Things I Do All Day

There are SO many great baby and children books to add to any kid’s library!

There are also a lot of terrible books out there that makes you realize that you could write a children’s book better than some currently out there!

And there are A LOT of children’s books to choose from that is can be totally overwhelming!

However, here are a list of 100 books recommended by real life moms that are all-around family favorites to add to your home collection!

You’ll find a lot of these on many lists and you probably have a few of these already! You may also discover a few new ones! I know I have discovered a few new favorites already!

This post does contain affiliate links and I get a small percentage if you make a purchase (thank you!) but it can be on whatever, and don’t have any particular interest or stake in any book whatsoever.

The books are listed in no particular order, just how they were recommended and compiled.

You’ll notice a few from the same authors too– you can’t go wrong with anything from Eric Carle, Sandra Boynton, Nancy Tillman, Mo Williems, or Dr. Seuss + many other authors!

Here are 100 baby books and young children’s book to add to your home recommended directly from fellow moms!

100 Best Baby Book Suggestions:

1. On The Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman
2. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
3. Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton
4. The Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boynton
5. Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
6. The Fat Cat Sat on the Mat by Nurit Karlin
7. You Are My I Love You by Maryann Cusimano
8. Pajama Time by Sandra Boynton
9. Time for Bed by Mem Fox
10. Ten Tiny Toes by Caroline Jayne Church
11. The Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen
12. Peek A Who by Nina Laden
13. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
14. I Love You Through and Through by Bernadette Rossetti Shustak
15. I Love You, Stinky Face by Lisa Mccourt
16. Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle
17. Good Night, Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle
18. Snuggle Up Sleepy Ones by Claire Freedman
19. How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? by Jane Yolen
20. Night Night Farm by Amy Parker
21. Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae
22. I’m Going to Give You a Bear Hug by Caroline B. Cooney
23. If I Could Keep You Little by Marianne Richmond
24. I’d Know You Anywhere, My Love by Nancy Tillman
25. Goodnight Little One by Susan Larkin
26. Gregory, The Terrible Eater by Mitchell Sharmat
27. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
28. Jamberry by Bruce Degen
29. Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever by Richard Scarry
30. Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
31. The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Audrey Wood
32. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.
33. The Belly Button Book by Sandra Boynton
34. Olivia by Ian Falconer
35. But Not the Hippopotamus by Sandra Boynton
36. Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site by Sherri Duskey Rinker
37. Milk and Cookies by Frank Asch
38. I’m A Dirty Dinosaur by Janeen Brian
39. Wherever You Are: My Love Will Find You by Nancy Tillman
40. I’ve Loved You Since Forever by Hoda Kotb
41. The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn
42. The Napping House by Audrey Wood
43. Snuggle Puppy by Sandra Boynton
44. My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss
45. Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth by Oliver Jeffers
46. Little Owl’s Day by Divya Srinivasan
47. Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle
48. Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown
49. Hound from the Pound by Jessica Swaim
50. Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
51. There is a Mouse in My House by Jeanne Dore
52. It’s Time to Sleep, My Love by Nancy Tillman
53. Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
54. Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson
55. God Gave Us You by Lisa Tawn Bergren
56. Little Pookie by Sandra Boynton
57. Starlight Sailor by James Mayhew
58. Bear Takes a Trip by Sheila Blackstone
59. Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney
60. Never Touch A Shark by Rosie Greening
61. Never Touch A Dinosaur by Rosie Greening
62. If Animals Kissed Good Night by Ann Whitford Paul
63. I Love to the Moon and Back by Amelia Hepworth
64. Just Shopping with Mom by Mercer Mayer
65. Where’s The Bear by Nosy Crow
66. Moo Baa La La La by Sandra Boynton
67. If You Give A Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff
68. The Wonky Donkey by Craig Smith
69. Don’t Push The Button by Bill Cotter
70. Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin
71. Night-Night, Little Pookie by Sandra Boynton
72. Hippos Go Berserk by Sandra Boynton
73. Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Williems
74. Goodnight Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann
75. The Belly Button Book by Sandra Boynton
76. If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff
77. Never Tease a Weasel by Jean Condor Soule
78. Dr. Seuss’s ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book by Dr. Seuss
79. Peekaboo Kisses by Barney Saltzberg
80. Everywhere Babies by Susan Meyers
81. Mama Loves You So by Terry Pierce
82. Baby Beluga by Raffi
83. Mary Had a Little Glam by Tammi Sauer
84. Corduroy by Don Freeman
85. Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? by Dr. Seuss
86. My First 100 Words by Roger Priddy
87. Dream Big, Little One by Vasti Harrison
88. Noisy Baby Animals by Patricia Hegarty
89. Llama Llama Nighty-Night by Anna Dewdney
90. Me and My Dad! by Alison Ritchie
91. Tubby by Leslie Patricelli
92. Potty by Leslie Patricelli
93. I Wish You More by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
94. The Wonderful Things You Will Be by Emily Winfield Martin
95. Oh, The Thinks You Can Think! by Dr. Seuss
96. The Shape of Me and Other Stuff by Dr. Seuss
97. Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Al Perkins
98. From Head to Toe by Eric Carle
99. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
100. Go The F**k to Sleep by Adam Mansbach

Also, don’t forget you can always reserve a few of these through your local library!

I know I’ve checked out a few books at the library and ended up buying them because my kids loved them so much!

It’s a great way to expose your baby to more books for free!

Also, check to see if your library does book sales– we’ve gotten a few children books for .25 each and the proceeds support the library! Win, win!

Amazon will also have book deals, usually around Prime Day in July and Black Friday week in November, as well as some other random times during the year,

Keep an eye out for all those great book deals to save money to help make a big collection of books!

What are your favorite first baby books and children books?

The Christmas Season is full of memories and traditions and such a special time of year– especially when you have little ones!

Here are 15 ideas of Christmas Traditions to Start with your Family and enjoy every December:

*This post does contain affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy if you have any questions.

Count The Days ‘Til Christmas

Count down the days until Christmas with a fun calendar! Make your own calendar as a fun craft with the kids or buy a traditional advent calendar!

I buy the .99 chocolate advent calendars from Trader Joe’s because it’s easy.

However, there are a lot of non-food advent calendars that you can easily buy if you don’t want to give a piece of chocolate to the kids each day and don’t want to make one:

• Lego City Advent Calendar
• Lego Friends Advent Calendar
• Hot Wheels Advent Calendar
• Playmobil Advent Calendar
• L.O.L. Surprise! Advent Calendar
• Paw Patrol Advent Calendar
• Disney Jr. Advent Calendar
• Disney Pixar Cars Advent Calendar
• Thomas & Friends Mini Trains Advent Calendar

There’s also the Melissa & Doug Countdown to Christmas Wooden Advent Calendar or you could make your own advent calendar!

Here are 35 DIY Advent Calendar Ideas to give you some inspiration of ways of counting down ’til Christmas!

Find “The Elf” Every Morning

The Elf on the Shelf is a fun tradition to do with the kids each year– one you probably didn’t have growing up yourself!

The Elf keeps an eye out for Santa and flies back to the North Pole each night and reports to Santa whether a child was naughty or nice.

The Elf will return in a new spot each night and kids love to find where the Elf ends up!

Some elves are VERY naughty and will get into mischief, but our elf is sort of boring. He usually just stays up high so my little ones aren’t tempted to touch him– since he can lose his flying magic if he is touched.

Here are 70+ creative Elf of the Shelf ideas for some inspiration of fun things to do with your Elf!

Send a Letter to Santa

Write and send a letter to Santa and let him know what you’d like for Christmas!

You can even use a free printable Santa Letter and just fill in the blanks if you have a young or timid writer!

While you are writing your letter to Santa, it’s a great time to make your Santa wish list– an annual tradition!

Make and Decorate Cookies for Santa

We leave out milk and cookies every year for Santa, but we also make and decorate the cookies together!

I usually do a big batch of sugar cookies on the 23rd and we will decorate it then or on Christmas Eve! We make the cookies from scratch and then use our holiday cookie cutters to make fun shapes!

We will then decorate the cookies together as a family! Sometimes when I host Christmas Eve, I’ll leave the cookies not decorated and have the kids decorate the cookies at the party as an easy activity! It’s a hit!

Making and decorating Christmas Cookies is a family favorite! We usually play Christmas music while we bake too!

Make a New Ornament Each Year

We try to make a new ornament together each year to put on the Christmas Tree!

We will also use make a few and give them out to family and friends as a fun present!

We’ve done Salt Dough Ornament for the first few years but I think as my kids become older and more engaged we will decide on an ornament craft together and do a new one each year!

It will be fun to look at back and see how our ornaments grow each year in skill as our kids grow!

Decorate the Christmas Tree Together

Christmas Music. Hot Cocoa. Christmas Tree Decorating!

I love decorating the Christmas Tree together as a family with Christmas music, hot cocoa and family!

We usually decorate the Christmas Tree and the inside of the house at the same time!

We love decorating the Christmas Tree together as well as putting some homemade ornaments on the tree too!

Read Christmas Books at Night

Switch out those nightly favorite books for Christmas books for the month of December.

I know some people have a tradition of having kids unwrap a book every day in the month of December leading up to Christmas.

We don’t do that specific tradition, but I try to break out the Christmas books that we do have and get some others at the library for a good variety.

Some favorite Christmas Books for kids are:

• The Night Before Christmas
• Polar Express
• How to Catch an Elf
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas
• Little Blue Truck’s Christmas *has lights*
• Christmas in the Manger
• The Berenstain Bears and the Joy of Christmas
• Llama Llama Jingle Bells

Also, don’t forget to check out your local library to check out Christmas Books to help save some money!

We always make sure to read The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve, but I pull out some Christmas Books for the season.

Decorate a Gingerbread House

My kids will usually decorate a Gingerbread House with Dad while I’m out Christmas shopping or doing something else!

I’ll usually just buy the Gingerbread House box kits at Michael’s or Trader Joe’s but maybe we will make better Gingerbread Houses when the kids are bigger!

Take a Photo with Santa

We always try to take a photo with Santa… at least attempt it because with two little ones it doesn’t always happen perfectly– or at all!

We like to find free photos with Santa since we never know how they are going to go. Bass Pro Shops or a local event are good places to look for free photos with Santa– although Bass Pro Shops can have long lines, especially my local one.

A few malls near me, surprisingly, offer free photos with Santa so do some research to see if you can find a free option first! We did PetSmart one year too so our dog could come too!

It’s always fun to meet Santa– even if it doesn’t go perfectly!

Drive and search for Christmas Lights around Town

Make driving around and searching for Christmas Lights a family tradition!

Check the local paper and local boards to see if you can find recommendations of local Christmas light displays too!

We love watching the Christmas Light battles on TV too and wish we had some of these amazing displays in our neighborhood!

However, my kids are so little, they love all the lights and Christmas displays!

Visit an Annual Christmas Event in Your Town

Do you have a Town Christmas Tree Lighting? A Christmas Pageant? Toy Drive?

Find a fun Christmas event and do it every year as a family!

A store near us does a free Christmas display and we see it every year– we even meet Santa there!

Watch Christmas Movies as a Family

Stay in one night and watch a Christmas movie as a family!

You can watch the same Christmas movie each year or discover a new favorite each year!

Open a Gift on Christmas Eve

As a child, we always opened a gift on Christmas Eve and something I now do with my kids!

I will sometimes put a gift to the side for Christmas Eve if I have something in particular I’d like them to open– usually Christmas Pajamas! If I don’t have Christmas Pajamas, I’ll have them open a box of their choice– with some mom approval first.

I love opening a gift the night before Christmas is a favorite family tradition in our house!

Sponsor a Child in Need

If you can, consider sponsoring a child for Christmas and grant some wishes on their Christmas list!

You can also donate toys to Toys for Tots or a local charity to help make a Christmas a little brighter for a child!

We always looked for a “giving tree” at a local church, mall, etc. and selected a child and gift from the tree.

If you can’t sponsor a child, but want to give back this Christmas, you can make it a family tradition to volunteer at a soup kitchen as a family, wrapping presents at a toy drive, or another act of kindness.

Giving back during the Christmas season may be an annual tradition that you’d like to start as a family!

Put Baby Jesus out on Christmas Day

We had a Nativity set in our dining room growing up, and before we started the Christmas morning festivities, one of us would put out Baby Jesus and add him to the Nativity scene.

My kids are so little, I have the Fisher Price Nativity Set, and will upgrade when they can handle a more fragile set.

It was a family tradition that we did every year and it was a reminder what the holiday season was really about.

What Christmas Traditions do you do with your family each year?

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