I was lucky enough to find a copy of this in my branch library a week ago and knew I had to have it for the blog. Much like the Christmas Stories I reviewed last year this is a collection of short stories which were probably mostly used for the magazines but that doesn’t make them any less magical.

Perfect for young children

Make no mistake, when he’s a bit older, I will be getting Brodie a copy of this book. The stories are the perfect length for bedtime stories. They are also full of morals and lessons that the various toys, animals and children learn throughout the book. What could be better for a child than to have moral lessons at Christmas, learning that others are not as fortunate as themselves but a nice thing to do goes a long way!

They are like the short stories we know and love from Blyton in her magazines and articles. One of the stories in the book is about Bobs, her beloved little dog, Bimbo her cat and a little puppy called Topsy. They wonder how the presents arrive on Christmas day and set about trying to find Santa and put up their own stockings. Its a rather adorable story and nice to have little Bobs included in the Christmas stories as I knew he meant a lot to Enid Blyton when he was around and she adored him.

There are twenty five stories in this volume, so there is a lot to get through but if you think about it, and start reading them with your child on the last night of November, you could do a story a night right up to Christmas eve, which would be a nice little thing to do at the end of  a busy day in December. It would be a good way to spend time with your child as well and that was what Blyton always promoted I suppose in a way with her writing, the togetherness of families even though her own family life couldn’t have been more different.

May I recommend purchasing a copy of this book for yourselves or your little ones as I really think its a good thing to have on the shelf, especially with all the messages about being kind at Christmas. There are so many gems in this collection that its hard to put a finger on the best one, but I really think its a book worth investing in!

Merry Christmas!