What makes a Christmas book worth giving
Most Christmas books are put away with the decorations. The ones that stay out are about something the season only frames: a family, a tradition, a person the child loves. A book about snow is a December book. A book about the night Grandma comes to stay is a book about Grandma.
A child looks for themselves in a story. A book in which the child is plainly there — their name, their hair, their dog, the ornament they are allowed to hang — is one they will bring back to you long after the tree has gone.
Ideas for the story
Your own traditions, told as an adventure: the walk you always take, who opens the first present, the food only one relative is allowed to make.
The first Christmas with a new baby, told from the older child's side.
A grandparent who flies in for the holidays, or one who cannot — and a story that brings them into the house anyway, written in the language they speak.
Or not Christmas at all. If your family keeps a different winter holiday, or none, a winter story about the child makes the same gift without the tinsel.
For children who love fantasy
A Christmas gift does not need a Christmas plot. Describe an original adventure with dragons, enchanted places or a mystery to solve, shaped by the child's interests and the companions you choose.
Penwynn makes illustrated picture books, rather than chapter books. Choose a reading level and review the whole story and every illustration before ordering.
See what the format is like: read a complete example book.
Christmas ordering guidance
A Penwynn book is printed only after you have read the whole story and approved every illustrated page, then printed to order in the country it is going to. Making it takes about twenty minutes of your time. The current recommended ordering dates for Christmas are: Canada by December 1, and the United States and the United Kingdom by December 5. These are planning dates, not arrival guarantees.
These dates leave more time than the printer's own delivery estimate, because December is the busiest month for printers and posts, and an order within Canada has taken about three weeks to arrive. Earlier is better: it leaves room to change a page without watching the date.
| Delivering to | Order by |
|---|---|
| Canada | December 1 |
| The United States | December 5 |
| The United Kingdom | December 5 |
Where a book comes in
You describe the child and the people around them, and the story and every illustration are written and drawn for that family. It is not a fixed story with a name dropped in. Nobody uploads a photograph: characters are drawn from what you write.
