The Ultimate Kids Christmas Book

Illustration, Publication Design
2023

The Ultimate Kids Christmas Book is a kid-approved big book of super fun holiday projects and ideas! Three chapters highlight holiday essentials with hundreds of ways to ring in the season: “Celebrate” showcases Christmas celebrations around the world and the origins of seasonal traditions; “Craft” is full of creative activities and artsy experiments; “Bake” features tons of tasty recipes to try out.

I illustrated and designed this 192-page Christmas compendium. Over a hundred full-color, hand-drawn illustrations embellish each page using a warm, seasonal color palette and showcasing cheerful scenes filled with characters enjoying holiday activities. Doodles and hand-lettered titles adorn the rich photography surrounding each craft project or recipe. It was an absolute blast to work on this project with the publishing team.

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Cover of a Christmas-themed craft book featuring illustrations of a winter landscape with trees, houses, snow people, and children playing in the snow.

Cover Design

The cover features a full-color “Christmas village” scene complete with a dog and child sledding down the hill beside a river of peppermint candies, characters making snow angels or ice skating, and gumdrop mountains in the background.

On the back cover, the scene continues to wrap around the spine, and you can even spot a wintery yeti waving from the forest.

A Christmas-themed illustrated book cover with snow-covered hills, Christmas trees decorated with red ribbons, a gingerbread house, colorful rocks, candy canes, and a starry night sky.

Open book with a red end sheet page on the left featuring a white christmas tree pattern and a right page displaying the cover of "the ultimate kids christmas book" by good housekeeping inside a hand drawn wreath.

Open book on a wooden table featuring a winter night scene on the left and the cover of "the ultimate kids christmas book" with crafts, recipes, and fun ideas on the right.

An illustrated table of contents shows a Christmas elf workshop along a wooden table, featuring elves engaged in crafting, baking, and celebrating, each labeled with chapter titles and page numbers.

Open book on a wooden table displaying the introduction page with a night scene illustration of a small gingerbread house and text with a colorful vine of Christmas lights creating a border on the right side.

When I think of visuals associated with the holiday season, the rich patterns of presents and tapestries come to mind.

The book’s endsheets have a variety hand-drawn patterns across them, and the half-title page opens with a looping and swirling Christmas wreath. The full-title has a full-color, full-spread illustration of a dog and a child on sleds surveying the Christmas village (from the cover) at a distance.

Inside, the table of contents was reimagined as a “Workshop of Contents” where elves assemble toys and crafts related to each chapter.

And the introduction spread features a winding string of Christmas lights leading up to a gingerbread house in the snow.

A girl with blonde curly hair wearing a red beanie, green sweater, and blue pants is sitting on a red sled, with a brown dog sitting on a green sled nearby, both facing a snowy hill under a dark blue sky, with a green pine tree and a red hat on the snow ahead.

Three elves with pointed ears and rosy cheeks preparing Christmas cookies, surrounded by baking supplies on a table.

A cozy house decorated with Christmas lights, sitting on a snowy hill under a dark winter night sky with stars, with footprints leading to the door.

An open book displays an illustrated scene of an elf decorating a large christmas tree with a star on top, on a snowy landscape, titled "chapter one celebrate.”

An open book on a wooden surface with a colorful illustration of a whimsical snow-covered landscape made of gumdrop mountains. the left page shows a scene with a ski lift going up a cliff, ridden by an elf in candy cane skis, and the right page read

An open book with a colorful illustration of a snowy scene featuring a gingerbread house under construction by gingerbread men placing the roof on top of it with a red vine crane, titled "chapter three - bake”.

Chapter Title Spreads

Each chapter of the book — “Celebrate,” “Craft,” and “Bake” — has a full-spread section divider that features an illustrated scene to tee up the contents of the chapter.

“Celebrate” shows elves adorning a giant tree with a star.

“Craft” shows an elf on a gondola, coming down from a mountain of gumdrops, wearing skis made of candy canes.

“Bake” shows gingerbread construction workers using a red candy crane to place a roof on a gingerbread house.

A person wearing a green festive sweater, red scarf, and a green elf hat, standing on a ladder, decorating a Christmas tree with a star at the top, against a dark blue background with stars.

An elf wearing a green hat, red scarf, and candy cane skis rides a wooden gondola swing on a snowy landscape with red and white candy cane poles and gum drop candy mountains.

Illustration of a gingerbread house with a floating gingerbread roof on a red candy string, with construction gingerbread figures standing in the foreground, candy canes, and Christmas trees in a snowy landscape.

An open book on a wooden table displaying a colorful illustration with the text "joy to the world" and scenes depicting holiday traditions from around the world. On the right, elves surf in Australia on Christmas.

An open children's book showcasing vibrant illustrations and text about various Christmas celebrations in Austria, Brazil, Ethiopia and France.

An open children's book with illustrations featuring christmas-themed scenes on a wooden table. the left page describes holiday customs in Germany and Greece while the right page shows a wintery night through a window in Iceland.

An open children’s book on a wooden table displaying colorful illustrated pages about diverse Christmas traditions in Italy, Mexico, Philippines and Poland.

An open children's book on a wooden table featuring colorful illustrations of holiday themes, including a santa claus figure from Russia, a snowy shopping scene in Singapore, and a child and dog peering in at a fish in a bathtub in Slovakia.

An open children's book on a wooden table displays illustrated pages about holiday traditions from south africa, Sweden, ukraine, and the united kingdom.

“Joy to the World”

The first section of the “Celebrate” chapter highlights Christmas traditions from all around the world.

Illustration of Australian Christmas elves surfing on waves, with an elf and a koala bear observing in the foreground. The scene has a festive, holiday theme with Christmas decorations and a partial text about Australia.

A child with curly hair, wearing a striped shirt, holds a large wooden bat and wears a green blindfold. She is smashing open a holiday pinata and candy is bursting out from within.

Two children wearing Santa hats are near a red barbecue grill. One child, wearing a green striped shirt and a Santa hat with a puffball, is cooking hot dogs and a steak, while the other child, in a blue shirt and red Santa hat, is sitting on the other's shoulders, observing.

Illustration of a Christmas-themed scene with a bath tub filled with fish, as a dog and a girl wearing a green hat look into the tub at the fish.

Page of an advent calendar with numbered boxes and festive decorations, with the text 'Choose Your Own Adventure!' on a wooden background.

The chapter also features a section on making your own advent calendar full of activities leading up to Christmas — from learning how to say “Merry Christmas” in other languages to connecting with a loved one who is far away or donating gifts to others in need.

A person walking with a dog in a snowy forest, with tall evergreen trees, a bright yellow sun, and a partly cloudy sky.

Two people, a woman with curly gray hair and glasses waving, and a young boy wearing a red hat and scarf waving, are communicating remotely on a video call, with a snowy colored map in the background.

People carrying stacks of wrapped gifts as donations into a building decorated for Christmas, with a banner that says 'GIVING' and festive garlands.

Open book on a wooden surface with colorful illustrations of speech bubbles containing Christmas greetings in different languages and musical notes alongside a photo of marshmallows.

Chapter 1

The rest of the first chapter is filled with great activities! One of my favorites was “Tinsel Town: Set the Scene,” which is an illustrated diagram of prepping your living room for the ultimate Christmas movie marathon.

Illustration of a living room scene with holiday decorations, including a person and a dog watching TV, surrounded by pillows, blankets, snacks, and holiday-themed items. The scene is part of a Christmas-themed movie viewing setup.

Chapter 2

“Crafts” is filled with creative ideas and projects—from how to properly wrap a gift, to writing letters to Santa, and much more.

Open magazine page with the title "Wrap It Up" on a wooden table. The cover features a torn paper design with colorful, patterned wrapping paper edges. The magazine provides tips for gift wrapping and festive ideas.

Open holiday booklet with handwritten letter to Santa on left page, illustration of a North Pole mailbox with Santa’s hat on the mailbox, snow-covered landscape with reindeer, and Christmas decorations on the right page.

Chapter 3

The third and final chapter, “Bake,” is filled with amazing recipes and insights on tasty creations like the annual gingerbread house competition or how to make the perfect cookie dough.

Open recipe book with illustrations of diverse elves and Santa Claus wearing Santa hats, showing a Christmas decor and cookie recipe, on a wooden surface.

A gingerbread house decorated with pink roofing, white piping, and green wreaths, situated in a snowy landscape with small Christmas trees and a tiny reindeer figure in front.

One of my personal favorite illustrated Easter eggs: earlier in the book, when learning about Christmas traditions in Slovakia, a dog and a child are peering into a bathtub with a Christmas carp in the water.

These two reappear at the end of the book, on the copyright page, where they can be seen ice-fishing for the carp.