We’ve been in business for four years now and every holiday season we get urgent requests at the last minute for footy pajamas for the entire family.

It seems there are many of you out there who have a holiday tradition of dressing everyone from the baby to mom and dad in new pajamas on Christmas Eve. And, many of you insist on footed pajamas.

If your family shares this tradition or something like it, we’d love to hear about it. And if you send us a photo of your family, we’ll post it here to the blog! Have a cozy holiday season!

Toot & Puddle by Holly Hobbie is the first of the books in this series. If you haven’t yet read to your kids any of the other books about these two great pigs, this one is a great place to start. Readers will get a real sense of the relationship between these opposites that will set the stage for future books. And, they’ll get an understanding that it’s okay to be different than your friends, to be your own person — a theme that is repeated throughout the series.

Toot the adventurous is planning a yearlong world tour. He invites Puddle, the homebody, who demurs. So, Toot heads off alone on his trip in January, while Puddle holds down the home front. Each month, Toot sends back a post card that is reproduced over an illustration from his year-long adventure: scaling cliffs in the Alps, visiting an Italian pastry shop, taking a camel ride through Egypt.

In the meantime, Puddle is enjoying his time at home: playing in the snow, ice skating, gathering maple syrup, enjoying mud season (spring), swimming at Pocket Pond and at the beach. As the year draws to a close, Toot is missing home and his friend and Puddle looks forward to Toot’s long-awaited return. Then, the happy reunion as Toot and Puddle settle into winter once again and enjoy their time together.

Ages: 3+

Have you ever had the mopes and don’t know why? If so, you and your kids will sympathize with Toot in Holly Hobbie’s You are my Sunshine. Toot’s a pig who is friends with Puddle (also a pig). As Toot struggles through the mopes over several beautiful summer days, Puddle tries to make him happy. Puddle makes Toot’s favorite five-berry cobbler covered with whipped cream. Puddle takes the adventurous Toot on a wild river rafting trip (that just happens to terrify Puddle, but anything for friendship). Puddle organizes a summer bash. Nothing works. Toot still has the mopes. That is until a wild summer storm blows through and washes Toot’s mopes away.

I can’t think of a better book for showing kids that emotions of all kinds are okay. Sometimes we’re happy and sometimes we’re not. And, sometimes we don’t know why. And, through it all, our friends and family are there beside us to help us.

As always, Holly Hobbie’s illustrations are classics. Summer comes alive as Puddle flies a kite, rides a bike and plays hide-and-seek in the forest. And, the parallel images of Toot moping show the loneliness and yearning that are often behind a good mope.

Ages: 3+

When I first read a Toot & Puddle book by Holly Hobbie a few years ago, I was frustrated. I didn’t feel as though the text and illustrations told a coherent story. But after reading more of the books, letting go of my need for a rock-solid story and getting to know the characters, I’ve changed my mind. Maybe it’s five years of sleep deprivation and exposure to some really bad books that I’d rather not read, but that my daughter wants to read over and over again. I don’t know.

Regardless, I’m now converted. The friendship between these two opposite characters is always a pleasure and the illustrations are expressive, detailed, warm and bright. In the next few blogs I’ll run through a few of my favorites, starting with Let it Snow, a heartwarming book for Christmas.

Toot & Puddle are pigs who live in Woodcock Pocket, a wonderful little place that looks like it’s in New England somewhere. Toot is adventurous and loves to travel the world. Puddle loves the pleasures of home and is an artist. As Christmas approaches, Toot & Puddle are trying to think of the perfect gifts to give each other. Since they know each other so well and for so long, the struggle to find the perfect gift is particularly difficult. As they wait for Christmas to come, they yearn for snow.

Anticipation builds as they each work on the perfect present for the other. You’ll love their expressions as they decorate their house for Christmas and create the perfect gifts. And, everyone will learn a great lesson. As Toot says, “He knew that the best present was usually something you made yourself, a one-of-kind thingamajig, not just a whatsit anyone could buy in a store.”

The images in the book come alive and give you a real sense of winter: Puddle walks through a grey-treed forest bare of leaves and sees his breath; Toot & Puddle remember Christmases past; and, Toot & Puddle ski through a snow-covered world.

Ages: 3+

If you don’t know Frog and Toad, get thee to the bookstore now and rectify this error. The Frog and Toad series of books by Arnold Lobel are classics for kids that parents will also love to read. The four books are Frog and Toad are Friends (Caldecott honor winner), Frog and Toad Together (a Newbery Honor winner), Frog and Toad all Year, and Days with Frog and Toad. If you can, get all of them.

If you can only get one, I’d choose either Frog and Toad Together or Frog and Toad are Friends. They are quirky, neurotic, and hilarious. They are also gentle, kind and very forgiving. And, better than any other books I know, they show the true meaning of friendship. They show that friends can sometimes be grumpy with each other. That friends can be silly and annoying. And, that sometimes friends can just be together without doing much of anything and still have a great time.

Ages: 4+

Following on our theme of fun books for kids and grownups alike is Snow by Yuri Shulevitz. I love this Caldecott award winner for many reasons, but first is the hilarious contrast between adult cynicism and childish optimism. With images that are quirky, alive and fun and text that is spare and light, the author/illustrator does a wonderful job of showing how ridiculous cynics can be as they refuse to see what’s happening around them.

In a world filled with grumps who can’t see that even one snowflake means it’s snowing, is one happy little boy and his dog. As the pompous naysayers stomp and clomp around in their gray world refusing to look up at the sky or acknowledge the snow that covers them, the world is transformed. And a boy and his dog play in a winter wonderland.

Ages: 3+