Christmas Devotionals

I greatly enjoy reading a different Christmas book with my children each night from Deccember 1st through Christmas. We read secular favorites during the day but at bedtime we end the night with a spiritually-focused Christmas favorite.

I started thinking last year about Christmas novels. I myself like a good Christmas novel these days and I love the idea of a longer Christmas read-aloud as the kids get older. I remember liking a Christmas Saddle Club book one year and loving all my American Girl Christmas stories too (Addie’s being my favorite by a landslide).

Those, plus The Family under theBridge and The Light at Tern Rock, are the only Christmasy children’s novels I can think of at the moment. I’m sure there are others and I look forward to finding them over the next few years.

I just had the pleasure of reviewing an advent family devotional, Prepare Him Room, by Marty Machowski, which happened to have a Christmas story worked into it.

The story was broken up into four chapters spread out through the course of the devotional. I won’t give away all the details but it was about an orphanage and I really liked it.

As for the rest of the devotional… I want to be completely honest. I liked the messages but it was far too hands-on for me. Not only am I not a naturally hands-on person, I’m also really busy at Christmas. I work hard to not just be busy with cards and parties… I mean that I’m also already really busy doing advent activities with my kids. Our own traditions are hard enough to keep up with so I could tell there was just no way I’d be able to keep up with the crafts and activities listed in the book, at least in this mostly-toddlers season of my life. The crafts and activities do all seem fun though, so I think we’ll do some and I’ll just have to flip through in advance each week to decide what I’ll have time for and prepare for that.

There were also songs included in the devotional. I’m not super musical but my husband is and I do think he will really like that aspect.

If you’re interested in a good family devotional this Christmas, I definitely recommend Prepare Him Room!

* I received a free copy of Prepare Him Room from New Growth Press in exchange for an honest review.