A shelf of Christmas-morning books to wrap and tuck under the tree — the holiday classics and the pretty hardcovers you give once and a family reads every December after. These aren't a set to read in order. Pick the one that fits the child you're shopping for: a snowy picture book for a little one, a giftable classic for the middle years, a real Christmas novel for a bigger reader. Any single one is a lovely present on its own.
Think of this as the gift shelf, not a trail to climb. It spans the whole Christmas range: 'The Polar Express' and 'The Night Before Christmas' are the Christmas Eve keepsakes; 'Pick a Pine Tree' and 'Construction Site on Christmas Night' are for the youngest and the truck-obsessed; 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas!' and 'Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree' are the giftable classics for the middle years; and 'A Boy Called Christmas' is the grown-up-feeling novel for the child who's ready for a real story. Don't read them in sequence — just find the one whose age and spirit matches the child you're giving to, and wrap that one. Every book here is gentle except the last, which carries its own honest heads-up.