Hey Everyone ! 

I`ve started a holiday reading class  and writing letters to Santa class for the months of November and December . Finishing on Jan 7th. 

So, I wanted to share my top 8 books I enjoy reading outloud. I`ve suggested 3 of these for my Holiday reading class but you can request any of these books. Depending on the book it might be able to be bought by hardcopy or ebook. All of these stories are short reads , the longest is A Dog`s Perfect Christmas. 

1. A Dog`s Perfect Christmas ( Advanced Level--7.5 hour native English reading time) --The perfect, feel-good holiday gift from W. Bruce Cameron, the #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the A Dog’s Purpose series

The problems fracturing the Goss family as Christmas approaches are hardly unique, though perhaps they are handling them a little differently than most people might. But then a true emergency arises, one with the potential to not only ruin Christmas, but everything holding the family together.

Is the arrival of a lost puppy yet another in the string of calamities facing them, or could the little canine be just what they all need?

A Dog’s Perfect Christmas is a beautiful, poignant, delightful tale of what can happen when family members open their hearts to new possibilities. You’ll find love and tears and laughter—the ideal holiday read.

2. A Christmas Carol - This book is able to be gotten at different reading levels. Original would be intermedate level ( 3.5 hour native English reading time ) and an elementary version ( 2 hours native English reading time) can also be bought. 

If I had my way, every idiot who goes around with Merry Christmas on his lips, would be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. Merry Christmas? Bah humbug!'

To bitter, miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, Christmas is just another day. But all that changes when the ghost of his long-dead business partner appears, warning Scrooge to change his ways before it's too late. 

3.  A Christmas Story --( Advanced Level- 4 hours native English reading time)  Also a Fmaily Chistmas Classic movie -- A beloved, bestselling classic of humorous and nostalgic Americana—the book that inspired the equally classic Yuletide film.

The holiday film A Christmas Story, first released in 1983, has become a bona fide Christmas perennial, gaining in stature and fame with each succeeding year. Its affectionate, wacky, and wryly realistic portrayal of an American family’s typical Christmas joys and travails in small-town Depression-era Indiana has entered our imagination and our hearts with a force equal to It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street.

4. The Greatest Gift -- (Intermediate level 1.5 hours native English reading time)  A beautiful gift edition of the heartwarming story that became the Christmas classic movie , It’s a Wonderful Life.

For almost seventy years, people the world over have fallen in love with Frank Capra’s classic Christmas movie It’s a Wonderful Life. But few of those fans know that Capra’s film was based on a short story by author Philip Van Doren Stern, which came to Stern in a dream one night. 

Unable at first to find a publisher for his evocative tale about a man named George Pratt who ponders suicide until he receives an opportunity to see what the world would be like without him, Stern ultimately published the story in a small pamphlet and sent it out as his 1943 Christmas card. One of those 200 cards found its way into the hands of Frank Capra, who shared it with Jimmy Stewart, and the film that resulted became the holiday tradition we cherish today.

Now fans of It’s a Wonderful Life, or anyone who loves the spirit of Christmas, can own the story that started it all in an elegant, illustrated edition that’s perfect for holiday giving. It includes an Afterword by Stern’s daughter, Marguerite Stern Robinson, that tells the story of how her father’s Christmas card became the movie beloved by generations of people around the world.

 5. The Christmas Box ( Intermediate level-3.5 hours native English reading time) --"Whatever the reason, I find that with each passing Christmas the story of the Christmas Box is told less and needed more. So I record it now for all future generations to accept or dismiss as seems them good. As for me, I believe. And it is, after all, my story." 
So begins "The Christmas Box, " the touching story of a widow and the young family who moves in with her. Together they discover the first gift of Christmas and learn what Christmas is really all about. "The Christmas Box" is a Christmas story unlike any other.

6. Skipping Christmas ( Advanced Level-4 hours native English reading time   -- Imagine a year without Christmas. No crowded shops, no corny office parties, no fruitcakes, no unwanted presents. That's just what Luther and Nora Krank have in mind when they decide that, just this once, they'll skip the holiday altogether. Theirs will be the only house on the street without a rooftop Frosty the snowman; they won't be hosting their annual Christmas Eve bash; they aren't even going to have a tree. They won't need one, because come December 25 they're setting sail on a Caribbean cruise. But, as this weary couple is about to discover, skipping Christmas brings enormous consequences - and isn't half as easy as they'd imagined.

A classic tale for modern times, Skipping Christmas offers a hilarious look at the chaos and frenzy that has become part of our holiday tradition.

7. Letters from Father Christmas -- ( Intermediate Level 2.5 hours native English reading time) -- Can you imagine writing to Father Christmas and actually getting a reply? For more than twenty years, the children of J.R.R. Tolkien received letters from the North Pole - from Father Christmas himself! They told wonderful stories of mischief and disaster, adventures, and battles: how the reindeer got loose and scattered presents all over the place, how the accident-prone Polar Bear climbed the North Pole and fell through the roof of Father Christmas's house, and many others.

Now, for the first time, these letters are brought to life with specially arranged holiday music in the audiobook version. 

8. How the Grinch Stole Christmas --( Beginner level 3o mins- 1 hour native English reading time depending on reading ability of the child or adult) -- "
The Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season!
Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason."

Dr. Seuss's small-hearted Grinch ranks right up there with Scrooge when it comes to the crankiest, scowling holiday grumps of all time. For 53 years, the Grinch has lived in a cave on the side of a mountain, looming above the Whos in Whoville. The noisy holiday preparations and infernal singing of the happy little citizens below annoy him to no end. The Grinch decides this frivolous merriment must stop. His "wonderful, awful" idea is to don a Santa outfit, strap heavy antlers on his poor, quivering dog Max, construct a makeshift sleigh, head down to Whoville, and strip the chafingly cheerful Whos of their Yuletide glee once and for all. Let`s read the book aloud to find out the Grinch`s ending. .

I hope to see some of you in my holiday reading class -- choosing a medium or short story to read for the holidays, or try writing a letter to Santa and get a response good for kids and adults. 

Hope to hear from you soon! Though not all of these books are listed in my class page you can request to do any of the above books. :) 

Lets look forward to the holiday season together !

Kindly, 

StephanieRiann

1. Letters to Santa -- https://cafetalk.com/lessons/detail/?id=361838&key=9be2aaab86e0a5a5c77c99a0c13417e9

2. Christmas Reading class -- https://cafetalk.com/lessons/detail/?id=361828&key=58d4f531b4b3586d2259f5ee7b7c5ed6