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Happy Go Stuckey

Tethering Grace & Togetherness

Cozy Christmas Reads

November 28, 2017 by HappyGoStuckey 7 Comments

The entire month of December calls me to slow down. Even though we have to fight the busy-ness off with a large stick, I love the natural slowing that eventually comes. One of the ways I remind myself of the importance of a hushed schedule, the need to pull in just a bit with my people– is reading.

For several years, we’ve slowly added to our Christmas book stack a few at a time. I’m always searching the holiday sections at used book stores for fall and Christmas books.

Here’s a list of our favorite Christmas books. I hope they help you on your journey as you embrace hope and togetherness this season.

 

Our Favorite Sacred & Semi- Serious Christmas Books: 

Buck Denver asks, “Why Do We Call it Christmas?” This discusses the real person of St. Nicholas and what he has to do with Christmas as we know it. (There is also a DVD in the What’s in the Bible Series, by the same name: Here’s the link, but check your local Lifeway Store:)

’Twas the Night Before Christmas (fun little vintage golden book version)

Ella Bella Ballerina and the Nutcracker

Who is Coming to Our House?  (Simple and sweet for littles.)

God Gave Us Christmas

Christmas Cookies: Bite Sized Holiday Lessons By Amy Krouse Rosenthal (This is really fun picture book that deals with the anticipation and patience of the season.)

The Legend of the Candy Cane

The Legend of the Christmas Tree

The Mitten By Jan Brett

A Little House Christmas Treasury: A Collection of Festive Stories (We LOVE this one. I mean, Laura Ingalls Wilder!)

And… I just requested this at the Library because— ANNE SHIRLEY.
Christmas with Anne and Other Holiday Stories (It’s a collection of Christmas stories from the Anne books and it looks so fun. Thank you, local library for having it in stock.)

Home for Christmas by Jan Brett

Christmas in America (blends a little early American History in.)

 

Our Favorite Silly Christmas Books:

The Christmas Puppy  (Simple, cute story— all books with dogs are favorites here.)

A Charlie Brown Christmas

Charlie and the Christmas Kitty (the perfect combination of the Pioneer Woman and Charlie the ranch dog!)

Olivia Helps with Christmas

Peppa Pig & the Lost Christmas List

Llama Llama, Holiday Drama

If You Take a Mouse to the Movies

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (We’re adding this one this year for the first time!)

The links above are all referral links, (which means that at no extra cost to you, Amazon thanks me for pointing you in the direction of the books listed.) But by all means, search your used book stores for these treasures. If you have a 2nd & Charles store, that is where I found many of mine.

I’d be delighted if this list helps you curate your own Christmas book stash, and I’d love to hear what your own top picks are in the comments or by email.

I’d truly love to know– what are your can’t miss Christmas Books? Do you wrap them one by one or just place them in a basket near your usual reading spot? I’m a basket person but the wrapping always sounds fun. 

 

On Being Settled & Apple Crisp
What I Learned & Loved in the Fall.

Comments

  1. Jessica Strother says

    November 28, 2017 at 1:43 pm

    Love this!! Thank you! I don’t see us reading the ballerina ones but checking out “God gave us Christmas” now!

    Reply
    • HappyGoStuckey says

      November 29, 2017 at 11:14 am

      Thanks Jessi! Yes I suppose we have several “girly” books on our list. Ha! Happy Reading!

      Reply
  2. Leah Finn says

    November 28, 2017 at 2:13 pm

    Song of the Stars by Sally Lloyd-Jones is truly my favorite Christmas book. We listened to the Best Christmas Pageant Ever on audio last year when we traveled for Thanksgiving, and we all LOVED it! It is delightful. I just ordered a copy for us to have on hand. Another one that I have enjoyed is A Christmas Carol. It’s shorter than other Dickens’ works, which makes it easier to digest (I love Victorian British literature but do not enjoy Dickens. I know, I know).

    Reply
    • HappyGoStuckey says

      November 29, 2017 at 11:13 am

      Thanks for the suggestion Leah! I keep forgetting “Song of the Stars” but want to add it to our stack. And I LOVE A Christmas Carol and teach it to my 8th graders every year in November. And I won’t tell. We like “Dickens the dog” a lot more than Dickens the author.

      Reply
  3. Kristen says

    November 29, 2017 at 9:04 am

    Thank you for sharing! We also love “The Crippled Lamb” by Max Lacado

    Reply
    • HappyGoStuckey says

      November 29, 2017 at 11:13 am

      I’ve heard of that one too but don’t think we have it. Thanks Kristen!

      Reply
  4. Amanda says

    November 29, 2017 at 12:53 pm

    Great list..thanks! I just reserved a few at the library 🙂 We love the Best Christmas Pageant any time of the year! There is also a great Christmas book list at Read Aloud Revival. Thanks to such great lists, we have a great stack of Christmas books from the library on our coffee table and have been enjoying them immensely!

    Reply

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Hey There!

I'm Cynthia and I'm so glad you're here. I am an introvert with an extrovert's love of gathering people together. I love good books and capturing moments. Whether you visit me here or on my own front porch, I'll be the one holding the Iced Coffee for us both.

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happygostuckey

I saw a magazine cover this week advertising the h I saw a magazine cover this week advertising the headline, “Ditch Gratitude!” 

This is my “No thanks,” face.
My grateful face.
My you-can’t-make-me-face.
Because no matter how long the list of things we still don’t know, I know I need gratitude like water.

Questions remain. Uncertainties abound. Reasons for concern greet us with each January dawn.

Hope remains and so do questions. The two have never been enemies, but cozy next door neighbors.
I’ll keep my gratitude, thank you.
Some of the rhythms we took up in ‘20 we will co Some of the rhythms we took up in ‘20 we will continue to sigh into in ‘21.
Baking sourdough, watching it bubble and rise and fill our BlueHouse with the scent of a good, long, posture of patience— I absolutely need a second serving of this.
While we wait, and whatever it is that we wait for— may the space between be made sweeter by the knowledge that we never wait alone.
You can’t tell by their joy, but the day I snapp You can’t tell by their joy, but the day I snapped this photo was somewhat of a regular day.

What looks like a winter beach vacation was actually the tail-end of a masked lunch stop in the middle of a pandemic road trip.

This sparkling moment of sun-splashed fun was sandwiched between brutal conversations about regular life, especially the hard parts.

And this is how it is. 
These bits of life that we never see coming, they are enveloped between all that makes us tired, weary, sighing pilgrims in a world that was never really meant to be hospitable in the first place.

This photo reminds me to look again at our year, our season, our circumstances.

To look a second and third time.
To keep looking as long as it takes to see that the joy of our right now isn’t gone, it just might be hiding in the shadow of all that’s hard.

Brokenness is never vague. And we don’t have to search very long to see it both within ourselves and around us.
Sometimes the weight of that fact is crushing.
And then, sometimes it reminds us even more clearly of the light shining in darkness.

Joy is an act of defiance against despair and I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling rather defiant at the moment.✨✨✨✨

@hopewriters #hopewriterlife 
#feastingandforaging #hopelenses #getaftergrateful
Endurance can feel like standing still. Especially Endurance can feel like standing still. Especially if what we’re called to be about is the same as yesterday and last month. 
It’s difficult to meet each day with the same fervor and joy for what we are called to do, especially when at present, the progress seems small and immeasurable. 
But even then, perhaps especially so — our faithfulness matters.

When we cannot yet see the other side, the light at the end of this particularly long tunnel, we begin again.

Not because we will always wake with fresh energies and bright, sparkling hope for what comes next, friend. But because the God of Endurance (Romans 15:5) dwells within us.

“It is the grace of endurance granted to you by the God of endurance that provides you with everything you need to continue to be what he calls you to be and do what he calls you to do between this moment and the moment when you cross over to the other side. When difficulty exposes the weakness of your resolve and the limits of your strength, you do not have to panic, because He will endure even in this moments when you don’t feel able to do so yourself.” — Paul David Tripp, New Morning Mercies

#hopewriterlife
Stuckey, party of two. Always ready to run out for Stuckey, party of two. Always ready to run out for paper towels... especially if the store is in convenient proximity to a quick date for croissants and dirty chai for two. Love my forever coffee companion even more at the start of this new year. Wherever he’s going, I’m riding shotgun.
We have learned... The inestimable value of a goo We have learned...

The inestimable value of a good camp chair, for they have been used for everything from soccer benches and coffee dates to theatre seats and church pews.

What our neighborhood streets can offer in the way of an outing—from the colors of spring to the sparkle of Christmas.

To hold plans with the loosest hands possible.

To rejoice in things found. Time. Margin. ...and enough toilet paper to share with a neighbor.

To give grace and accept it for ourselves.

The hilarious joy of a group text complete with “have you seen this meme yet?” 

To pivot. And then pivot again.

To find more joy in candlelight closer to home, instead of the bright lights of traveled cities.

To perfect our pizza dough recipe and truly learn to prefer it over dinner out.

To work with yeast and flour again and again— until the message of waiting for something really good dusted our apron fronts and kitchen floors.

And in our house, we learned how to be unexpectedly unemployed. We learned how to honor that new found space with needed grief and desired hope. How to be grateful for true friends who prayed with us, held questions with us, and hoped with us. We were reminded of our true identity and that it will never rest in a job. 

In a year in which we’ve all lost quite a lot, you and I have been given so much as well. Some of what we’ve lost we have learned to be without. Some, we won’t go looking for again.

In 525,600 minutes and in all the things, found and lost and found again— there is far and away more to be grateful for.

And we choose joy.

✨Happy New Year, dear friends!✨
Not rushing too quickly into a new year over here. Not rushing too quickly into a new year over here. Though the one in our rear view window is one we wouldn’t choose to repeat, still it was one full of God’s nearness.

One day I’ll write it all down.
But for now I’ll just say,
we were not alone. 🕯
“Once in our world, a Stable had something in it “Once in our world, a Stable had something in it that was bigger than our whole world.”
C.S.Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia

Joy to the World, friends.
Behold. The most apropos Christmas Eve 2020 desser Behold. The most apropos Christmas Eve 2020 dessert ever. Made from a wonky gingerbread cake that did not cooperate.
We shall not go quietly into 2021.
We will fight back with beauty and joy and candles... and fresh whipped cream made by an eleven year old with sparkly green eyes. 🎄❤️✨
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