{"id":5306,"date":"2016-12-12T13:47:33","date_gmt":"2016-12-12T18:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/?p=5306"},"modified":"2016-12-12T13:47:33","modified_gmt":"2016-12-12T18:47:33","slug":"annotated-christmas-book-list-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/annotated-christmas-book-list-families\/","title":{"rendered":"The Annotated Christmas Book List for Families"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>True confession: When my two oldest kids were little, I read aloud to them three to five hours every day. (Well, some of it was devotions and bedtime stories with their daddy too.) My husband worked twelve to thirteen hour days, and I had several small children.&nbsp; So I read.&nbsp; And read.&nbsp; And read.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"The Annotated Christmas Book List\" href=\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/annotated-christmas-book-list-families\" rel=\"lightbox\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"The Annotated Christmas Book List\" src=\"https:\/\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/319\/30744222433_d08bd64d22_z.jpg\" alt=\"The Annotated Christmas Book List\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Through the years, our reading time went down to two to four hours a day. And we all look back fondly on those days\u2014even my thirty-four and thirty year olds still talk about all of that read aloud time. And how wonderful it was to have that much time to read and learn together.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Some of our favorite readings were definitely Christmas stories, traditions, song books, collections, and more. We even increased our reading time during the holidays (not sure how!)!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>My bookshelves are still full of our favorite Christmas stories\u2014and each year when our children, ages eighteen to thirty-four, come to decorate for Christmas and for our Christmas Eve party, we always pull out some of the collections of stories and read one or two aloud.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So it\u2019s only fitting that I pass on some of the titles to young mamas who want great books to read at Christmas time\u2014via The Annotated Christmas Book List for Families!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>From the forward:<\/h4>\n<p>\u201cDifferent ones have asked for more read aloud ideas, especially my very favorites, so I thought I would list them by age and by category (i.e. \u201cBible-related\u201d; traditions; devotional; etc.) with three stars by my \u201cvery-most-favorite-if-we-only-read-a-handful-of-christmas-books-this-year-this-would-be-one-ofthem\u201d!<br \/>\nHope this helps you as you prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ with your sweet children.<br \/>\nNote: Many of the books on this list make for wonderful devotionals for anybody\u2014not just for read alouds!<\/p>\n<p>Key:<\/p>\n<p>\u2605\u2605\u2605Wouldn\u2019t want to go a Christmas without it<\/p>\n<p>\u2605\u2605Great<\/p>\n<p>\u2605Good enough for my list! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>Note: I have included \u201cout of print\u201d ones because you can often pick them up used or at the library.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Feel free to pass the link to this list along. I would love to bless many families with our amazing Christmas book list.<\/p>\n<p>Love and hope,<br \/>\nDonna<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Click on the picture below to download your FREE copy of <em>The Annotated Christmas Book List<\/em> \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"The Annotated Christmas Book List\" href=\"https:\/\/characterinkstore.com\/product\/the-annotated-christmas-book-list-for-familes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"lightbox\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"The Annotated Christmas Book List\" src=\"https:\/\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/319\/30744222433_d08bd64d22_n.jpg\" alt=\"The Annotated Christmas Book List\" width=\"320\" height=\"320\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius: 2px; text-indent: 20px; width: auto; padding: 0px 4px 0px 0px; text-align: center; font: bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #ffffff; background: #bd081c  no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px; position: absolute; opacity: 1; z-index: 8675309; display: none; cursor: pointer; top: 2139px; left: 173px;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>True confession: When my two oldest kids were little, I read aloud to them three to five hours every day. (Well, some of it was devotions and bedtime stories with their daddy too.) My husband worked twelve to thirteen hour days, and I had several small children.&nbsp; So I read.&nbsp; And read.&nbsp; And read. Through [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,643],"tags":[644,1000,957],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.5.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Annotated Christmas Book List for Families - Character Ink<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/annotated-christmas-book-list-families\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Annotated Christmas Book List for Families - Character Ink\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"True confession: When my two oldest kids were little, I read aloud to them three to five hours every day. 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Through [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/annotated-christmas-book-list-families\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Character Ink\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/characterinkcompany\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/characterinkcompany?ref=bookmarks\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-12-12T18:47:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/319\/30744222433_d08bd64d22_z.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Donna\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Donna\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/annotated-christmas-book-list-families\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/annotated-christmas-book-list-families\/\",\"name\":\"The Annotated Christmas Book List for Families - Character Ink\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-12-12T18:47:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-12-12T18:47:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/#\/schema\/person\/801ef5fa0749f7c8c379e32c743fba64\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/annotated-christmas-book-list-families\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/annotated-christmas-book-list-families\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/annotated-christmas-book-list-families\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Annotated Christmas Book List for Families\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/\",\"name\":\"Character Ink\",\"description\":\"Home of the Language Lady &amp; Cottage Classes!\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/#\/schema\/person\/801ef5fa0749f7c8c379e32c743fba64\",\"name\":\"Donna\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a34d703c1b470108b3e0674490546317?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a34d703c1b470108b3e0674490546317?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Donna\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/characterinkcompany?ref=bookmarks\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/author\/cqlalady\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Annotated Christmas Book List for Families - Character Ink","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/annotated-christmas-book-list-families\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Annotated Christmas Book List for Families - Character Ink","og_description":"True confession: When my two oldest kids were little, I read aloud to them three to five hours every day. 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