Top 5 Books for Babies this Christmas with BookBairn

Well, you're probably wondering what is a BookBairn? There's a good chance, if you're a parent, that you have one at home. Usually spotted tucked up under the covers, pleading 'one more story?' or reading by torchlight, or sitting front row at their teachers' feet captivated by the magic of a good book. I am the proud owner of a BookBairn, she's nine months old and already adores books. Our blog BookBairn follows her reading journey as she becomes a reader and storyteller! You'd better watch out, you'd better not cry, you'd better not pout, I'm telling you why... Santa Claus is coming to town! In less than three weeks! And that means there is no time like the present (pardon the pun) to be cosying up and reading festive stories with your little bookbairns. We started our festive book countdown on the 1st December with our Christmas Advent Book Tree and can't get enough of the daily unwrapping and festive stories. Looking for inspiration for Christmas books for your babies and tots? Here are some of our festive favourites so far!

 Dear Santa

I couldn't resist adding this one to our advent countdown of festive books. We love 'Dear Zoo,' also by Rod Campbell, and BookBairn is at that fabulous stage of being able to life the flaps by herself. This book follows a similar structure to 'Dear Zoo' with Santa trying to find the perfect present. 'Dear Santa' has bold colourful flaps set against plain white backgrounds making it perfect for little peepers to get excited and find the flaps easily. The repetitive text would be great for older tots to join in with the reading of the story. It also has a great surprise at the end! #nospoilers This will make a great gift for little readers!

Winter A Pop Up Book

David A. Carter is nothing short of an artistic genius! 'Winter' is a fantastic book as a Christmas gift for toddlers. The pop-up illustrations make this simple book an engaging and imaginative introduction to simple winter vocabulary, flora and fauna. I should point out that this book is American and therefore many of the animals featured are US-based, featuring the red cardinal in place of our beloved winter robins. But the pop-ups are incredible! It was hard to keep BookBairn's little fingers at arms length so as to not rip the papercraft, but in the end I decided what could be better than a book that is so irresistible to touch?! I love this book and cannot understate it's brilliance but it's probably not for those with a 'don't touch' policy to fragile objects. But for us, this book is too precious to cherish, it's meant to be loved!

A Christmas Carol

You might think that BookBairn is a little young at nine months old to be approaching reading the classics but you'd be surprised! I recently came across a collection of books called BabyLit written by Jennifer Adams with art by Alison Oliver that make reading the classics so accessible for bookbairns. The BabyLit series is a collection of unique early learning books that uses the original context of the classic text to develop learning on a particular theme, making them far perfect for babies and tots. A 'Christmas Carol' is a colours primer featuring the key elements of the traditional tale. This book is undoubtedly as much for the parents as for the child. The themes and illustrations are clearly directed towards toddlers and their development but the references to the original classic plays to the whims of the parents. This would make a great gift for parents and kiddies alike, after all it's us parents who end up reading the books over and over again!

Christmas A Treasure Hunt

When I first saw this book I thought that perhaps it was too tricky for BookBairn to fully enjoy. I hold my hands up and admit I was wrong. Completely wrong! She loves it! In the introduction, Roger Priddy notes that he has "noticed that babies are fascinated by brightly coloured patterns and endpapers in books" and I can see why; when we read this book that BookBairn is truly captivated. There is no story in this book, it is a seek and find book for little ones featuring photographs of festive treats against the bold backgrounds that Priddy Books do so well! BookBairn will look at the pages over and over, flipping back and forth enjoying the bright colours, she has even started to tap at the little bear hidden on each page, recognising that he doesn't quite fit the pattern.This book is great for little bookbairns to play with by themselves and for older ones to show off their treasure hunt skills by hunting out the odd pictures out! A lovely stocking filler!

Nativity Flap Book

Our final recommendation is Usbourne's 'Nativity flap book'. I wanted BookBairn to have a book in her Christmas collection that told her the story of the first Christmas, familiarising her with that beautiful story of the stable, donkey and baby Jesus. We love 'lift-the-flap' books and they are great for developing those fine-motor skills in wee ones! This book is beautifully illustrated, featuring all the characters from the Bible story and the starry sky scenery and the text has been shortened and simplified whilst still maintaining the key parts of the story. This makes it perfect to keep little bookbairns' attention and engaging them further through allowing them to interact with the flaps. This is a great gift for sharing the traditional Christmas story in a fun way for little ones! We would love it if you followed more of our festive reading as we countdown to Christmas with daily book unwrapping on our Instagram feed. And we would love to know what you will be reading this Christmas time! We are always on the lookout for good book recommendations!  

Find Kim...

Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | GoodReads

Thanks for reading, Mummy and BookBairn x