What to write in a Christmas book, when it comes back out every December

On Christmas morning nobody reads the inscription closely. Next December they do, because the book comes out of the box with the lights, and the first thing anybody opens it to is the front page. By the fifth year the child is reading it themselves.

So put the year on it, and their age, and one thing about this particular Christmas - what they asked for, who was at the table, the thing they would not stop saying. "Merry Christmas, love from Mum" is lovely once. "Christmas 2026, you were four and wanted a real dinosaur" is lovely every year, and more so each time.

Every line below uses {name} for the child, {age} for a number and {year} for the year. Swap them as you write.

If the book is for a birthday, a christening or a first day at school rather than for Christmas, the lines for those occasions are gathered on one page. Take a look

These are the ones read aloud on Christmas Eve, so they should sound like you talking, not like the card that came with the wrapping paper.

"For {name}, Christmas {year}. You were {age}, and you wanted to stay up to see the reindeer more than anything in the world."

"To {name} - for reading on Christmas Eve, with the tree lights on and you fighting sleep the whole way through."

"For {name}: open this one first. It is the present that comes out again next year."

"To {name}, from Mum and Dad. You are the best thing under any tree we have ever had."

"For {name} at {age}. Next December we will read it again and see how much you have grown."

"To {name} - Merry Christmas from the two people who were up very late wrapping it."

These are the lines that get better with age. Take the shape, change the detail to the one that is true in your house this year - the more specific, the better it reads in ten years.

"For {name}, Christmas {year}. This year you asked for a dinosaur, a real one, and were not talked out of it."

"To {name}: this was the Christmas you were {age}, lost your first tooth on the 23rd, and told everyone at the table."

"For {name} - the year you learned to say Merry Christmas, and said it to the dog."

"To {name}, Christmas {year}, at Grandma's house, with eleven of us and one oven."

"For {name}: you are {age}, your favourite word is why, and this year the answer was because it is Christmas."

"To {name} - the Christmas it snowed for the first time in years, and you would not come inside."

Write nothing that gives the game away - and nothing that will embarrass either of you the year they stop believing, because they will reread it that year too. The safe ones are about the waiting and the wonder, not about who fills the stocking.

"For {name}, who left a carrot out for the reindeer and checked on it twice."

"To {name} - keep listening for bells. Some people never stop hearing them."

"For {name}: the best kind of magic is the kind you still half-believe in when you are grown. Merry Christmas."

"To {name}, from everyone at the North Pole, and from your mum, who helped."

"For {name} - Christmas Eve is the longest night of the year. This is for the waiting."

A lot of Christmas books are bought because a grandparent will not be in the room on the morning. Say so plainly - the book is standing in for you, and the child should know whose it is.

"For {name}, from Granny and Grandad. We cannot be there on Christmas morning, so this book is coming instead."

"To {name} - from Nana, who will be watching you open it on a very small screen and crying a little."

"For {name}: your mother opened a book from us every Christmas too. Now it is your turn."

"To {name}, from Grandpa. Read it slowly. Christmas goes quickly enough as it is."

"For {name} - same moon, same Christmas, a few thousand miles apart. All our love, Gran and Pop."

A grandparent has one thing to write that nobody else can, at Christmas or any other time, and the page for grandchildren explains what it is. Take a look

Further out from the family the job is simpler: say who you are, clearly, because in ten years "love from Sam" could be anybody.

"For {name}, from your favourite aunt. (I checked. It was unanimous.)"

"To {name} - from your uncle, who promises to read this with all the voices when he visits."

"For {name}: a godparent's job is to turn up with books. Merry Christmas, from your godmother."

"To {name}, from friends of the family who think you are excellent company. Happy Christmas."

The baby will not read it for years, which is exactly why the year matters most here: this is the one that becomes evidence of a Christmas nobody in the picture can remember.

"For {name}, on your very first Christmas. You slept through most of it, and we did not mind at all."

"To {name} - your first Christmas, {year}. You will not remember it. We will never forget it."

"For {name}: the first of a great many Christmases, and the first book on your shelf."

"To {name}, who made this the year our Christmas had one more stocking."

Because the book comes out every December, it can carry more than one dedication. Leave the rest of the page clear, and each Christmas add one short line under the first: the year, their age, one thing. Five Decembers later the front page is a list of who they were, in your handwriting, and it is the page they will look for first.

Pen, not pencil - pencil rubs away on a book that is handled every year - and the same pen each time if you can manage it. It is a small thing that makes the list look like it belongs together.

If the book is one being made with your child as the hero, the dedication you type is printed as the first page, before the story starts. That page is the formal one. The yearly line still goes in by hand, on the inside cover or the blank page facing it, because handwriting is the part that turns a book into a keepsake.

If you are having one made for this Christmas, the last day to approve it for delivery in each country is on the page given over to dates. Take a look