The Story of Christmas by Gwen Ellis, Illustrated by Steve Smallman

The Story of Christmas by Gwen Ellis is a wonderful children's book that shares about the story of Jesus' birth.  It's a great reminder of the true "reason for the season" and is very easy for preschool or young school aged children to understand.  In addition to the story book, it also comes with a fun DVD that also goes through the Christmas story as well as some events in Jesus' life.

My four year old loved the book, the DVD, and especially the section in the back of the book called "Can You Retell the Story?"  It is several pages of key story point pictures without words that she can use to tell the story over and over again to herself or her baby dolls.  The DVD is basic, but she really enjoyed it - especially since she has two of the DVD Bible discs from the same company that she loves watching.  I also really appreciated the book beginning with Gabriel the angel coming to Zechariah to tell him about John the Baptist being born - it was a different beginning to the classic Christmas story than my daughter is used to hearing, plus it was a great way us to talk about the fact that angels spoke to people many times in the Bible (not just in the Christmas story as she thought before this book!).

If you're looking for a book to share with your family or a friend's family that shares the true Christmas story, this book is a great choice - and the DVD, color pages on CD ROM, and other features are added bonuses that our family really enjoyed!