On Our Montessori Bookshelves this Christmas

My son is only one, but we've been thinking of doing something similar with Santa. I don't like the idea of lying to him, but I also have the best memories of believing in Santa as a child. We're planning on just not making Santa the focus and seeing what happens!

I know it would probably take tons more time, but I'd love if you could share a little bit about the books you love (maybe not all of them). I'm always excited for your book posts, but then when it's just the title I'm not really sure if it's something we would like or not...just a thought!

I link to amazon because almost all of the books will have a preview there if you are on a computer. So it actually lets you page through the books. But I will keep this in mind in the future.

Yes, we just keep is casual. We started the Santa thing before we knew about Montessori so it’s harder for our families to let go then us. We do all the fun parts of it, but I make sure to say “it’s a fun story” and not that it’s specifically real. But we also don’t talk that it’s specifically fake. Henry is at the point where he is starting to really think critically about it. He has also already asked about the tooth fairy and Easter Bunny and we have been honest with him, but still keep the traditions even when he knows it’s us.

We have always talked about Father Christmas as a fun story and game we play (which was very natural when we were living overseas and I explained that they told a different holiday story -- Sinterklaas). Some of our favourites are The Raymond Briggs Father Christmas (and the sequel where he goes on holiday), The Jolly Christmas Postman, Peter and Lotta's Christmas (Swedish so features the Christmas goat and we also liked that it becomes clear to the children in the story that the Christmas Goat was a fun game but not really Real), Lucia and the Light, The Snowy Day, and The Cat on the Dovrefell. Almost all of these have fantasy elements, so not especially classic Montessori but we have never been strict on that aspect and there are many good discussions to be had at xmas as they get older about what is real and what is pretend and what others might believe differently.

Oh and "What a Mess and the Cat Next Door" is a favourite from my childhood.