My Getting Ready for Christmas Book

By Harriet Ziefert and Mavis Smith

Copyright 1991

This great big oversized board book was a favorite for my daughters around the holidays.  It is very interactive, with plenty of I spy and search and find activities that were always a favorite in our house. 

The last page spread is one of my favorites, since it depicts a key meaning of Christmas:  giving of oneself.  It consists of a wordless story that depicts acts of kindness, passed on and payed forward.  The fact that the story has no text makes it easier to focus on the faces of the people involved, and more opportunities to discuss what is happening.  A point to notice:  both givers and receivers are equally happy.

A man gives a cup of cocoa to a boy, the boy in turn plays a song for a woman, that woman offers a bottle to a baby, the baby hands his teddy bear to a man standing alone, who in turn feeds the birds.  The giving goes on and on, each person offering some small kindness to the next.  

As we see people going about the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping, this is what I like to keep in mind.  The gifts that last are the ones that require not money, but thoughtfulness and consideration.