Kid book rec(s) on the spirit of Christmas/mythology/history?

[KristyG51]

While we don't really "do" Santa, I think the whole thing needs some explaining, and I thought a book with the history/mythology of some different cultures would be a nice addition to our library. Something for kids 3+, not too Jesus-centric, ideally covers a few different cultures? Any pointers?

[wombatclay]

We're a Pagan family so most of our books are "Solstice" oriented, but since a lot of modern Christmas traditions have Pagan roots you might enjoy some of these books too!

Right now the kiddo favorites are Winter Solstice: Sacred Traditions of Christmas by the Matthews, Winter Solstice by Ellen Jackson, and Return of the Light: Twelve Tales of the Winter Solstice by Carolyn Edwards.  They're all available from Amazon and you could probably find them at the library too (through interlibrary loan maybe?).

Yule: A Celebration of Light and Warmth by Dorothy Morrison is used by our local Unitarian Universalist children's program and it has some text online through google books (here).

[beanma]

We like The Shortest Day. It might be a little bit old for a 3+ yr old, but my kids enjoyed it when they were 5, certainly. I'm not sure if Santa is mentioned in there or not, but they do talk about some historic and cultural traditions associated with the solstice.

A book that we have checked out of the library and loved is "Children Just Like Me: Celebrations" which covers all sorts of celebrations, not just winter/solstice/Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanza.

hth