Lyra is the world’s biggest bookworm. When we’re doing a food shop I can’t walk past the book section without losing her to the latest Julia Donaldson. We’ve been known to spend whole days in the library. Whenever anyone in my family asks for ideas of presents for her, the answer is invariably “A book please!”. I can only hope that Jenson’s the same. He likes to eat books at the moment. I’m taking that as a good sign.

Most of the books below are Christmassy reads that already adorn Lyra’s bookshelves. The only exception being Mog’s Christmas, which she’s going to find tucked into her stocking come Christmas day.

The Jolly Christmas Postman (Janet & Allan Ahlberg)

I collected books when I was little and kept hold of my favourites to pass on to my kids. This is one of those favourites, so the spine’s a bit bendy and the pages slightly faded, but Lyra loves it nonetheless.

It’s all about The Jolly Postman’s journey to deliver goodies to various fairytale characters on Christmas Eve. The best thing about it are the miniature puzzles, letters and cards which you can pull out of the envelopes in the book and are mini works of art/sources of entertainment in themselves. I treasured this book and its little inserts so much that even Humpty Dumpty’s jigsaw and all of the jigsaw pieces are still fully intact. Lyra spends AGES poring over each and every minute detail.

Mog’s Christmas (Judith Kerr)

Not to be confused with Meg and Mog, another of my childhood favourites, I’ve been meaning to jump on the Mog bandwagon for a while. Lyra adores The Crocodile Under The Bed and The Tiger That Came To Tea, also by Judith Kerr, (anyone else think the tiger is a metaphor for the Gestapo?!) and our cat Millie is a huge part of her life, so I think Mog’s Christmas will be a hit when Lyra reads it.

Snow Day (Richard Curtis)

I first spotted this book on one of those whole-days-spent-in-the-library and it was the illustrations that caught my eye. They’re drawn by my favourite illustrator of the moment, and possibly all time, Rebecca Cobb. (I’ve been a fangirl ever since Paper Dolls and I reckon she gives Quentin Blake a run for his money). Lyra liked Snow Day so much that I’ve since treated her to her own copy.

It’s the heartwarming tale of Danny, the worst student in the school, and Mr Trapper, the strictest teacher in the school, and what happens when they’re both stuck at school together on a Snow Day.

The Empty Stocking (Richard Curtis)

Another one illustrated by Rebecca Cobb (I wasn’t kidding when I said I was a fangirl), and again she’s teamed up with the same author of Snow Day. Yes, the Richard Curtis that wrote the ultimate Christmas film Love Actually.

Lyra was initially wary of this book as some of the pages are pretty wordy (she’s three and a half so it’s possibly better suited to slightly older kids), however the story and gorgeous illustrations soon pulled her in.

Are your kids bookworms too? What are your and your kids’ favourite Christmas books?

Anyone else in Rebecca Cobb’s fan club?

P.S. If you’re a bookworm then you may want to hop over to Rock My Style today where I’m chatting about Christmas presents for book lovers.