Gifts · Christmas 2026
This Christmas, give them a story only you could tell.
A personalised Christmas book for your children or grandchildren, written by you and printed as a real picture book. Nearly everything else under the tree was made for thousands of people. This is a keepsake that did not exist until you wrote it.
Order by this date for Christmas 2026
Approve your book by
Friday 4 December
That covers printing and delivery to every country we ship to, with a few days of room to spare. Books are made one at a time, so this date is a real one.
The date is for approving your finished book, which is the last step before it goes to the printer. Give yourself writing time on top of it. There is no rush on the writing itself, and no cost to starting now and finishing later.
A last minute gift that is still worth keeping
Missed the print date?
Write a digital book right up to Christmas
The digital edition has no printing or post in the way, so it can be written and finished much closer to the day.
It arrives by email, which means you can read it together on Christmas morning on a tablet or a laptop with everyone crowded round. If you want the printed copy as well, order it then and it follows in the new year.
Christmas book ideas
If you are not sure what the story is yet, here are three that tend to work.
The year they had
The holiday, the lost tooth, the new puppy, the first day at a new school. A book about this year, read aloud in the years after it. Write one every December and you have started something.
The grandparent one
The story Grandad has told every Christmas since 1987, written down at last, or the story of Nana's life put together by the family. Christmas is when everyone is in the room to hear it.
The one from far away
Written by the grandparent, aunt or friend who lives in another country, for the grandchildren they do not get to read to. A book crosses an ocean better than a video call, and the digital edition arrives by email while the printed copy is still in the post.
The practical bits
- What does it cost?
- Writing is free. Finishing your book costs US$11.99 digital, US$37.99 softcover or US$44.99 hardcover, plus shipping on printed editions.
- How much of it do I have to write?
- As much or as little as you want. Bring a finished story and we illustrate it. Bring a rough draft and we help tidy it. Bring an idea and we write you a first draft to change until it is yours.
- Who is it usually for?
- Children and grandchildren, mostly, and a fair few written for grandparents by the family. Any age works: you tell us who it is for and we write to that reading age.
- If it is a grandparent you are buying for, there is more on books for and about grandparents.
Start it now, not in December
The writing is the part that takes time, and it is the part that costs nothing. Starting tonight costs you an evening and nothing else.
Approve by Friday 4 December for delivery before Christmas.