Pa-rum pum pum pum!

Youngest readers can begin celebrating the season with the first board book edition of Ezra Jack Keats’s classic The Little Drummer Boy, words and music by Katherine Davis, Henry Onorati and Harry Simeone. (Viking, $6.99 32p ages 3-up ISBN 978-0-670-06282-9; Sept.)

Rock-a-bye Christmas by Matt Novak (Too Many Bunnies) uses a series of die-cut windows to tell a wry Christmas tale. As Farmer Ben sits in his house (shown on the left half of the spread, looking out the window), one by one his animals (seen on the facing page, through the barn door) begin to make noise. Farmer Ben brings them into his house and sings to them, until eventually the press of the crowd forces him to retreat to the barn. Clever illustrated touches throughout (as the animals move into the house, their wide-eyed stares turn to expressions of glee) make for a winning package. (Roaring Brook/Porter, $7.95 16p ages 2-6 ISBN 978-1-59643-187-4; Oct.)

Utilizing both a rotating wheel and an array of colored and textured discs, Christmas Is Coming! by Lisa Marsoli, illus. by Lucy Barnard, explores the final preparations for Christmas up at the North Pole. As readers turn the wheel, they can align a furry green circle with a hole in an elf’s sleeve, give a dog a shiny black nose and match a glittery white disc to the roof of a gingerbread house. (Random/Corey, $6.99 8p ages 2-5 ISBN 978-0-375-84573-4; Sept.)

Illustrator Veronica Vasylenko brings a traditional carol to life in the paper-over-board Jingle Bells. Crammed into a bright red sleigh, a family of 12 mice bounds across a wintry landscape tinted with delicate watercolor blues and purples. They bounce, sing—and at one point produce musical instruments—as they make some holiday visits. (Tiger Tales, $7.99 22p ages 2-5 ISBN 978-1-58925-821-1; Sept.)

Christmas at the Zoo by George White, illus. by Jason O’Malley, with paper engineering by Bruce Foster, adapts the text from the famed Clement Clarke Moore poem (“Twas the night before Christmas,/ And all through the zoo/ Every creature was stirring,/ Even the kangaroo”). Penguins pop up to hang stockings, lions decorate a gingerbread house and Santa makes a visit, to the animals’ delight. (Up with Paper/Jumping Jack Press, $16.99 16p ages 3-up ISBN 978-0-9795441-1-8; Oct.)

From Comet to Blitzen, eight helpers get their due in Santa’s Reindeer by Rod Green, illus. by Jon Lucas et al. This paper-over-board book features profiles of each reindeer (each year, a new team of reindeer is chosen and given the same name as the deer they replace) as well as the training that readies them for their big night. Full-bleed digital illustrations aim for realism and reinforce the nonfiction-style text. (S&S/Atheneum, $16.99 32p ages 4-10 ISBN 978-1-4169-5070-7; Oct.)

Judy Moody and Stink: The Holly Joliday by Megan McDonald, illus. by Peter H. Reynolds, marks two firsts: never before have the siblings shared the marquee, and never before has the bestselling series been illustrated in full color. This episode finds the pair hoping for a white Christmas (even though it hasn’t snowed in Virginia “for like a million years,” according to Judy), performing holiday skits at school and getting a new mailman named Jack Frost. (Candlewick, $14.99 96p ages 5-8 ISBN 978-0-7636-3237-3; Oct.)

Celebrate Christmas: With Carols, Presents, and Peace by Deborah Heiligman is the latest addition to National Geographic’s Holidays Around the World series. Photographs depict a Christmas Eve mass in Nepal, a Three Kings Day visit by a wise man to a young Spanish girl in a hospital and celebrations from Hawaii to New Jersey. Heiligman’s text traces the holiday’s history from the decision to celebrate it near the winter solstice to modern recipes and crafts kids can use today. (National Geographic, $15.95 32p ages 6-9 ISBN 978-1-4263-0122-3; Oct.)

For a more hands-on approach to celebrating, the Family Stories title Making Spirits Bright by Susan Magsamen looks like a box, but unfolds to reveal an activity book that emphasizes the simple pleasures, along with four wooden ornaments and craft supplies to fuel the memory-making. (Sterling, $17.95 ages 3-up 48p ISBN 978-1-4027-4825-7; Nov.)

Oversize with padded covers, Gingerbread Land by Katie Grim, illus. by Jake Johnson and Dennis DiLaura, presents photographed scenes elaborately constructed with candy and gingerbread, then adds to each one with interactive elements. Tiny booklets tucked into the spreads offer instructions for making beaded wreaths, clue readers in to the history of Christmas lights, supply recipes, etc. (Intervisual, $19.95 ages 6-up ISBN 978-158117635-3; Oct.)

New-fangled favorites also return in newly festive formats. Susan Wojciechowski’s The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, illus. by P.J. Lynch, comes packaged in a gifty trim size, approximately seven-and-a-half by nine inches, and bound with a storytime CD read by James Earl Jones. (Candlewick, $14.99 ages 6-12 40p ISBN 978-0-7636-3629-6; Oct.)

The Mary Engelbreit Gift Set arrives fully loaded with the well-loved illustrator’s The Night Before Christmas, an audio CD read by Jim Dale and a keepsake ornament. The last, a cheerful disc, features a mouse asleep in a teacup, not even thinking of stirring. (HarperCollins, $25 ages 3-8 40p ISBN 978-0-06-136495-2; Oct.)

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the book, Olive, the Other Reindeer: Deluxe Edition by Vivian Walsh and J.otto Seibold uses pull-tabs, flaps, scratch and sniff panels, pop-ups and more to add a tactile dimension to the original story. Chronicle is also offering Olive, the Other Reindeer: Pop-up Advent Calendar, featuring an enormous pop-up castle and 25 paper figures under flaps, which kids can move about the building. (Chronicle, Deluxe: $19.95 40p ages 3-up ISBN 978-0-8118-5719-2; Calendar: $9.95 ages 3-up ISBN 978-0-8118-5920-2; Dec.)

Half a century after it was first published, Dr. Seuss’s holiday classic returns in How the Grinch Stole Christmas Anniversary Edition: A 50th Anniversary Retrospective, which includes 32 pages of commentary by Charles Cohen, as well as behind-the-story artwork and photographs. In addition to the familiar tale, readers will be treated to “Grinch” cover art from around the globe, the history and development of the character, the Whos, and of course the dog, Max. (Random, $24.99 96p ages 6-9 ISBN 978-0-375-83847-7; Sept.)

First published in 1935, The Box of Delights by John Masefield is newly available. In the adventure-laden Christmas story, Kay Harker (also the protagonist of Masefield’s The Midnight Folk) returns from boarding school for the holidays and becomes involved in a struggle with a wizard and witch who wish to possess the eponymous box. (NYRB, $17.95 312p all ages ISBN 978-1-59017-251-3; Oct.)

Note: Look for Hanukkah reviews in the Oct. 29 issue.