Books About Animals: Advent With Toddlers

For my little guys, the most exciting thing about the incarnation is the animals.  They love to watch the ceramic animals for the nativity creche emerge from their styrofoam blocks.  And they were thrilled yesterday when I told them that they could dress up a cow or sheep for the Christmas pageant -- though Cody then said he wanted to be Buzz Lightyear, leading me to inquire whether he was sure Buzz had been present at the Lord's birth and him to reluctantly concede that he had not, though he still wanted to be Buzz in the pageant.

So our favorite Christmas books are about the great mystery from the perspective of animals. Who Is Coming to Our House? follows all the animals in the stable as they prepare for Joseph and Mary's arrival...and, at the very end, the birth of Jesus. The Last Straw is about a camel laden with gifts and his journey to the baby Jesus. Liv and Cody love them both.

This year, we also did a sticker nativity book.  These are fantastic.  It was so fun to have the kids tell me the story with stickers, and especially to watch them place the animals.  Flying donkeys in the stable window, anyone?  It was all terribly Chagall.