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Little Bunny Finds Christmas
What is Christmas? Is it sweet as a mother's love? A shining star? Is it peace on earth? Little Bunny sets out with friends to discover what Christmas is really about.Pirkko Vainios luminous watercolors lusciously weave the tale of the animals who made the journey to see the baby Jesus in the manger.
32 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2008
About the author
Pirkko Vainio
43 books4 followersPirkko Vainio is an author and illustrator of children’s books. She has written and illustrated over 30 children’s books, which have been translated into 15 languages.
Vainio studied at the Academy of Art in Helsinki. Her work has been exhibited at the Musee des Beaux Arts in France, the Itabashi Art Museum in Japan, the Bologna Illustrators Exhibition in Italy, and several collectives in Scandinavia and Italy. The Finnish Broadcasting Company has made two documentaries on her life and work.
Vainio studied at the Academy of Art in Helsinki. Her work has been exhibited at the Musee des Beaux Arts in France, the Itabashi Art Museum in Japan, the Bologna Illustrators Exhibition in Italy, and several collectives in Scandinavia and Italy. The Finnish Broadcasting Company has made two documentaries on her life and work.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 23, 2025
I'm rating this more harshly than I normally would, because Goodreads skews ratings unfairly positively, so a neutral "meh" rating is two out of five stars instead of the visually-correct three.
And I want to be clear about my "meh" rating here, most specifically because !! UGH. I shouldn't have been surprised, but it's disappointing on a "this was projected practically from the title" level.
I want to be clear it is very specifically this usage that I dislike, because Christmas itself has been contorted far beyond its original intent for various political shenanigans, besides that where I live it persists for FOUR MONTHS OF THE YEAR, and I'm quite honestly increasingly antagonistic toward Christmas itself as the years go on.
"You're waging a war on Christmas!" Actually, that was started long ago with the Puritans—you can't really blame me for acknowledging their valid complaints (and having a few of my own). Also, despite the REAL war on Christmas, I don't actively do anything about it except privately seethe (and sometimes blather online where it's unlikely to be contested).
If that seems like an irrelevant tangent, here's how it's portrayed in the book:
- Little Bunny overhears birds saying it's Christmas
- Little Bunny wonders what that is
- Little Bunny meets Little Deer, who tags along to find Christmas together
- Little Bunny and Little Deer meet Little Wolf, who says, literally, "Christmas is as perfect as peace on Earth. That is why I'm not eating you." (What.)
- Little Bunny, Deer, and Wolf meet Wise Owl, who just tags along
- Little Bunny leads the way and falls onto Big Bear, who decides, "Okay, this Christmas thing sounds worth waking up for." (though it's a myth that bears sleep the WHOLE winter)
- the animals come to a
Now, I do want to be clear that I've liked Christmas books (even ones that were technically Jewish). I just DISlike the ones with a clear agenda where it isn't even subtle, where the message isn't that family and friends are the most important thing or whatever, it's "If you don't believe in Jesus, you are bad, and you should feel bad" with a lot of sugar coating to cover it up.
So, the art is cute and the vague idea of it is cute, but in practice I only saw the obvious ending and cringed at the end. I'm sure this is a great book for Christians, but to a non-believer, it just comes across as crass and, ironically, exclusionary.
"So why did you read it, then?" I don't know. Optimism, and it was a charity auction winning.
And I want to be clear about my "meh" rating here, most specifically because !! UGH. I shouldn't have been surprised, but it's disappointing on a "this was projected practically from the title" level.
I want to be clear it is very specifically this usage that I dislike, because Christmas itself has been contorted far beyond its original intent for various political shenanigans, besides that where I live it persists for FOUR MONTHS OF THE YEAR, and I'm quite honestly increasingly antagonistic toward Christmas itself as the years go on.
"You're waging a war on Christmas!" Actually, that was started long ago with the Puritans—you can't really blame me for acknowledging their valid complaints (and having a few of my own). Also, despite the REAL war on Christmas, I don't actively do anything about it except privately seethe (and sometimes blather online where it's unlikely to be contested).
If that seems like an irrelevant tangent, here's how it's portrayed in the book:
- Little Bunny overhears birds saying it's Christmas
- Little Bunny wonders what that is
- Little Bunny meets Little Deer, who tags along to find Christmas together
- Little Bunny and Little Deer meet Little Wolf, who says, literally, "Christmas is as perfect as peace on Earth. That is why I'm not eating you." (What.)
- Little Bunny, Deer, and Wolf meet Wise Owl, who just tags along
- Little Bunny leads the way and falls onto Big Bear, who decides, "Okay, this Christmas thing sounds worth waking up for." (though it's a myth that bears sleep the WHOLE winter)
- the animals come to a
Now, I do want to be clear that I've liked Christmas books (even ones that were technically Jewish). I just DISlike the ones with a clear agenda where it isn't even subtle, where the message isn't that family and friends are the most important thing or whatever, it's "If you don't believe in Jesus, you are bad, and you should feel bad" with a lot of sugar coating to cover it up.
So, the art is cute and the vague idea of it is cute, but in practice I only saw the obvious ending and cringed at the end. I'm sure this is a great book for Christians, but to a non-believer, it just comes across as crass and, ironically, exclusionary.
"So why did you read it, then?" I don't know. Optimism, and it was a charity auction winning.
March 24, 2020
Beautiful illustrations.
December 22, 2021
Beautifully illustrated.
December 28, 2013
An adorable sequential storybook. A little bunny goes through the snowy woods looking for Christmas, meeting animal after animal who each describe Christmas. At last he finds Christmas: the baby in the manger. The setting is not Palestine, but I love that the climax of the story is the Christ child. This sweet story is fun to read and I wish I'd found it when my children were littler.
January 11, 2009
boring to read aloud but my audience seemed to enjoy it. the ending is exactly as one may expect, limiting it to church outreach during the season.
December 10, 2009
"Christmas, animals, nativity"
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews