Christmas Reads thanks to Scholastic


This house loves Christmas and I think it is due to the fact that my Mum was so into Christmas and would fully deck the halls as some may like to call it. Our house was always covered in lights (which I now do) and the tree was always up in November as she couldn’t wait until December and if I am honest last year our tree was up in the end of November as well.

Reading in December is ALWAYS fun as this is when the festive books get purchased or taken off the shelves for reading. This year reading is even more exciting now as my eldest Hayley has learnt how to read in school, she is one of the best in her class- even I am amazed at how well she reads.



This year thanks to SCHOLASTIC we have been given a beautiful array of books for the girls. I was going to make this a top three, but I couldn’t half the numbers as all 6 of these festive books are adorable and a MUST READ! Most of these the girls have not seen though as I want to keep it a secret and starting to purchase and collect a book a day for December Christmas Reads to get the girls super excited for Santy Clause to visit.

The first book is
Santa’s Busy Reindeer $16.99
Author: Ed Allen          Illustrator: Nathaniel Eckstrom


This is a super cute book that rhymes and makes you want to sing the words out rather then read.

It is a take on the glass bottles sitting on a wall song, only this version is cuter with everything Christmas included.

The images in this book are just phenomenal and Nathaniel works with digital, pencil and oil painting on canvas to really make this book come alive.



My favourite from the book would be-
“Three of Santa’s reindeer were baking Christmas food,
but when one of those reindeer stomped off in a bad mood,
there were two of Santa’s reindeer left baking Christmas food.”

This page here reminds me of our house at Christmas when all of us kids used to try and pile into the kitchen to help Mum cook a feast. When one of us didn’t get our way we would crack it and not want anything to do with kitchen prep haha. So for me this book does bring back some beautiful memories.

One Night $24.99
Author: Penny Matthews    Illustrator: Stephen Michael King


One night is a magical story about how every Christmas Eve at midnight the animals can speak, and they relive a Christmas Eve long ago when Jesus was born.
Hayley goes to a Catholic School where she is learning about Jesus and the true meaning of what happens around Christmas in the Catholic world. So as soon as she will hear this book is surrounded around Jesus I know she will be intrigued and want to read it over and over.


On the first Christmas Eve, so the story goes, the animals were given a very special gift to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Since then, at midnight on Christmas Eve the animals reminisce.

Again I love the images throughout this book as it is not perfect and you could just stare at each and every pages images and get lost (well I know I do).

Deck the Sheds with Bits of Wattle- CD included $19.99
Author: Colin Buchanan & Greg Champion   
Illustrator: Glen Singleton


Just the heading of this books makes me start singing Fa la la la la la la la la after it. These Aussie books are by far my favourite, as I love a good book that is relatable to us Aussies- after all when on Earth was the last time it snowed on Christmas in Australia- for me NEVER?!



Deck the sheds with bits and wattle is a cute, super hilarious, Aussie version of Deck the Halls. Hence the reason you want to start singing the song after reading the heading. But lucky for this book, there IS a CD that has the new Aussie Christmas lyrics incorporated into it- which I wont lie I think is cuter then the original :-P  So you can sing along to, with this book.



Spoiler Alert: A gust of wind turns Syd Echidna’s shed from Christmas to chaos. His helpful friends make sure Syd’s Christmas is merry and his shed’s a ripper!

The pictures are bright and on each page there are so many things to look at. Often the girls and I will play eye spy with books like this to help them really look into the book and appreciate it.

The Twelve Days of Christmas $14.99
Author: Alison Jay    Illustrator: Alison Jay


The first thing with this book that caught my eye was certainly Alison Jay’s illustrations. They are absolutely beautiful and remind me of stone paintings in Europe. The images all look to have a cracked effect to them, and are just very special.



Spoiler Alert: On Christmas Eve, a man buys presents for the woman he loves, beginning with a partridge in a pear tree. The couple travel through town and the gifts pile up, until they get to a Christmas party so magnificent it is a little overwhelming.. leading them to slip back to the quiet of home, where their partridge is waiting.

Almost like a Christmas romance only kid rated, that makes it special for both the adults and the children. So far this is one of my favourites, although Hayley did find the script writing very hard to read- so this will be left to Mummy.

There was an Old Bloke Who Swallowed a Present $15.99
Author: P.Crumble  Illustrator: Louis Shea


I have read many of the previous publications of this line such as: There was an old lady who swallowed a Mozzie, There was an Old bloke who swallowed a bunny and there was another one I think maybe There was an old lady who swallowed a Meerkat. I love this series of books and that is because each and every single page makes them crack up and giggle!

So when I saw that they had released a Christmas one the kids inside me begun to scream with glee, and I honestly cannot wait to read this to the girls. I have read it so that I can give you my review, and I just know they will laugh.

The old bloke looks very similar to Santa Clause, but my favourite part is:


There was an old bloke who swallowed some Gingerbread.
That Tasty fellow offered a sandwhich instead.
He swallowed the gingerbread to read the card.
He swallowed the card to go with the present.
I don’t know why he swallowed the present…
Now that’s not pleasant!

I wont lie thought this old bloke in the book has very pretty, mystical insides haha.

Also as with the other Christmas books from Scholastic I LOVE these images and they are almost identical to the previous publications.  Also much like the others this book’s front cover is also holographic and moves as you move the book.

The Nights Before Christmas: 24 Classic Stories to Read Aloud $29.99
Author and Illustrator: Tony Ross


Now I have saved this one for last as you could purchase this book to cover every single day/night in December in the lead up to Christmas. This is a great book for Hayley to listen and read along to but not for Madison. Madison will get bored with this book as there is not many images at all and when there is there is not as much detail as the other stories above.



This one might be one we will gift to someone until our Children become a little older- or we might keep it on the shelf until next year when Hayley can read this all by herself as she almost could this year but there are a few tricky words in there.


The Nights before Christmas has 24 classic festive tales, songs and stories to read throughout Advent or keep as a family anthology. There are festive extracts from much loved book likes A Christmas carol, little women and the wind in the willows.

Like I did mention above this would make for a beautiful present for those families or children who enjoy reading.



My favourite story is Letter to Susy, there is even a super cute hand written letter J


So there they are, my six reads for Christmas thanks to Scholastic. What are your favourites or what will you be reading this Christmas?