Friday, December 14, 2012

Poetry Books for Christmas

Christmas is right around the corner, so here is my list of poetry for children featuring the Christmas holiday (drawn from my Poetry Teacher's Book of Lists). In many cases, the entire book listed below features Christmas, but most of the time it is the topic of some of the poems within the collection noted. (Please let me know if I've missed any other poetry books with Christmas-themed poems.)

Poetry Books for Christmas
The Christmas holiday is often a time to pause, reflect, and ponder a poem. Here is a list of poetry books that focus on Christmas (with a separate list for versions and variants of the classic Christmas poem, “The Night Before Christmas” to be featured next week).
  1. Aigner-Clark, Julie. 2001. Baby Santa’s Christmas Joy! A Celebration of the Holiday Spirit in Poetry, Photography, and Music. New York: Hyperion.
  2. Alarcón, Francisco X. 2001. Iguanas in the Snow and Other Winter Poems/ Iguanas en la Nieve y Otros Poemas de Invierno. San Francisco, CA: Children’s Book Press.
  3. Angelou, Maya. 2008. Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem. New York: Schwartz &; Wade.
  4. Bennett, Jill. 2003. Poems for Christmas. New York: Scholastic.
  5. Bronson, Linda. 2002. Sleigh Bells and Snowflakes: A Celebration of Christmas. New York: Henry Holt.
  6. Bunting, Eve and Leonid Gore. 2000. Who was Born this Special Day? New York: Atheneum.
  7. Causley, Charles. 2000. Bring in the Holly. London: Frances Lincoln.
  8. Cookson, Paul. 2000. Christmas Poems. London: Macmillan.
  9. Cummings, E.E. 2001. Little Tree. New York: Hyperion.
  10. Cunningham, Julia. 2001. The Stable Rat, and Other Christmas Poems. New York: Greenwillow.
  11. Delacre, Lulu. Ed. 1992. Las Navidades: Popular Christmas Songs from Latin America. New York: Scholastic.
  12. Fisher, Aileen. 2007. Do Rabbits Have Christmas? New York: Henry Holt.
  13. Florian, Douglas. 1999. Winter Eyes: Poems and Paintings. New York: Greenwillow.
  14. Frank, John. 2003. A Chill in the Air: Nature Poems for Fall and Winter. New York: Simon &; Schuster.
  15. Ghigna, Charles and Ghigna, Debra. 2000. Christmas is Coming! Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge.
  16. Grimes, Nikki. 2002. Under the Christmas Tree. New York: HarperCollins.
  17. Harrison, Michael and Christopher Stuart-Clark. Eds. 2000. The Young Oxford Book of Christmas Poems. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  18. Hines, Anna Grossnickle. 2005. Winter Lights: A Season in Poems & Quilts. New York: Greenwillow.
  19. Hopkins, Lee Bennett. 2012. Mary's Song. Ill. by Stephen Alcorn. Eerdmans.
  20. Hopkins, Lee Bennett. Ed. 1992. Ring Out, Wild Bells: Poems about Holidays and Seasons. New York: Harcourt Brace.
  21. Hopkins, Lee Bennett. Ed. 2004. Christmas Presents: Holiday Poetry. New York: HarperCollins.
  22. Hopkins, Lee Bennett. Ed. 2005. Days to Celebrate: A Full Year of Poetry, People, Holidays, History, Fascinating Facts, and More. New York: Greenwillow.
  23. Hudson, Cheryl Willis. Ed. 2002. Hold Christmas In Your Heart: African American Songs, Poems, and Stories for the Holidays. New York: Scholastic.
  24. Hughes, Langston. 1998. Carol of the Brown King: Nativity Poems. Ill. by Ashley Bryan. New York: Atheneum.
  25. Johnston, Tony. 2005. Noel.  Minneapolis, MN: Carolrhoda Books.
  26. Katz, Alan. 2005. Where Did They Hide My Presents? Silly Dilly Christmas Songs. New York: McElderry.
  27. Kortepeter, Paul. 2002. A Child’s Book of Christmas. New York: Dutton.
  28. Lewis, J. Patrick. 2007. Under the Kissletoe: Christmastime Poems. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong.
  29. Nesbitt, Kenn and Linda Knaus. 2006. Santa Got Stuck in the Chimney: 20 Funny Poems Full of Christmas Cheer. Minnetonka, MN: Meadowbrook Press.
  30. Prelutsky, Jack. 2008. It’s Christmas! New York: HarperCollins.
  31. Vardell, Sylvia and Wong, Janet. Eds. 2011. Gift Tag. Princeton, NJ: Pomelo Books.
  32. Watson, Clyde. 2003. Father Fox’s Christmas Rhymes. New York: Farrar Straus &; Giroux.
  33. Wells, Carolyn. 2002. Christmas ABC. New York: Abrams.
  34. Whitehead, Jenny. 2007. Holiday Stew; A Kid’s Portion of Holiday and Seasonal Poems. New York: Henry Holt.
  35. Worth, Valerie. 1992. At Christmastime. New York: HarperCollins. 
Head on over to Jama's place to join the Poetry Friday celebration at Jama's Alphabet Soup. 

2 comments:

  1. You are the Supreme Queen of lists -- thanks so much for this, another fabulous resource! Anxious to check out the new-to-me titles. Happy Holidays to you!

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  2. I love Aileen Fisher's Do Rabbits Have Christmas! So many lovely books here, and a bunch I've never heard of. I need to come back next November to start gathering them all up to read for next year:>) Thanks, Sylvia!

    P.S. Nikki Grimes' Voices of Christmas is another beautiful one.

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