The Story of Christmas by Gwen Ellis, Illustrated by Steve Smallman

The Story of Christmas is a children's book that tells the complete Christmas story for young children around the ages of 4-10. It begins with an angel coming to both Elizabeth and Mary, continues on to Jesus's birth, and ends with visits from the shepherds and wisemen before Mary and Joseph return home to Nazareth. The author has written the story well, and has broken the book down into 10 mini-stories. So for preschool age children you could read one story each night leading up to Christmas, without overwhelming them all at once with the whole story. Each mini-story has the Scripture reference of where it is taken from in the Bible, and there is a question for thought at the conclusion of each mini-story that a school age child could answer. At the end of the book, there are "snapshot" scenes taken from the stories for your children to put in order and retell the story to you. Every page has a bright and colorful picture. Also included is a 17 minute DVD of the life of Jesus, told in 6 different stories. The first 3 stories are from the Christmas story, and the remaining 3 are about Jesus being tempted by Satan, his miracles, and how Jesus loves all children. They are narrated clearly and kept my child's attention. However, I didn't care for how the DVD portrayed Satan. He was pictured in a long brown cape with a black cloth covered face, much like the Grim Reaper. My children didn't know who he was, and therefore really didn't understand the story of Jesus being tempted by Satan. That particular story seemed to be too mature for them, and didn't go along with the other stories on the DVD. I would recommend the The Story of Christmas to anyone who wants their children to have an illustrated book of the true meaning of Christmas!