Cozy Winter Books to Warm Your Family This Season

If you ask us, the best thing about December is getting all cozy once the sun goes down and curling up with a good book! And while we know not everyone is a big reader, you have to admit there’s something that feels special about books during the winter months. No matter what the weather outside looks like, a book can instantly transport you to somewhere new, and what is more magical than that?

The holiday season is known for some classic books, but did you know that this time of year is the biggest for book printing and sales in many countries? In fact, the country of Iceland has a tradition called Jolabokaflod (Yule/Christmas Book Flood), where everyone is given a new book on Christmas Eve and spends the rest of the evening reading. What a cozy tradition!

We know that reading to our kids often and early can help them develop language skills, empathy, and imagination and increase their attention span. But books also have a way of letting us escape our reality safely that actually benefits our brains. So no matter how you celebrate this time of year, spending time reading with your child is a great way to create cozy, quality time and even learn about how others celebrate in December!

Here’s our pick for the 10 best wintery books your whole family will enjoy:

1. Yoon and the Christmas Mitten

This is the story of a Korean-American girl struggling to make sense of both her cultures at Christmastime. The book is beautifully illustrated and approaches the holiday from a cultural rather than religious perspective. A sequel to the book My name is Yoon, this story is about finding identity in a new home.

2. Every Month Is a New Year: Celebrations Around the World

This book by renowned poet Marilyn Singer is a collection of 16 poems celebrating the new year. While in the west, our new year begins January 1st, not every culture’s new year is the same. From the Chinese Lunar Festival to Thailand’s Songkran to Ethiopia’s Enkutatash, this book explores all the beautiful ways the world celebrates new beginnings.

3. The Shortest Day

The Shortest Day is a poem written by Susan Cooper originally as a performance piece. However, combined with the stunning artwork of Carson Ellis, this book becomes a source of calm and solace. Celebrating the Winter Solstice and how this ancient observance has impacted our winter holidays, this book is a great read for the year’s longest night.

4. Too Many Tamales

This book, available in English and Spanish, is the charming story of a Mexican-American family gathering for a holiday to make tamales together. Everything is going great until little Maria tries on her mother’s diamond ring and loses it in one of the tamales! Join Maria and her cousins as they gather together to celebrate family and tradition and search for the ring in one of the tamales.

5. If Picasso Painted a Snowman

This unique book explores the world of art through the image of a single snowman. What if Picasso had painted a snowman? How would it look? What kind of snowman would Monet have drawn? O’Keefe, Klimt, Pollock? Take a journey through the world of art as this book explores how these famous artists would have portrayed this snowy friend.

6. Winter Candle

When each family at the diverse Juniper Court apartment complex needs something to light up the dark of winter, the stumpy, lumpy candle provides a glow brighter than the fanciest taper, revealing the true spirit of each holiday it illuminates. This book explores the diverse ways we celebrate this time of year through light, and how no matter how you celebrate, light will always lead you home.

7. Seven Spools of Thread

In an African village live seven brothers who make family life miserable with their constant fighting. When their father dies, he leaves an unusual will: the brothers must make gold out of seven spools of thread by sundown. If they fail, they will be turned out as beggars. Using the Nguzo Saba, or “seven principles” of Kwanzaa, the author has created an unforgettable story that shows how family members can pull together for their own good and the good of the entire community.

8. Oskar and the Eight Blessings

A refugee seeking sanctuary from the horrors of Kristallnacht, Oskar arrives by ship in New York City with only a photograph and an address for an aunt he has never met. It is both the seventh day of Hanukkah and Christmas Eve, 1938. As Oskar walks the length of Manhattan, from the Battery to his new home in the north of the city, he passes experiences the city’s many holiday sights and encounters its various residents. Each offers Oskar a small act of kindness, welcoming him to the city and helping him on his way to a new life in the new world.

9. Lights of Winter: Winter Celebrations around the World

While Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanza might be the most famous holidays celebrated at the end of the year, they’re not the only ones. This book takes you on a journey through several winter celebrations and their history. Learn about Solstice, Yule, Christmas, Kwanza, Hanukkah, Teng Chieh, Diwali, Soyal, Las Posadas, Zagmuk, and Saturnalia in the beautifully illustrated book the whole family will love.

10. Letters From Father Christmas

Every December, an envelope bearing a stamp from the North Pole would arrive for J.R.R. Tolkien’s children. Inside would be a letter in strange spidery handwriting and a beautiful colored drawing or some sketches. The letters were from Father Christmas. They told wonderful tales of life at the North Pole: how all the reindeer got loose and scattered presents all over the place, how the accident-prone Polar Bear climbed the North Pole and fell through the roof of Father Christmas’s house into the dining room and many more. Now you and your children can read these letters written by one of the twentieth century’s most enduring and beloved authors.

We hope these books bring you and your family so much love, light, and coziness this winter!