The Best Christmas Books for Family Read Alouds on Christmas Eve
✦ The Herald Dispatch ✦
There is a moment on Christmas Eve — usually somewhere between the wrapping paper anticipation and the late-night church service — when the house gets quiet enough to gather everyone together.
If you're anything like my family, that moment is sacred.
My wife Amy and I have four kids. And from the time they were small enough to sit still in pajamas with damp hair from the bath, reading Christmas stories aloud together has been one of the traditions I guard most fiercely. Not because I'm particularly organized about holiday traditions. But because there is something that happens when a family sits down together, opens a book, and lets a story carry them somewhere else for twenty or thirty minutes.
Something settles. Something connects. Something that no amount of perfectly wrapped presents can replicate.
Over the years, I've read a lot of Christmas books aloud. Here's my honest, time-tested list.
The Classics That Earn Their Place Every Year
A Christmas Carol — Charles Dickens. There is a reason this one has been adapted into approximately 10,000 films, stage productions, and animated specials. The bones are unbeatable. Reading it aloud — with voices — is one of the great pleasures of Christmas. For younger kids, find a good illustrated adaptation. For older kids and adults, go original.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever — Barbara Robinson. This one is criminally underrated as a read-aloud. The Herdman kids are absolutely unforgettable, and their zero-pretense encounter with the nativity story manages to be both hilarious and genuinely moving.
The Gift of the Magi — O. Henry. Short. Perfect. Read it on Christmas Eve when you have fifteen minutes and everyone is wired on anticipation. The twist is one of the best in all of short fiction.
The Little Drummer Boy — Ezra Jack Keats. For the youngest readers in the room. The story is simple and the message is profound: the greatest gift you can give is the one that costs you something real.
The Hidden Gems Worth Tracking Down
The Story of Holly and Ivy — Rumer Godden. Lesser-known than it deserves to be. A quiet, magical story about wishing and being found. Perfect for kids ages 6-10 and their parents who appreciate genuinely beautiful prose.
The Greatest Gift — Philip Van Doren Stern. You know this story better than you think. Stern's 1943 short story is the source material Frank Capra adapted into It's a Wonderful Life.
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The One I Wrote — Because Someone Has To Say It
Several years ago I realized there was a gap in our family's Christmas reading rotation. We had the Victorian ghost story. The pageant comedy. The sacrificial love story. But we didn't have anything that took the nativity itself and looked at it from an angle so fresh that even kids who've heard it a hundred times would lean in.
That became MARK! The Herald Angel.
It's the story of a small angelic newspaper reporter named Mark who is reluctantly sent to cover the birth of Christ. He loses all his pencils one by one in a stable in Bethlehem. And then — standing in the presence of the newborn King — he sings for the first time in eternity.
I wrote it to be read aloud. I tested it on my own kids first, doing all the voices the way I always did with books when they were little. When they leaned in — when the room got that particular quiet that only happens when a story has genuinely captured people — I knew it was ready.
It's 64 pages. Perfect for Christmas Eve. And I'd put it up against any book on this list for the
combination of laughter, wonder, and genuine Christmas meaning.
Tips for the Perfect Family Read Aloud
Do the voices. I know it feels silly. Do them anyway. A grumpy little angel with a precise, slightly officious voice is funnier than you think. Your kids will remember the voices long after they've forgotten the plot.
Let the pictures breathe. Don't rush past the artwork in illustrated books. Some of the best storytelling in children's literature lives in the illustrations.
Pick your moment. Christmas Eve works beautifully — the anticipation is high and attention spans are better than you'd expect because everyone is emotionally primed for something meaningful.
Make it a tradition. The first year you read the same book on Christmas Eve, it's a nice thing you did.
The third year, your kids remind you that it's time to get the book out. That's the goal.
✦ MARK! The Herald Angel is available in print, eBook, and audiobook at MarkTheHerald.com.
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Christmas.
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