26 Children's Christmas Books in 25 Days - Day #22

The Very Special Christmas by Christine Leeson, illustrated by Gaby Hansen, is my 2 little Boys pick for Day 22 of our Children's Christmas Books tour.  I am pretty sure they both picked this book at the winter book fair at school because of the "surprise" at the end of the book.

In The Very Special Christmas (also known as The Gift of Christmas, not sure if this version has the "surprise") Molly the mouse is getting ready to celebrate her very first Christmas.  Molly sees something shining and glittering through the window of the house her mouse family lives near and ask her mom what it is.  Mother mouse explains that it is a Christmas tree, and that people cover them with shiny balls, lights, and stars.  "I wish we had a Christmas tree," sighs Molly.  Why don't you go into the woods to find one?" says her mother.  "You could make it look just as  nice as the tree in the window."

So, Molly mouse along with her brothers and sisters set out to find things to decorate the tree.  Molly finds an old doll in the barn, a beautiful gold ribbon in a tree, and some shinny new crab apples.  All of the found items belong to another animal who normally would chase the mice, but in the spirit of Christmas, they decide to share their items and treat the mice with kindness.  Molly and her siblings go deeper into the woods and find the perfect tree and decorate the tree, but when they step back to look at their work they are disappointed that their tree looks nothing like the tree in the window.  Molly and her brothers, and sisters go home sad with their efforts and go to bed.

In the middle of the night, Mother mouse wakes up all of her children and tells them to follow her.  Much to their surprise she leads them back to the Christmas tree they had decorated.  All around the tree are other animals from the woods . . . . . .  looking with awe at their tree.  The tree has now been sprinkled with fresh fallen snow, and with the help of the moonlight, their tree has now become just and beautiful, shiney, and glittery as the tree in the window.  The surprise to the reader is that the tree in the book also lights up.

Your children will be delighted with the surprise at the end of the story.  The story is charming and the images of the mice and woodlen animals sweet, this one is well worth the effort to check it out from your local library, local bookstore, or online book resource.