The Story of Christmas

When my son was a baby, I wanted to find a story about Christmas that told about the birth of Jesus in a simple, easy to understand way. I struggled to find one. When I was contacted about reviewing The Story of Christmas, I was curious, could this be the book I was looking for?

The story is broken down into 2 page "chapters". Each title includes the Bible passage it is derived from. The story includes nice, but simple illustrations. After each chapter, there is a discussion starter. I like this, because with the really young, you can simply read the story, with older kids you can engage them with discussions about the story. At the end of the book, there is a copy of the illustrations featured in the story. The child is supposed to put the pictures in order and retell the story from the book. Again, I think that features like this help the child better internalize the story.

Included with the book is a DVD. The DVD has six stories. The first two are from The Story of Christmas, the other four follow Jesus as he grows up into adulthood. I like that the DVD goes beyond the book, as it shares other Bible stories that children can relate too. It was though a little disappointing to my daughter who had been turning the pages through the first two stories. She kept asking, can I turn the page now, to which I replied, this story is only on the TV not in the book.

I think this book is a good option for a parent to share the Christmas story with their young children, presented in a simple, yet not too simple format. With the approach of the book, I think it is a great discussion starter for older children who can further explore the stories through discussion.


The Story of Christmas  by Gwen Ellis  
Illustrated by Steve Smallman
Ages: 4-7
Put out by:   Thomas Nelson
Price:  $10.99


I did not receive any compensation for this post, but did receive a copy of The Story of Christmas to share with my family for the purposes of review.