c. 2000 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) As parents and grandparents check off their lists of presents to place under the Christmas tree, more of them have added a new category to the toys and clothes traditionally given children at this time of year.

Christian children’s books are filling more of the shelves at secular and Christian bookstores _ and the shopping carts of people standing in line with their purchases.

“I see a very healthy quantity of books,” said Elizabeth Devereaux, children’s religion book review editor for Publishers Weekly. “More and more religion publishers have expanded their children’s divisions.”

From holiday stories to board books to age-appropriate Bibles, big companies and independent writers alike are taking advantage of the burgeoning market for the nation’s youngest readers. The popular combination of religious messages with the bright colors and large letters of children’s literature is fueled, in part, by the desire to instill values at a time when reading to children is being emphasized.

Retired educators Jean and Ned Wilkinson of Oconomowoc, Wis., decided they wanted to help parents deal with the challenge of celebrating the coming of Jesus and Santa Claus in the same season. So the Catholic couple wrote “Santa at the Crib,” a simple children’s story featuring jolly ol’ St. Nick telling kids about the birth of Christ. Their book _ which includes a miniature “Make-It-Yourself Book” version _ is being sold this year at several Milwaukee stores and via the Internet (http://www.santaatthecrib.com).

“We thought printing this would help parents resolve the conflict in their minds,” said Ned Wilkinson, who first created the story for a Christmas Eve children’s liturgy. “We’re using Santa to teach kids the true meaning of Christmas.”

On a much larger scale, divisions of Christian book companies such as Zondervan Publishing House in Grand Rapids, Mich., and Thomas Nelson Publishers in Nashville, Tenn., churn out 80 to 100 books with Christian _ and sometimes Christmas _ themes on an annual basis. Just a few years ago, Zondervan published about 50 a year and Nelson’s 4-year-old Tommy Nelson division published about 25.

Though Zondervan has published children’s books throughout its 69-year history, it has seen a 30 percent annual growth in sales with its new Zonderkidz division, created in 1998. The children’s division generated $17 million in its fiscal year that ended last June.

Special books for Christmas include Zonderkidz’s “Ordinary Baby, Extraordinary Gift,” a story written by singer Gloria Gaither that includes a tape of her reading the tale and of children singing her song of the same title.

Since 1997, Zonderkidz has sold more than half a million copies of “The Legend of the Candy Cane,” in which a stranger in town tells children that the popular Christmas candy is shaped like a “J” for Jesus.

“The products that we’re putting out there are just meeting the needs of the customers,” said Kathy Bieber, director of marketing with Zonderkidz. “They’re wanting products that are fun and imaginative and are able to tell a biblical truth to the children.”

While Bieber said that seasonal books sell a bit more than other Christian children’s books at Christmastime, Dan Lynch of Tommy Nelson said his children’s book company finds stories of a more general nature sell well during the holidays, their busiest season.

“Sixty to 70 percent of what we move at Christmas, we’d move during the Easter season as well,” said Lynch, Tommy Nelson’s senior vice president of marketing and entertainment.

Tommy Nelson also has seen 20 percent to 30 percent growth in annual revenue. It reaped $21 million in the fiscal year that ended in March, making it the 15th-largest children’s publisher in North America.

Books such as Tommy Nelson’s “Small Gifts in God’s Hands,” a children’s book by best-selling Christian author Max Lucado, and “Adam, Adam, What Do You See?” by Bill Martin Jr. and Michael Sampson are just as likely as holiday-themed books to be sold as Christmas presents. In both cases, buyers are interested in extending their “morals and beliefs” to younger generations of their families, Lynch said.

“There’s a lot of values carried along with them and a message that in many cases parents and, we find, grandparents are wanting to pass on to the grandchildren,” Lynch said.

As the Christian companies produce more books, secular stores have given more shelf space to Christian children’s literature in recent years.

Sharon Weber, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, said her company’s buyers have purchased more Christian children’s books with holiday themes, but finds the more general Christian books for children outsell them.

“We’re very pleased with the sales of both categories,” said Weber, who is based in Bentonville, Ark. “We do see those categories growing over the next year or so.”

Stephen Pagnani, spokesman for Kmart, said his stores see similar success, with Christian children’s literature selling well at this time, whether it’s specific to Christmas or not.

“It’s a growth category for us,” said Pagnani, whose company is based in Troy, Mich.

While secular stores are discovering the sales value of Christian children’s books, producers of Christian products have launched pro-active campaigns to encourage more sales of such products within Christian bookstores.

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In September, CBA, an organization of Christian retailers, held a “Think Kids First” training camp to help Christian retailers view children as “potential customers” rather than problems, said CBA spokeswoman Nancy Guthrie. One of the themes of the ongoing campaign is to encourage stores to see their retail spaces “through the eyes of a child” to help make them more appealing to their youngest customers.

“Children’s products have become a very strong priority in our industry,” said Guthrie, who called them a growing aspect of the $3.5 billion annual sales in the Christian retail industry.

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Though Christian publishers are a dominant force, inspirational children’s literature is not solely the domain of Christian companies.

“I see more trade publishers adding spiritual or religious titles as well,” said Devereaux, whose position was created at Publishers Weekly about a year and a half ago.

Even as secular publishers create more children’s products, religious publishers are adopting ideas that have been popular in secular markets.

For instance, she said, board books _ long a staple in the secular market _ are popping up more in the Christian realm. She cited VeggieTales books based on the successful Christian video series that use vegetable-shaped characters to teach about such concepts as time, opposites and counting.

The mother of a 3-year-old, Devereaux said parents are becoming aware that as they read to their children, they are transmitting values to them.

“If all you’re reading are secular books, then you are passing along those messages,” she said. “I think it’s very important to include spiritual or religious messages in your home, whether you do it through books or other ways. If you’re going to be reading books, why not include books with spiritual messages?”

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