Top 5 Christmas picture books

List by Danielle

One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don't clean it up too quickly.
~Andy Rooney

I recently went hunting Christmas stories at the library for my local daycare, and found a surprisingly wide range of different takes on the holiday, Father Christmas/Santa Claus, as well as more traditional tales about the 'reason behind the season'. Hopes and fears about presents (and goodness vs badness) were prominent - as you'd expect in kids' books - but there were also messages aplenty about Christmas values, like forgiveness, generosity and celebrating with family and loved ones.

I've just noticed, though, that all of the tales on my list show snowy Christmases... one of the features of growing up in NZ has been a somewhat wonky perspective on the seasons, due to reading so many books set in the northern hemisphere. Halloween always means autumn in my head - and Christmas means piles of white, white snow. OK, pass me an aerosol, I have to go decorate my Christmas tree!

Top 5 Christmas movies List #1

List by Danielle (contributions from the Digital Services team)

'If this is their idea of Christmas, I *gotta* be here for New Year's.'
~ From 'Die Hard'

If you're looking for a heartwarming Christmas flick to watch with the littlies... you might have to wait for List #2. These are NOT the films you are looking for. All of these films are guaranteed to showcase all of the best festive elements of Christmas - criminals, shiny weapons, mayhem, havoc, and some very bad Santas indeed!