Published by Eerdmans Books for Young Readers on August 12, 2025
Genres: Children's, Christmas
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A stunning folktale about the Nativity, set on a chilly night in Bethlehem.
“Wake up, wake up, birds!” croaks Raven one December night. “A child is born!” Each bird longs to bring a gift to the newborn baby in the manger. Nightingale sings a sweet song; Rooster caws a special call; Stork plucks her feathers to make a pillow. “I have nothing to give,” thinks little Robin. But as the night grows colder, the fire keeping the stable warm burns lower and lower. Maybe even a tiny bird has her own way to show her love for the newborn Prince of Peace…
Illustrated in lush blues and golds, The Birds of Christmas invites children to join the flock gathering around the manger. This beautiful book is an unforgettable reminder of the wonder of Christmas and the priceless gift of compassion.
Christmastime means Christmas books and, specifically, retellings of the Christmas story that must somehow find some new perspective while dealing with some pretty established material. Getting animals engaged in the action is not new at all and neither are stories of the animals doing something for or bringing something to the baby Jesus.
In this particular story, The Birds of Christmas, the raven is tasked by Gabriel to herald the birth of Jesus to the birds. He tells the wren, who sets to work leaving a moss and leaf blanket for the baby. He tells the nightingale, who begins to work on a song for the baby to hear. He tells the rooster, who cock-a-doodle-doos the words Christus Natus Est!—Latin for “Christ is born!” You probably didn’t even know chickens spoke Latin. The story goes on with every bird having something to give to the baby. Except the robin.
But then the robin realizes that the fire is low and the baby is cold. Using her wings, she fans the flames then flies to gather twigs to build up the fire. Soon, the fire is hearty and mother and infant are warm. When an ember flicks onto the robin’s chest, Mary goes to wipe it away only to find that it turns the robin’s chest a red color. And, so legend has it, that is why every robin since has been marked with the colors of brilliant flame.
This story isn’t a new one. Instead, author Olivia Armstrong, is offering a retelling of what the book’s inside title page says is European folklore. Unlike a lot of Eerdmans books of this nature, which directly tie the modern retelling back into the older story, there’s no educational resources of citations of sources for this one. While the story it cute, I felt like it was a missed opportunity to not showcase cultural folklore. So I did some of my own research. And…well, it turns out that calling it European folklore might be a bit of a stretch. In truth, I couldn’t find any reference to this story earlier than A Christmas Stocking by Louise Betts Egan, published in 1988, which is probably just a sanitized for children, slightly older story about the robin’s breast coming from the blood of Jesus on the cross. All of this doesn’t necessarily affect the story in any way, but given the tenuous connections to actual folklore and Eerdmans’ usually robust educational element, I felt like this warranted discussion. (Also, I was going to offer the criticism that the robin’s breast seemed more orange than red, but then I saw the difference between a European robin and an American robin and the European robins definitely are a lot oranger.)
Take out the alleged connection to folklore and you have a sweet story about all of Creation getting involved in the birth of Jesus. It’s a fun, imaginative story that’s wonderfully illustrated. It shows us that even the smallest of us have something to bring to Jesus.