RAR #36: Christmas and Advent Read-Alouds with Elizabeth Foss

**Description from Amazon: This is a delightful reading of the favorite Italian Christmas story about an eccentric old woman and her never-ending search for the Baby King.

**Description from Amazon: A beautifully illustrated story of the Nativity.  He was just an ordinary donkey, but on his back he carried a miracle. He carried the Virgin Mary to Bethlehem on the night she gave birth. Along the way he dreamed he was carrying a city, a ship, a fountain, and a rose. He dreamed he was carrying a ...

**Description from Amazon: Christmas is Treva's favorite time of the year. But this year, decorations and presents are mysteriously disappearing. When Treva follows a small creature making off with the Christmas pudding, she discovers two irresistible trolls who want to have Christmas, but don't understand it. Jan Brett's tr...

**Description from Amazon: Sometimes the littlest angels can make the biggest difference, as these heavenly creatures find out as they prepare to host the Christmas celebration and manage to remember to provide some much needed starlight to light the darkest night.

** Description from Amazon: In Mexico, the poinsettia is called flor de la Nochebuenao flower of the Holy Night. At Christmastime, the flower blooms and flourishes, the quite exquisite red stars lighting up the countryside.A Mexican legend tells how the poinsettia came to be, through a little girl's unselfish gift to the Chri...

** Description from Amazon: Strega Nona returns with her bumbling assistant, Big Anthony, and Bambolona, the baker’s daughter, in time for the big Christmas Eve feast.

Best for all ages. The Christmas scenes from the various books in the Little House on the Prairie series, all in once place, and illustrated by Garth Williams.

**Description from Amazon: Retells the traditional Mexican story about the country's patron saint, the Lady of Guadalupe, who appeared to a poor Indian named Juan Diego in 1531

**Description from Amazon: Rebecca, a young girl living in Nazareth, accompanies a small donkey searching for his mother to a stable in Bethlehem where they both witness a special event

**Description from Amazon: In a unique Appalachian Christmas story that includes music and lyrics, a thirteen-year-old girl recounts the efforts of her, her siblings, and her wise grandmother to bring the joy of Christmas to her father after her mother's death. Tour. IP.

** Description from Amazon: Tomie dePaola's glorious paintings are as luminous as the farolitos that light up on the Plaza in Santa Fe for the procession of Las Posadas, the tradition in which Mary and Joseph go from door to door seeking shelter at the inn on Christmas Eve.This year Sister Angie, who is always in charge of the...

**Description from Amazon: One dark November night a stranger rides into a small prairie town. Who is he? Why has he come? The townspeople wish he were a doctor, a dressmaker, or a trader. But the children have the greatest wish of all, a deep, quiet, secret wish. Then a young girl named Lucy befriends the newcomer. When he r...

Here is the story of Christmas, adapted from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke and gloriously illustrated in a splendor of jeweled color by the remarkable folk painter Jane Ray. Borrowing shapes and patterns from ancient and modern folk art, the illustrations feature generous spreads filled with cunni...

“The tale is unfolded with such mastery, humor, and emotional force that we are entirely within its power.” – The New York Times Book Review. Jonathan Toomey is the best woodcarver in the valley, but he is always alone and never smiles. No one knows about the mementos of this lost wife and chi...

Best for all ages. If you love Anne of Green Gables and Lucy Maud Montgomery, this one is not to miss. A collection of stories from LM Montgomery's books.

Best for ages 4+, including your teens! This is a long one, so read it like it's a chapter book. Maurice Sendak's illustrations are just marvelous!

Best for ages 8-12. Tomie dePaola is always a RAR favorite! In this collection, he recalls memories from his own Christmases.

Best for all ages. This is an Advent celebration of the Jesse Tree. Read a little bit aloud each day, if you can.

**Description from Amazon: This book is not about "school at home"--it is about something better. It is about Real Learning. Homeschooling pioneer Charlotte Mason wrote with great wisdom about providing young minds with a living books education. She urged teachers to present great ideas and stand back, allowing students to fo...

**Description from Amazon: Danielle Bean, editor of Catholic Digest, and Elizabeth Foss, an award-winning blogger, team up to offer daily doses of inspiration, wisdom, and hope for Catholic moms. Now back in print in response to high demand, Small Steps for Catholic Moms gives busy mothers a year's worth of sustenance, in the...

**Description from Amazon: THE COLFAXES DIDN'T START TEACHING THEIR BOYS AT HOME TO GET THEM INTO HARVARD - BUT THAT'S WHAT HOMESCHOOLING ACCOMPLISHED!For over fifteen years, David and Micki Colfax educated their children at home. They don't think of themselves as pioneers, though that's what they became. Unhappy with the pub...

**Description from Amazon: Remember how the Gingerbread Boy is eaten by the fox? Well, not this Gingerbread Baby in a delicious twist to a favorite old tale.It all begins when Matti opens the oven too soon and out jumps a cheeky little Gingerbread Bay. He leads Matti's mother and father, the dog and the cat. And a whole color...

**Description from Amazon: That popular little character is back looking for friends, in an adventure he'll never forget.Confident and cocky, the Gingerbread Baby happens upon a bakery, where he dances and prances in front of a sugar cookie girl, trying to make friends. But she just stares and doesn?t say a word, like all the...

**Description from Amazon: Long revered in both East and West, St. Lucia is an early virgin martyr whose life and legacy shine as a light of faith, hope, and compassion in the darkness of winter and sin. Lucia, Saint of Light introduces young readers to both her life and her delightful Christmas-related festival as it is trad...

**Description from Amazon: It was the day before Christmas in a small Russian village. Alexi's babushka was telling him what Christmas was like when she was a girl-before the soldiers came. "Our church was as crowded as a pod full of peas. Candles made the church as bright as the sunniest day. Watching over us was the blessed...

**Description from Amazon: Babushka lives on her own in a cottage where everything is as neat as a pin. But she is so busy cleaning and polishing that she hardly notices the miraculous events going on around her. Then a mysterious dream leads her to put her daily worries aside and venture out to find a special baby. On her jo...