a fun festive book that is guaranteed to make your children (and you) giggle. Filled with rhyming verse and colourful illustrations, as well as a bonus pull-out photo frame with Santa and Elf, this is a must-have for your Christmas!
Merry Christmas Hugless Douglas
Hugless Douglas won our hearts in The Great Cake Bake earlier this year. This new title doesn’t disappoint, bringing a smile to my little girl’s face each time we read it and quickly earning a spot as one of the most requested bedtime stories.
This time around Douglas is excited for Christmas and no surprise that he’s full of hugs! After a brief snowball fight with his friends and stopping to build an interesting snowman, they meet Rudi the reindeer. The new friends set out on an adventure that includes decorating their own tree and making snow angels.
Merry Christmas Hugless Douglas is filled with beautiful brightly coloured illustrations that bring this fun Christmas tale to life. Your children will also love the fun list of things to do at Christmas time at the end of the book, and it’s never too late to start the suggested Advent Hug Jar either. My fondness for this huggable, loveable bear has just grown even further!
Say Hello to the Snowy Animals
A wonderful snowy tale that sees little husky visiting his animal friends in the land of ice and snow. Children will delight to meet a polar beer, snowy owl, a whale and more as they journey through the winter wonderland. You’ll have fun learning the animals’ sounds together, and it won’t be long before they’re calling them out with you.
It’s a beautiful book, featuring a pretty glittery cover and brightly coloured illustrations of friendly looking animals inside. The rhyming story is a big hit in our home, making this a highly recommended Christmas story!
Guess How Much I Love You in the Winter
There’s not many moms who don’t measure their love for their children in the “love you to the moon and back” quantity. What some of you may not know is that this popular and sweet saying is from the Guess How Much I Love You book. You learn something new every day!
This is a new story from the creators of that book, and sees the Nutbrown Hares playing ‘I Spy’ in the winter snow. Little Nutbrown Hare spies something that belongs to a tree, next up it’s Big Nutbrown Hare’s turn to spy something that belongs to a spider. Your children will love guessing from the clues the hares give, and they will enjoy the sweet end to the story too. It’s beautifully illustrated with a glittery snowy cover, and will tempt you to check out the other three seasonal stories in this series too.
Santa Claude
Santa Claude is a fun story that sees Claude the dog, who wears a jaunty jumper and a very snazzy beret, getting into a spot of bother on Christmas Eve. He mistakenly handcuffs Santa Claus when he thinks he’s a burglar, and must now help to deliver all the presents for him. Luckily he’s not alone on this adventure, he has his best friend Sir Bobblysock (who is a very bobbly sock in case you were wondering) to help him whoosh down chimneys.
Will they deliver the presents before midnight? Will they be back home at Waggy Avenue before Mr and Mrs Shinyshoes return? You’ll just have to read Santa Claude to find out! It’s a humorous book with lovely colourful illustrations to help bring the festive tale to life. I can’t wait to read the other titles in the Claude series to my daughter, I’m sure I will enjoy them as much as she will!
Christmas Stories and Carols CD
This is a wonderful collection of festive stories and carols for your kiddies to enjoy this Christmas. It keeps the children happily occupied for almost 50 minutes, and is also a great choice for playing in the car or at home.
The audio CD includes five stories, and with The Nativity Story, The Nutcracker & The Mouse King, A Christmas Carol, The Snow Queen, and The Night before Christmas it really makes for captivating listening. The stories are read by popular children’s TV presenters Derek Griffiths and Katy Ashworth, and include delightful sound effects and music that will make this a popular choice.
The carols are beautifully sung and it’s great to hear your little ones singing them and understanding the real reason for the season. Some of my favourites are Away in a Manger, We Three Kings, Deck the Halls, We Wish you a Merry Christmas and Jingle Bells. Christmas Stories and Carols gets a thumbs-up from this mom, and is a must-buy for this holiday, either for your family to enjoy together or to pass on the Christmas spirit to friends.
Busy Nativity
Busy Nativity is a wonderful first story of Christmas for toddlers to enjoy. This board book features push, pull and slide mechanisms for little ones to help bring the story of the first Christmas to life.
The story is presented simply, in a way that kiddies will be able to understand it. Each page features different tabs to be pushed, pulled and slid to show Mary and Joseph traveling on the donkey to Bethlehem, the animals in the stable, and they will even be able to rock baby Jesus in the manger! The book is filled with beautifully coloured pictures which help to tell the story of Christmas, and accompany the rhyming text. It would make a wonderful present for any little one this Christmas time to teach them about the real reason for the season.
Christmas Fairy Tale Mix-up
If you’re looking for a fun, imaginative Christmas book that will have your children laughing as they create their own festive fairy tales look no further than Christmas Fairy Tale Mix-up. You’ll be able to create hundreds of different mixed-up stories featuring your favourite Christmas and fairy tale characters with this split-page, spiral bound book.
Little Red Riding Hood crossed the bridge singing Jingle Bells with a festive elf. Snow White baked three delicious Christmas cake which were eaten by a handsome prince in a Christmas jumper. Aladdin went to buy a special present for the Big Bad Wolf. Anything is possible with Christmas Fairy Tale Mix-up! Just flip the flaps and create your own mixed-up story.
For kids that can read this will provide hours of fun, but even if they can’t read yet they will enjoy making up stories to go along with the brightly coloured humourous pictures that bring this book to life.
Christmas Treats
This is a collection of over 25 festive short stories by Enid Blyton. Children will enjoy the different Christmas themed stories, which each feature a lesson to be learned too. From the rocking horse who learns the gift of giving at Santa’s Workshop to a snowman called Mr Icy-Cold who helps his new friend elves to fix their broken sleigh, the short stories are perfect to read to little ones in the lead-up to Christmas. It would also make a great stocking filler for children who are able to read alone.
Christmas Treats is a wonderful introduction to Enid Blyton’s classic stories and if you enjoy it as much as I did then you’ll want to keep an eye out for more of Blyton’s short stories in Christmas Stories and Christmas Tales.
These new Christmas books are now available from bookstores and online retailers. The recommended retail prices follow below. Don’t miss my gallery of photos to get a peek inside each book too.
Merry Christmas Hugless Douglas (R160), Hello from the Snowy Animals (R145), Guess How Much I love you in the Winter (R140), Santa Claude (R140), Christmas Stories and Carols CD (R150), Busy Nativity (R95), Christmas Fairy Tale Mix-up (R310), Christmas Treats (R160), Santa Selfie (R145).
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