Religious stories for atheists (or people of another faith, maybe)

[puzzlement]

We're a non-religious household, from Anglo/Irish-Australian stock, and so we celebrate Christmas as a cultural tradition but not as a religious observance.

I've just realised though, that my not-quite-three-year-old has basically zero Christmas cultural literacy. Does anyone have recommendations for picture books that tell the Christian Christmas story? I'm looking for books that don't assume we believe in the story or want to advocate that he believes in it, although they also don't need to have an overtly atheist/non-believer narrative point of view either (after all, his other books largely don't take an explicit position on whether the story they tell is true). So a straightforward telling of the story is fine. When he's older we will probably look for a more overtly outsider/non-believer point of view.

I know I could just browse online and I will if there aren't recommendations, but people may have ones they felt were especially good (well-written, nice illustrations etc).

Feel free to also use this thread for other age groups, and other religious stories, just state the age group so I know whether to look to buy or not!

Comments

[phoenixsong]

I have a hardcover book, "Happy Birthday Baby Jesus" by Ken Munowitz. It was first published in 1976, so I don't know if you can even find it anymore, but my parents saved it from when I was a kid. And I'm OK reading it to my son, who is being raised in a UU/Jewish home that celebrates Christian and Jewish holidays.

Basically, it presents the nativity as "this is a story that is told in the Bible." And it refers to Jesus as *A* child of God, not The Son of God, and talks about how happy everyone was that a child of God had been born.