This is a sponsored post, but all opinions are my own.
I love Christmas. I love everything that makes it magical and I love seeing that in my kids now. We spend the time leading up to Christmas getting a tree, decorating, making yummy treats, visiting Santa, and shopping. The most important thing we do though is remind the kids (and ourselves sometimes) the real reason we celebrate Christmas.
We were recently sent a new book to add to our collection of Christmas books. We have a bunch of books that are stored with our Christmas decorations (to keep the book clutter at bay) and there’s just something extra special about pulling out books that have been stored for almost a year. We received The Gift Giver, which is an extra special book. Like many other Christmas books, it has a picture of Santa on the cover, but this is not just any book about Santa.
The Gift Giver is a book to teach our children about the real reason for Christmas and the story behind Santa Claus. In a world that is so focused on all of the THINGS we can acquire, it’s nice to see something about Christmas and Santa that shares the WHY.
It’s sometimes difficult growing up in the church and trying to combine Santa and Jesus. We ask Charlie, our 4 year old, why we celebrate Christmas and his answer is “Jesus’s birthday”. While he does have that part down, it’s hard to explain how Santa fits into that. The Gift Giver is perfect to really bring the two together as it portrays Santa not only as a kind man who loves giving to others, but as a symbol of God. The story emphasizes that Santa’s gifts are to remind us of the amazing gift that Gog gave the world, his son, Jesus Christ.
For our family right now, The Gift Giver is a bit too wordy. The boys are too young to sit for that long. We’ll be breaking it up over a few nights, which allows children to think about what we’ve read and opens the door to conversation while pieces are still fresh.
The illustrations in The Gift Giver are absolutely beautiful and capture the attention of children and adults! I’m so excited to read it over and over again and experience it each year, especially since the boys will pick up more of the story as they get older.
Not only can you pick up this amazing book for your family, but you can help others! They are donating the profits from the paperback to The Nazarene Fund by Mercury One.
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