Celebrating Christmas

by Jude Winkler

One of 101 titles in the St. Joseph Picture Book Series, this book by popular author Rev. Jude Winkler, OFM. Conv. teaches children the true religious meaning of the celebration of Christmas in easily understandable terms. This book introduces children to a variety of Christmas symbols and traditions from around the world. Among the features of this book Topics and figures covered in this title We invite you to view other titles in this series //catholicbookpublishing.com/browse/st-...

Genres: Childrens

32 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1992

Reviews

[Kenneth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up for my daughter. I truly enjoyed reading books in the St. Joseph series as a child and this was a new one that I enjoyed reading with her. It touches on some religious traditions but also other elements of the Christmas season that many people celebrate. Particularly, I enjoyed reading about Oplatek which has been a tradition in my family. We are Polish and that is a dear tradition that my grandmother handed down to us all and one that we continue to this day. It was nice to see it in writing and being able to share that with my daughter.

[Joseph R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is part of a series published for Catholic children. Celebrating Christmas is more of a cultural primer than a doctrinal download. Along with the familiar stories of St. Nicholas/Santa Claus, St. Boniface and the first Christmas tree, the first manger scene by St. Francis, etc., are other traditions less familiar or completely new (at least to me), such as the good witch Befana in Italy who does the toy delivery instead of Santa. It's interesting to read about different traditions around the world.

Some of it is a little dated, like the nowadays less certain assumption that December 25 was chosen by the early church to replace a pagan holiday. The art is so-so, not really bad and not really outstanding either.

If you have kids under ten and run across this, I recommend picking it up. It's not expensive and could inspire some new traditions in your home.