The Story of Christmas

A Crowell Holiday Book

by Barbara Cooney, Loretta Krupinski (Illustrator)

Retells the story of Christ's birth while explaining the origins and meaning of Christmas traditions, including those based on the mid-winter festivals of the pagans more than two thousand years ago

Genres: Christmas, Picture Books, Nonfiction, Childrens, History, Holiday

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Barbara Cooney was an American writer and illustrator of 110 children's books, published over sixty years. She received two Caldecott Medals for her work on Chanticleer and the Fox and Ox-Cart Man, and a National Book Award for Miss Rumphius. Her books have been translated into 10 languages.

Reviews

[Mir]

I was familiar with pretty much all the information included, but obviously this is meant for younger readers.

The illustrations were simpler and less colorful than I'm used to for Cooney (I suspect to keep printing costs down) but still pleasant.

[Hilary]

This wonderful book reads like a factual early reader. Part of the Crowell Holiday Book series, this book investigates Christmas, starting with the birth of Jesus and the Nativity story and then going back in time to the festival of Saturnalia and how the similar customs of feasting, decorating the home with ever greens and candles and giving gifts was skilfully changed to celebrate the birth of Christ so that the Pagans wouldn't miss their favourite festival. Modern day customs of Father Christmas, St Nicholas, and St Lucia's day were included. There was some interesting information about how legend has added parts to the Nativity, such as Mary being carried by a donkey, I was surprised to find this mode of transport, however likely for the time, wasn't mentioned in the bible! A very informative read about Christmas with wonderful Barbara Cooney illustrations.

[Dolly]

We love Barbara Cooney's books and when I saw this book on display at our library, I just had to check it out. I was surprised that she did not do her own illustrations, but there's a note on the verso page of the title page that explains that she wrote and illustrated this story for another publication and that this was a reprinting of it.

This is an informative book about the celebration of Christmas. It explains why we honor the birth of Jesus near the Winter solstice and it describes holiday traditions and celebrations, old and new, around the world. The narrative is interesting and not too long, but I could tell that our girls were beginning to lose interest, so I recommend this book for older children. The descriptions of Palestine were interesting, as the narrative was originally written in 1967. Overall, it was a good book to read as we get ready to celebrate Christmas in our own family.

[Rosa Cline]

This was a very good book to help explain Christmas. It starts off talking about Jesus and his birth. Then goes on and talks about the different myths of what countries celebrate. The different 'Santa' The different ways people celebrate with holly berries, candles, etc.

How it started with a pagan holiday in December and why we celebrate in December now. It answers just about every question there is about Christmas.

[Bree]

Notes:
history of Christmas traditions with focus on Christian belief

[Beverly]

Although this book tells that Jesus grew up to be a great and wise teacher, it does not go on to say that He also became the savior of the world. Besides information on Christmas, the book includes info on other winter festivals.
While this book was originally also illustrated by Cooney, I read a copy illustrated by Loretta Krupinski. Her illustrations are very good, and somewhat similar to Cooney's in style, but I don't know why the publisher would replace the 2-time Caldecott award-winning illustrator's original paintings with another illustrator's paintings.

[Jeremy]

Takes the position that "institutional Christianity is simply a mashup of some biblical elements and paganism." For a more reasonable take on how the celebration of Christmas came about, watch this. But the history of other cultures' traditions was very interesting.

[Alexandria K]

This story, is about the first day of Christmas. When Jesus was born, the Wise Men, Bethlehem, the star that led the Wise Men followed to Bethlehem, and how the angels told people of the baby Jesus.

[Kelly]

A rather long-winded, secular-based (come to find out) discussion of midwinter festivals throughout history and Christmas traditions and customs since Christ. It talks of Jesus as a moral teacher, omitting His divinity or anything further in the historical Christian sense; states Jesus was born "in the country of Palestine" which was "the home" of the Jewish people (this is just politically correct, not historically and biblically accurate); and also implies Christmas is just another winter celebration (on par with Santa Claus).