SPANISH FORT, Ala. — During this season of busyness, festivities and excitement don't forget the gift of reading to your child during the holiday season.

How many of us remember poems read to us by teachers and family and we all have put stories to our hearts generation after generation that bring our hearts into the nostalgia of favorite Christmas memories.

Don't forget to pass on these stories and memories to your own child.

Three of Santa's helpers have been working overtime to get your child a list of holiday books that your child will truly enjoy.

Please go by and meet Tonja Young, Cathy Chandler and Rhonda Moss at the Daphne Public Library and get your hands on some books that will build memories and traditions in your family as well as good reading and comprehension skills.

Tonja, Cathy and Rhonda have made a list and are checking it twice to make sure you have these books in hand before the season passes by.

I cannot wait to slip into a corner and share these exciting, life memory stories with my own classroom of children as we put to heart the joy of the season.

Here are just a few children's Christmas books to check out:

• Junie B., First Grader: Jingle Bells, Batman Smells! (p.s. so does May) by Junie B. Jones

• Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner, Mark Buehner

• The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg

• The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (Paperback) by Barbara Robinson

• How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (Hardcover) by Dr. Seuss

• The 12 days of Christmas/ illustrated by Alison Julian

• The Berenstein Bears save Christmas by Stan & Jan Berenstein

• Bright Star Shining:poems for Christmas by Michael Harrison

• A Charlie Brown Christmas by Charles M. Schulz

• Christmas around the world by Emily Kelley

• The Christmas Cookie Case by Maria S. Barbo

• Dora's Christmas Parade by Leslie Valdes

• Fluffy saves Christmas by Kate McMullen

• Four friends at Christmas by Tomie de Paolo

• The friendly beasts by Tomie de Paolo

• Gullah night before Christmas by Virginia M. Geraty

• Christmas in Camelot (Magic Tree House #29; Hardcover) by Mary Pope Osborne

• Bear Stays Up for Christmas by Karma Wilson

• The Animals' Merry Christmas (Little Golden Books; Random House) by Kathryn Jackson, Richard Scarry

• I Spy Christmas: A Book of Picture Riddles by Jean Marzollo, Walter Wick

• If You Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numeroff

• The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado, Liz Bonham

• The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore, Mary Engelbreit

• The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie dePaola

• Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl S. Buck, Mark Buehner

• Cajun Night Before Christmas (Night Before Christmas Series) by Trosclair, et al

• The Little Fir Tree by Margaret Wise Brown

• A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote

• The Christmas Star by Marcus Pfister

• Auntie Claus by Elise Primavera

• Who's That Knocking on Christmas Eve? by Jan Brett (Illustrator)

Beth Pinyerd serves as Director of Young Children at Faith Family Fellowship in Spanish Fort.