Christmas magic begins
at home.

Hardcover

The Girl Who Found Christmas is available in hardcover, paperback, and electronic form. 

Paperback

Now available in paperback!

Electronic

Kindle and Nook versions

Advent Calendar

The Girl Who Found Christmas:
An Advent Calendar Storybook

Everyone knows what a storybook is. But many people have never seen an Advent Calendar! The author’s children enjoyed Advent Calendars for many years. And their enjoyment was an inspiration for “The Girl Who Found Christmas.”

An Advent Calendar allows children to enjoy the journey to Christmas one day at a time. The Girl Who Found Christmas takes a spiritual journey to Christmas. With a few snowmen, a sleigh ride, and a lot of fun along the way. Just the way the author wanted it.

This Advent Calendar storybook is a one-of a kind holiday treasure. Its 25 Christmas bedtime stories give parents and grandparents unique opportunities. What a great way to share stories with kids and talk about what’s really important about Christmas. Each story invites children to join six-year-old Belinda in solving a BIG mystery: What is Christmas all about? Armed only with a crayon, Belinda draws a new “clue” every day. Is Christmas all about the tree? Or making cookies? Or building a snowman? Or maybe it’s something different! Will she figure it out in time?       Beautifully written stories combine with whimsical illustrations that might well have been drawn by Belinda herself! As they make the journey toward Christmas, grandparents may find new ways to talk to kids about the Christmas traditions in their own family. They might even share funny stories about mom and dad! Reading together makes laughing together a special shared time as Christmas approaches. 

Children who read “The Girl Who Found Christmas” may find unique ways to add to the Christmas fun!

Here are just a few of our ideas! 

Wear Christmas PJs for bedtime story reading!

Invite a SPECIAL friend for a bedtime story sleepover!

Sing a Christmas song or draw a picture every night!

Make your own snowman! If you don’t have snow, use marshmallows!!

Review

Phillipa Warden, Author of Rupert’s Snowman, Available on Amazon.com

Belinda is a little girl with bright red curly hair who lives with her dad and gramps and gets to Skype with her mum, a doctor who’s living in a different time zone looking after injured soldiers.

Belinda’s mum asks her daughter to find the meaning of Christmas and Belinda decides to create an advent calendar using the clues she finds each day as inspiration for the pictures on the calendar.

So we have a mini story every day in the run up to the 25th December, a Christmas themed adventure to read each night, it’s a lovely idea.

Belinda thanks Howard every morning for her friends, family and the adventures she gets to enjoy. But who is Howard? What part does he play in Christmas?

This Christmas book includes everything you’d want in a festive book: Cookies, tree decorating, snowman building, even a trip to the ballet in New York! It’s not all ‘Moosh’ though ( one of Belinda’s words) there’s a dramatic scene when B’s friend Elizabeth gets lost in the snow after an accident and Custard the cat ( also lost) finds her in an ingenious way.

By day 19 the calendar is still missing pictures of Santa and his Sleigh, maybe there is more to Christmas than presents?

A sleigh ride, a firetruck with a friendly Dalmation dog called Quincy delivering gifts to the poor and a Christmas song ( available on the website) almost complete the calendar but the surprise on Christmas day finally answers the question posed at the start “What is Christmas about?”

A super book bursting with Belinda’s energy and nice childlike illustrations, a perfect advent gift to begin reading December 1st. 

Review

Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers’ Favorite

Belinda, like so many other six-year-olds, is very excited when she turns the calendar to December 1st. She knows that Christmas is in December and there’s lots of fun and excitement in the preparations. With Mom overseas working as a doctor, Belinda lives with her father and grandparents in a lovely, but very cold, old farmhouse. On the morning of December 1st, Belinda is tasked with a project to find out the meaning of Christmas. She is to make her own Advent calendar and try to find a new answer every day, drawing a picture to share with her Mom when she sees her. With a quick prayer to Howard (who’s really God, but Belinda always calls him Howard because she stumbled over that part of the Lord’s Prayer that says, “Hallowed be thy name”), she sets to work on her project and the days leading up to Christmas fly by in a flash.

Barbara Escher’s collection of 25 Christmas stories, The Girl Who Found Christmas: An Advent Calendar Storybook, is a unique way to follow the daily Advent ritual. A story for each day of Advent and a cute little girl, Belinda, to lead the reader along the path to finding out the meaning of Christmas. Each story is full of love and excitement and a new clue to the meaning of Christmas. Children are encouraged to read one story each night as they prepare for the coming birth of Jesus. There are some cute, one-of-a-kind, ‘only a six-year-old would deduce’ sayings, like praying to Howard every day. Adults will certainly share a chuckle, while young readers will grow in their faith as they follow the daily path. This is a wonderful treasure and a great alternative to opening windows on an Advent calendar to devour a piece of chocolate. This book is a real Christmas treasure. And, what is the meaning of Christmas? Read the stories and learn along with Belinda.