A CHRISTMAS TOO BIG is about the variety of Christmas celebrations and finding your own ways to enjoy the season, without being overwhelmed. It’s a delicate balance I can definitely relate to, which is one of the reasons I love this book. I love the message, diversity, and heart in this book, but I especially love the art. The palette, details, and warmth are so inspiring.
The message of this book is, in part, that we should embrace a quieter Christmas, but to me it also encourages you to celebrate Christmas how you choose. For us this means lots of books and art. Cozy story times reading and time creating around the table together with lights twinkling and perhaps mugs of cocoa nearby are a Merry Christmas to me.
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Read Aloud: A Christmas Too Big
A Christmas Too Big
by Colleen Madden
Kerry’s family goes Christmas berserk every year in this bilingual Christmas tale. When she gets overwhelmed she visits her neighbor Mrs. Flores who is having a very different, much quieter Christmas. Mrs. Flores shares the vibrant decorations from her country and they inspire Kerry to create her own. This Christmas picture book is a wonderful combination of carefully chosen Spanish and English text, the warmth inclusion of different traditions, and gorgeous inviting illustrations.
Brilliant Christmas Tree Paintings
At the end of the book there are directions for how to create the vibrant flowers Mrs. Flores teaches to Kerry. I absolutely encourage you to give it a try. The directions are easy to follow. The illustrations themselves are so inspiring. I especially love how the palette of the art becomes more vibrant once Mrs. Flores introduced the colors of her flowers to Kerry.
These Christmas trees lean into this vibrancy and if you paint them on canvas they make a wonderful decoration to your home if you choose.
Supplies:
- White Paper or Canvas
- Tempera Paints. We used green, white, red, pink, orange, yellow, blue.
- Paint Brushes
- Cotton Balls or Q Tips
- Trays for Paint
- Wet wipes, damp washcloths or quick access to a sink.
Activity:
- First, read the book. Make sure to point out the vibrant colors and notice how the illustrations change in color scheme from the “traditional” American Christmas colors to the more vibrant palette after the colors are introduced by Mrs. Flores.
- Next, paint trees onto your paper or canvas (maybe with some Christmas tunes playing in the background). Encourage your little artists to mix green and white if they’d like to find the shade or shades of green that they’d like. I also demonstrated how to make downward strokes that imitate the needles on a tree.
- Finally, once the tree is complete, add Qtip dots of brilliant colors to decorate the tree. My daughter used a combo of the cotton ball and Qtips to attempt to recreate the flowers from the story on her tree.
When you’re all done let them dry and you’ll have some vibrant Christmas tree art to display.
