When my child was little, I wanted to be sure that she heard The Night Before Christmas. However, Claude the Dog by Dick Gackenbach was always my favorite for learning that Christmas is about giving. I loved to use books with illustrations of songs, like The Little Drummer Boy, Silent Night, and The Friendly Beasts. These are books that can be appreciated by children from 18 months up to - well, she is 13 now, and with holiday nostalgia will still sit with me for these classics.