RAR #274: Behind the Scenes of One of My Favorite Christmas Picture Books
Read-Aloud Revival ®
Sarah Mackenzie
4.9 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 13 November 2025
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Join us for RAR's Summer Adventure.
We all know there is no shortage of Christmas picture books out there.
But for a book to make it onto my kids’ Christmas stack or onto a Read Aloud Revival Christmas Book List, it has to be excellent.
And the books we choose for Christmas School? Those are the ones that go above and beyond excellent and are some of our most treasured, tippy-top favorite Christmas read-alouds.
Today, I have the author-illustrator of one of my all-time favorite Christmas picture books, Red and Lulu, with me.
You might recognize Matt Tavares from his beloved books Zachary's Ball, Becoming Babe Ruth, or Growing Up Pedro or from his delightful Christmas books in the Dasher series. He’s here to tell us all about his writing and illustrating process, why he loves writing Christmas picture books, and how he created the enchanting journey of Red and Lulu.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
- How he sets the mood for creating snowy, winter scenes even in the middle of summer
- What Matt always keeps in mind about his audience when writing picture books
- The inspiration behind the tale of Red and Lulu and their journey to New York City
Learn more about Sarah Mackenzie:
Find the rest of the show notes at: readaloudrevival.com/matt-tavares
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I have a theory. |
| 0:05.0 | If you were to ask your kids what a few of their very favorite parts of the whole school year were, |
| 0:11.0 | I'm betting there's a pretty good chance they would say Christmas school. |
| 0:16.0 | I mean, hear it read aloud revival, we hear it constantly. |
| 0:20.0 | And I kind of think that's the way it should be, |
| 0:22.0 | right? We're preparing for the birth of our Lord. Now, as a homeschooling mother of six, I know that on a |
| 0:28.2 | normal day, homeschooling feels just like a whole lot and December feels like a whole lot more. |
| 0:34.6 | And that's why we developed Christmas school. Thousands of families all over |
| 0:38.5 | the world replace their ordinary homeschool curriculum with Christmas school for the month of |
| 0:43.7 | December, and they tell us over and over again that it's the highlight of their entire school year. |
| 0:50.4 | Everything's laid out for you in this open and go plan that you can use with kids of all ages |
| 0:55.2 | and it's a delight like you wouldn't believe this isn't one of those programs geared just for the |
| 1:01.1 | you know high energy crafty super organized moms hi i'm sarah mcenzie have we met we wrote |
| 1:08.8 | christmas school for moms who are low on energy, but big on wanting to connect |
| 1:12.8 | with their kids this Christmas. |
| 1:14.4 | If you'd like to get your hands on Christmas school, go to read aloudrevival.com slash |
| 1:19.3 | Christmas school or just text the word Christmas to the number 33777. |
| 1:25.4 | That's Christmas to the number 33-7-7. |
| 1:37.7 | It's like a little prologue almost right before, you know, before the title page. |
| 1:41.1 | Yeah, like the cold open. |
| 1:42.3 | Yeah, exactly, exactly. |
| 1:43.7 | We do it all the time in podcasting. |
... |
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