Song of the Stars Christmas Book

The first book starting off our Christmas book reading is Song of the Stars by Sally Lloyd-Jones. I purposely picked this book to be our first book of the season, which we will read on Dec. 1st.

Summary: All of creation is filled with anticipation of the coming newborn king. The woodland creatures stirred, the mightly lion roared, the great white whales sang, "It's time!" A beautifully written and illustrated Christmas book that young children and adults will enjoy.

This is one of my new favorite Christmas books. Sally Lloyd-Jones was able to weave a new perspective of the Christmas story from creation's point-of-view. The story paired with the beautiful crackled-art paintings by Alison Jay is sure to become a family favorite.

"On a lonely peak a lion raised his strong head and roared it out to the empty wilderness... "The Mighty King! The Prince of Peace!"

This is why I chose this book to be our first Christmas book reading--- it weaves in some of the different names of Jesus. I had already decided that we were going to do a mini-study on the Names of Jesus during this Christmas season, so this book seemed the perfect way to start off our Names of Jesus advent chain.

Click to Download the Names of Jesus Advent Chain

Now the most important part of a Christmas Book tradition is reading them. Sounds simple right? Sometimes I put too much pressure on myself to do other activities to go along with the book and when they don't get done, I'm disappointed. So this year I'm giving myself grace to not do activities but to concentrate on creating some good reading memories with my children.

Some of the books though, as soon as I read them an idea pops into my head. That was the case with this book. So here's an extra activity that you could do that goes along with this book.

Crackled Star Ornament

Supplies:
2 different shades of yellow acrylic paint
Crackle paint medium (found in the same aisle as the acrylic paint)
cardstock or wooden stars
Star template if printing on cardstock
pipe cleaner or ribbon
marker

The illustrations in the book have a beautiful crackle finish on them. I knew I had the supplies on hand to recreate that effect at home. I thought my children would find it interesting how the paint "cracks" and the color shows through. Be aware, this project should be done in stages to allow for drying -- aka this is not a fast project! It is easy though. :)

First I printed out the star template onto cardstock. Then I painted with a darker yellow using a sponge brush. Let this dry completely. After it is dry, paint a coat of crackle medium over the stars using a foam brush. Let this dry completely. If doing this with young kids maybe do one step in the morning, one step in the afternoon, and then one step in the evening.

One the crackle medium is completely dry, you can paint on the top coat. I chose a lighter yellow. Paint that over the star. This is the fun part. While it is drying, you can see the paint starting to "crack" apart. The base coat then shows through! Once this is dry go ahead and cut out the stars. (You can also do this whole process with those wooden stars found at craft stores.)

I turned one of the stars into an ornament for our tree.

And another into a story stick for when we read the story again.

*I just found out about this Song of the Stars Event at Zonderkids:

December 8th, 6:00-7:00pm (ET)

Featuring LIVE Q&A with Sally, special musical guests, giveaways, and more!

Visit livestream.com/zonderkidz to RSVP today!

5 Days of Christmas Books: Day 1 - My Favorite Childhood Book
5 Days of Christmas Books: Day 2 - The Christmas Book Book


Please stop by and visiting my other 5 Days of Christmas friends!

A Slob Comes Clean - Getting Your Home Company Ready
Feels Like Home - Christmas Traditions
Somewhat Crunchy - Christmas with Dairy Allergies
Spell Outloud - Children's Books
Mama's Learning Corner - Children's Crafts
Many Little Blessings - Edible Gifts
Sunflower Schoolhouse - Decorations
An Oregon Cottage - Christmas Cookies
Catholic Icing - Wishing Jesus Happy Birthday
The Traveling Praters - Traveling
The Homeschool Classroom - Gifts Kids Can Make
Mama's Laundry Talk - Laundry Gifts