Counting Christmas

by Karen Katz

Join in the fun and count down to Christmas!

Three children getting ready for Christmas count down from ten to one in anticipation of Christmas morning.

Genres: Christmas, Picture Books, Childrens, Counting, Holiday, Storytime, Fiction

32 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2003

About the author

Karen Katz has written and illustrated many books for children, including The Colors of Us, Can You Say Peace, My First Ramadan, Counting Kisses and Where is Baby's Belly Button. Long inspired by folk art from around the world, she was inspired to write her first book, Over the Moon, when she and her husband adopted their daughter from Guatemala, and she wanted to tell the story of welcoming Lena into their lives. Katz loves to paint and experiment with texture, color, collage and pattern. Besides an author and illustrator, she has been a costume designer, quilt maker, fabric artist and graphic designer. Katz and her family divide their time between New York City and Saugerties, New York.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/karenkatz

Reviews

[Asho · Rating 3 out of 5]

Karen Katz's books are always a hit with my babies, and this one was no exception. F liked the colors and pointed out the reindeer and babbled about many of the pages. She continued to want to read this even after Christmas time. I got a little tripped up while reading this because at first I thought there was a rhyme scheme and then as the book went on I kept expecting it to rhyme and it wasn't, so then I figured out it wasn't intended to rhyme after all. The illustrations are better than the text, in other words. It's still cute, though!

[Kendra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing and colorful. I love the illustrations in this book as they keep the toddlers and youngers attention to the book. I loved reading this book to my kiddos last night as we talked about what we are excited about for Christmas. The kids had fun counting down from ten to one. It's such a fun book for the kiddos to listen to. I recommend getting it for your kids for their first Christmas.

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not too impressed by this one. The illustrations are definitely bright and colorful for the Christmas season. I liked the idea of counting down from 10 to 1 but I’m not a fan of the text. Ten felt like it was a tongue twister. A few of them felt like they were forced together to make a sentence. Each number consists of only one sentence. The book has great illustrations and it’s good for counting, I’m just not a fan of the sentences that she constructed. 2.5 stars

[Suzanne Lorraine Kunz Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the art work in Karen Katz books! I love her beautiful happy families. I love beautiful balance of the patterns and the solid colors in her pictures. Her illustrations are always uplifting and radiate joy. All that said, this is a fun counting book / count down book that walks us through many traditions of Christmas.

[Diana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cute book, but awkward to read aloud. Decided to pass on it for storytime, after all.

[Eva_Amaré · Rating 2 out of 5]

We generally enjoy Karen Katz, but this one was not a winner for us. The signature illustrations and bright colours kept us turning the pages, but the counting down was not terribly exciting.

[DiAnne Warfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

Colt library preschool story times week of Dec 9 2019

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter liked it.

[Relyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is very short for a Kindergarten library class read-aloud, but we fill in with counting practice first. It's a hit.

[Sherry Scheline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute little counting Christmas book. Very simple read.

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

The rhyming isn't consistent and that's a pet peeve of mine :(

[Deidra Chamberlain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun counting and it’s designed well.

[Clong · Rating 2 out of 5]

What is going on with this book? Does it rhyme or not? And is it really so hard to decide?

[Nancy Snyder · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun book to prepare for Christmas for the very young.

[E & E’s Mama · Rating 3 out of 5]

Infant to preschool; library copy; thin board book. Cute and very simple phrases for the youngest children. Includes fun parts about Christmas, like twinkle lights, cookies, and gifts. It was cute, but not one I think I’ll check out next year

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Counting Christmas is more than a counting book or a Christmas book; it offers teachers the opportunity to count backwards from ten down to one. Counting is one skill children learn from repetition but number sense where they understand what three or eight objects look like and how they relate to counting is another and more difficult skill that they need as a pre-math skill before they learn to add and subtract in kindergarten. This book offers a great way to read the text and have the children count on each page as the objects are pointed to by another child or the teacher.

[jacky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read a lot of Karen Katz. Natalie really likes her book with the flaps. So, when I saw this for a few bucks at Marden's, I picked it up t give to her next Christmas (about 9 months away). I liked how this book counted backwards, because that fits with how we count down the days to Christmas. I was surprised that it didn't have a rhyming scheme (or did I read it so fast I missed it?). I did like that the objects counted made sense for the audience.

[Jessica Adams Duzan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good story for young children. I use this for my 2 year old story time. This book counts down to Christmas starting a 10 stringed lights and goes all the way down to 1 happy day celebrated by families and loved ones. I made clip art to go with the story and the kids love to count as I put the items up on the board.

[Brittany · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a counting book coding down from ten to one. Not my favorite Karen Katz book. Actually pointing to and counting the things on the page together didn't always work. "One day" ... Nothing to count with a child. "Four arms" - she's referring to the parents' four arms but there are ten arms on the page.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a big Karen Katz fan and her books where a staple at my story times when I was a Children's Librarian. However, this is one of those weird books that rhyme and then don't rhyme and then rhyme again and then sort of rhyme. And that's annoying.

[Margaret Chind · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review pending...

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This holiday themed book counts different items related to the Christmas holiday. It starts at 10 and counts down to 1. Can be used in math to teach about counting down from 10. It could be used in preschool or kindergarten.

[Stacey Learst · Rating 3 out of 5]

I could imagine me singing a holiday song to this counting book. The illustrations were very bright and colorful. I thought the book was simple but engaging for young children. They would enjoy the counting and discovering what was next in line.

[Dewey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is short and sweet, as the title suggests, a countdown to Christmas. It would be a good book to include in a toddler storytime--short enough to hold their attention, with plenty of ways to spice it up if attention starts to wander, and it's a fun way to incorporate counting.

[Jen H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute Christmas counting book for babies and toddlers

[Kathrine Rogers]

Counting Week

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

We couldn't help but dive into this a little early! We love Karen Katz illustrations and this is a great book to get into the holiday spirit.

[Jeannie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sweet book with positive family images and plenty of Christmas things to count! Perfect for a little one just beginning to count. It certainly held the attention of our tiniest charge. :)

[Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

The baby counts down from 10 to 1 using various Christmas objects such as light bulbs, presents, cookies, stockings, slippers, stars, and bells.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good for beginning readers and number concepts to 10