Christmas middle grade favorites

Cute bookish decor spotted while running errands in the city... Top two were at Target, bottom two at Michael's

 

🎄 American Girl- Josefina, Kirsten, Addy (secular, historical fiction)... I don't love every American Girl book I've ever read (full master list of my American Girl reviews here) but I loved these three series and enjoyed all of the Christmas stories (book 3 in most girls' series), too.

🎄The Angel Tree (secular, fiction)... This one has a bit more snark than I usually go for but it didn't get too bad and I enjoyed both the message and the mystery as a group of kids worked to figure out who is their town's mysterious Christmas benefactor.

🎄 The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (secular with a great Christian message, fiction)... My third grade teacher read this to our class and my goodie two shoes lil Enneagram 1 wing was deeply offended. All I could see was a book full of bad examples set by those naughty Herdmans. But after Amy reviewed it with such high regard I gave it another chance and found myself tearfully moved. My mom sent us on a family movie date last weekend and we loved the new movie! 

🎄The Drummer Boy (Christian, dystopian fiction)... One of my kids loved this book so much, about a young boy in a society where Jesus's name isn't spoken learning about him anyway. It's a good one for sure.

🎄The Family Under the Bridge (secular, fiction, TGTB book list)... This might be a stretch as middle grade, kinda somewhere between an early chapter book and a true middle grade, but I really enjoyed this touching story about homeless people (a newly homeless family + a curmudgeonly old man) at Christmastime.

🎄A Grandma for Christmas (secular, fiction, TGTB book list)... This one is super, super short but it was a fun and sweet read-aloud we all enjoyed a few Christmases ago.

🎄Horse Diaries: Jingle Bells (secular, historical fiction)... This series is written about completely different horses (in different time periods) by different authors... So no need to have read any others! We loved the cozy Norwegian family. One of my kids adores horse books and adored this one, too.

🎄 The Light at Tern Rock (secular, fiction, TGTB book list)... This is another short read but this one brought us such great discussion! I don't think I'd expected it to be Christmassy when I read it but now we call it a Christmas read around here.

🎄One Wintry Night (Christian, fiction)...  I love this one by Ruth Bell Graham, mother of Billy Graham! It's definitely a fast read for the middle grade crowd but with such a lovely Christmas message!

🎄 The Promise and the Light (Christian, Biblical fiction)... My oldest thoroughly enjoys Katie Morgan's middle grade Biblical fiction and especially loved reading this one last Christmas.

🎄Tabitha's Travels (Christian, Biblical fiction)... I adored Amon's Adventure at Easter and then I loved reading this one at Christmas. I took the advice of Sarah Mackenzie and read just the fiction portions- fantastic Biblical fiction about the birth of Jesus!

🎄Treasures of the Snow (Christian, fiction, TGTB book list)... This is not truly a Christmas book but so much of it takes place over several different Christmases that it really felt like it!

🎄The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street (secular, fiction)... This was our read-aloud in 2022. There was a tad more sass than I remembered but we still really enjoyed this story about the five Vanderbeeker children banding together to save their home in time for Christmas!

🎄Winterfrost (secular, fantasy)... This was our 2023 read-aloud and it was such a hit for my kids. They loved learning more about the nisse (we got the cutest ornament to symbolize our read-aloud that year!) and we're rooting for Bettina and Klakke the whole time.

I also always think of Little Women (secular, classic, fiction) as a Christmas book even though it technically isn't.