We are always happy to buy our kids books anytime of the year, and often buy a stack of new books for them to open on Christmas Eve. Here is a list of what I think are the best books to gift to young kids (up to about age 8).

These are organized by category first, but generally ascend in age group as you scroll down. All images are linked to the listing for each book and even if you don’t want to look through all of these, make sure to scroll all the way down for my favorite suggestion in the list.

Christmas-Themed Books

I buy Sounding Joy for every baby shower I go to. It is probably my all-time favorite kids book. Maybe I’m overplaying it, but I just love it so much.

Share the Joy is by my friend, Val, and is a sweet, life-a-flap book that reminds us that the best gift we receive at Christmas is Jesus.

The classic Little Blue Truck’s Christmas has been a years-long favorite thanks to the fun rhymes and light-up feature at the end. Finally, I bought How the Grinch Stole Christmas for my kids this year, and they’ve read it no less than 15 times in about 4 days.

Christian Board Books

These books are technically gifts for the babies, but they’re also really great tools to help parents begin intentionally teaching their children about God, the Bible, missions, and more. The Baby Believer series is great for babies to 2 year olds, while my book and the toddler theology series (check the other books out here, here, and here) are more suited for ages 2 and up (though that doesn’t mean you can’t start at infancy with these, too!).

For another option, check out God is Great, God is Good by my friend and former professor, D. Scott Hildreth.

(And I realize it’s a bit self-serving to include my own book here, but I do believe it’s a helpful book to start teaching your kids about missions! For more kids’ books specifically about missions, check out this article.)

General Board Books

The BabyLit series of board books are fun primers based on classic literature such as The Wizard of Oz, Sherlock Holmes, Pride and Prejudice, and many more. Fun fact- the illustrator for Little Women also illustrated my book. We had many of these when my kids were babies.

First 100 Words was also a longtime favorite, so much so that ours completely fell apart. We owned the large version (linked above) and small version. Obviously the small version works better for little hands (making it a good car book), but the large version was easier to read and seemed to draw their attention more.

Finally, all the Jimmy Fallon board books were much beloved by kids and adults alike in our home, so they are also a frequent baby shower gift.

Interactive Books for Young Kids

Interactive books are always great gifts since they might not be something you’d purchase when there’s not a special occasion. My kids loved Press Here and as a bonus for the parent, it sneakily teaches kids how to follow step-by-step instructions.

Seek-and-find books (here is the Christmas version of the one above) are a great gift and there are so many different options for various age groups (check here and here for a couple other versions.)

We also recently discovered Kit and Kaboodle books (check out all the Highlights puzzle readers) and my son is particularly fond of these books. These are more challenging for older toddlers and also help with sight words.

Bibles

We have been reading The Jesus Storybook Bible to our kids since our oldest was about 16 months old. While the stories are maybe a bit long for the youngest of children, patience and repetition over the last 3.5 years has led to our kids really internalizing and having familiarity with the Bible stories included in this one. There are several storybook Bible options to choose from (check a few of them out here, here, and here), but this is the only one I’ve read so far. In the next month or so, I plan to read and review other storybook Bibles for your reference.

When our oldest turned 5 this year, she transitioned out of childcare during our worship service and into the kindergarten Sunday School class. Since she would be sitting with us for the entire service, we bought her the leather-cover version of the Easy for Me Bible. I think it’s a really good starter Bible. It’s pretty simple, with some inserts and front matter, but nothing too overwhelming for a young kid learning to read. The text is big enough for her to easily follow along when we’re reading Scripture, but the book itself is not too big for her to handle.

When she “graduated” out of the preschool ministry, our church’s children’s ministry gave her the CSB Explorer Bible. This Bible is chock-full of great information like background, dates, highlighted memory verses, and more. There are inserts with QR codes that parents can scan, linking to videos about certain passages and discussion questions families can use during devotional time at home. We don’t use this with our kids regularly right now, but I think it will be a great tool to use as they get older.

Christian Picture Books

The TGC Kids books have been helpful, parable-like stories that my kids have both enjoyed and have been a good tool to help them learn about subjects like coveting, lying, screentime, and the church.

As a parent, I have greatly appreciated the God Made Me series. These books have helped us address hard topics with our kids in an age appropriate manner (note that the God Made All of Me book teaches children the correct terminology for their private parts.)

Finally, there are lots of great picture-book-biographies for kids (check out the Do Great Things for God series and the Here I Am series). Lottie Moon: The Girl Who Changed the World is my favorite because it seems to focus more on Lottie’s actual mission work (sharing the gospel, contextualization, etc) than some other books of its kind.

Picture Books and Readers

You cannot go wrong with the classic Little Golden Books. We rarely go a day without reading at least one or two (we own the Disney Princess and Paw Patrol box sets, along with a handful of other individual books.)

I’m also a huge fan of The Office picture book (there are several others like it, including a Friends and Seinfeld version).

Lastly, our kids enjoy beginner reader books and even our 3-year-old has started learning some sight words with these books (There are hundreds to choose from, but our kids’ favorites include Fancy Nancy, Clark the Shark, Kit and Kaboodle, and Disney. Look up I Can Read or World of Reading books for different levels of beginner readers.)

Miscellaneous

Our parents and others have given our kids some storybook collections and these make great gifts. We own five total (the Marvel one listed above, several Disney-themed, and one Paw Patrol). Our kids love picking out different stories within them. Each story takes 5 or so minutes to read, which makes them a great bedtime book.

And while it seems like an odd choice, I bought our daughter the dictionary listed above because for several months, she asked me what every other word I said meant. This one has a good variety of words and she likes flipping through it on occasion.

Finally, I saved the best for last: the Hallmark recordable storybook (there are other non-Hallmark options, too). My mom had both of my grandmothers record these books for my kids when they were born, and both sets of our parents have recorded one for each kid as well. These are so special to me, particularly since losing one of my grandmothers earlier this year. It’s a keepsake that makes a really great Christmas gift for kids.

_{Photo by Andreea Radu on Unsplash}