Virtual Book Club for Kids: Mortimer's Christmas Manger

Yes, I still have Christmas on my brain--way too early! This month's author for the Virtual Book Club for Kids is Karma Wilson. Now Karma Wilson has some amazing books. I think the most famous ones are the Bear series. Lately Hazel has been scared of books with bears, so I stayed away from them. We however fell in love with Mortimer. We read the two Mortimer books and since Christmas is coming sooner than when I'll plant a garden again, we went with Mortimer's Christmas Manger. We however also loved the Little Pip series too!

For those that do not know about the Virtual Book Club for Kids, we are a group of blogs that join together each month to present crafts and activities to go with a book by the author of the month. The amazing blogs that join me in the club are:

Toddler Approved- The Educators' Spin On It- Rainy Day Mum- 3 Dinosaurs- Learn~Play~Imagine - Crafty Moms Share - Reading Confetti- Inspiration Laboratories - Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas - Kids Yoga Stories - Enchanted Homeschooling Mom- Ready-Set-Read - Boy Mama Teacher Mama - PlayDrMom - Fantastic Fun and Learning - Growing Book by Book- Royal Baloo - The Outlaw Mom® Blog - Kitchen Counter Chronicles - Teach Preschool - Mama Smiles - Coffee Cups and Crayons - Juggling With Kids - Here Come the Girls-

Now this wonderful book is about a little mouse named Mortimer. He lives in a small, cold, creepy little hole. Every day he adventures out into the house to find some food. One day he sees the Christmas tree and the creche set up and he cannot wait to check out the little house that is the perfect size for him. He climbs up the tree and is amazed by the little people and strange animals. Then he realizes they are not alive. He pulls them all out and takes the baby's bed. Every day when he goes out, the statues are set up again. Then on Christmas Eve the big people are gathered around the tree so he cannot go out and he hears the story about the first Christmas and realizes how important the baby is. He puts the baby back in his bed and leaves to return to his cold, dark hole. While climbing down he prayers to Jesus for a better home and then he sees the perfect new home for him and it does not have statues. It is a gingerbread house!

We had a lot of fun with this story. I went out to Michaels and bought a gingerbread house kit since I know Hazel loves to make them. I also found a foam kit to make nativity puppets.  I put the house together and actually waited between the steps. Then I let Hazel decorate it herself. She had so much fun! We also made a Mortimer out of pom poms and felt. Then we pulled out all of Hazel's nativity sets. I have made a few for her over the years--needle felted, story stones, sewn and then our toilet paper roll ones (from two different years). She set them all up on the coffee table and was doing the Christmas Story Show for Steve and me.

She loves to act out the Christmas story as well as the Easter story, so this has been played with for quite a few days.

I loved how the book put the importance of Jesus in the holiday season!! Now it is your turn, have you read any of the amazing books by Karma Wilson and done a craft, activity or snack? Feel free to add it here and also check out all the great ones shared by others!