The Oxford Treasury of Christmas Poems

by Michael Harrison, Christopher Stuart-Clark

Here is a beautiful Christmas collection for young children. It contains poems on the journey to Bethlehem, the birth of Jesus, and all aspects of the traditional Christmas story. In addition to the traditional carols and songs, the editors have brought together modern poems that show how the
children of today rejoice at Yuletide. Presents and festivities, food and families, and the snow and ice of winter--they are all celebrated in this beautiful anthology, packed with color illustrations on every page. Some of the poets featured include Eleanor Farjeon, Roger McGough, Charles Causley,
Wes Magee, Michael Rosen, U. A. Fanthorpe, and Grace Nicholls. All illustrations have been specially commissioned for the book.

"How will you your Christmas keep?
Feasting, fasting, or asleep?
Will you laugh or will you pray,
or will you forget the day?"
(from Keeping Christmas by Eleanor Farjeon)


"They chopped her down in some far wood
A week ago,
Shook from her dark green spikes her load
Of gathered snow,
And brought her home at last, to be
Our Christmas show."
(from The Christmas Tree by John Walsh)


"Winter crept
through the whispering wood,
hushing fir and oak;
crushed each leaf and froze each web--
but never a word he spoke."
(from Winter by Judith Nicholls)

Genres: Poetry, Christmas

96 pages, Hardcover

First published October 20, 1988

About the author

Michael Harrison has written four teenage novels and has edited many highly-acclaimed poetry anthologies.

Reviews

[Calista · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are a wide variety of poems in this treasury. Most of them are about the birth of Jesus. There are more than are about snow and Santa and other Christmas things. There are probably 50 poems in here.

Children might find some of these ok. I felt like most everything was bad poetry. Very bad, like grade school poetry. I did not enjoy this at all and I stopped reading it to the kids.

If you are looking for Christmas poems for a child, by all means try this out - they may enjoy it.

[Imogen Turner-Stangroom. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is wonderful as their is a range of different poets within one book. It also is a good resource to discuss about religion (Christianity) for when discussing the important of Christmas time and the really meaning behind it.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

boring

[Lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a book claiming to be "a beautiful collection of poems for young children," it sure was boring. Neither Andrew nor I enjoyed this collection.

[Hattie · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS was everything I wanted from a children’s poem collection. I loved this SO much as a child, read it over and over.
Lovely pictures, great poems. 10/10 would recommend

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant. Again, some scary pictures later on in the book though - for example, for The Old Wife and The Ghost.

[John Wise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anya (currently 2 years old) loves this one.