What makes a good personalised Christmas book for a child?

Banjo is four, and on the hottest Christmas Eve of the summer he has one big worry: Santa's reindeer. They live in the snow, and tonight they have to fly all night into an Aussie summer. So Mum helps him fill a bowl with cold water, he carries it out to the front step, and then he counts the light-up reindeer on the roof, one finger each, all the way to eight. Then he looks back down at his bowl and turns to his mum: "Eight reindeer. One bowl."

That's page three of a Christmas book we made on Almia for a four-year-old called Banjo, so you can see what one actually looks like. We made it on the site the same way you would make yours.

A good personalised Christmas book is about your child's own Christmas, with them on every page. For most Aussie kids that Christmas is hot (backyard cricket, mangoes, the paddling pool and lights along the gutter), not snowy. An Almia book builds the whole story around your child, and up to two of their people can come along too.

Most Christmas picture books are snowy: fireplaces, mittens, a sleigh over white rooftops. They're lovely books, but they're about somebody else's December. I think the best Christmas book a kid can own is one about the Christmas they actually have.

You'll also notice a koala in the pictures. That's Snooze. An Almia story can bring along a little companion of its own, someone for your child to talk to and laugh at. We'd put koalas in Banjo's interests, so Almia picked a koala, and Snooze sleeps through most of the plan and only wakes up when there might be a snack.

What makes a good personalised Christmas book?

Your child in it, in their own Christmas, with something small going on. A name on the cover of a snowy story is the shallow end.

The four kinds of personalised book go from a name on the cover all the way to a story built around your child. For a Christmas book, here's what I'd look for:

1. Your child, looking like themselves, on the cover and on every page.
2. Their Christmas, not a generic one. The weather, the food, whatever your family always does on Christmas Eve.
3. A problem a little kid would actually worry about. For Banjo it's the reindeer. They live in the snow and tonight they're flying all night into an Aussie summer, so who's checking they're okay? It sounds small, but to a four-year-old it's a serious question, and it carries the whole book.
4. Something you'd like them to take from it, without it turning into a lecture.

That's what makes it a good Christmas present for a little one: it's the one thing under the tree that's actually about them. And it doesn't get used once and forgotten. It can come out with the decorations every December and be read to a kid who's a year older each time.

Can a Christmas book look like an Australian Christmas?

Yes. In a fully-custom book the setting is whatever you describe, so a hot Christmas Eve, backyard cricket, a paddling pool full of ice and lights along the gutter can all end up on the page.

In Banjo's book the heat isn't just the backdrop, it's the whole plot. He tries three times to leave the reindeer a cold drink. The bowl isn't enough for eight of them, and the bucket he leaves out after lunch is "as warm as a bath" by teatime. So he goes big: the paddling pool, the hose, and every ice cube in the freezer.

Some of my favourite lines weren't anything we typed. Dad bowls one ball of backyard cricket and ends up "puffing like a steam train". Mum holds up a carrot ("Carrots are the usual, Banj."), and Banjo looks over at the fruit bowl instead: "Hot nights need juicy."

It works the same way for a summer Christmas in New Zealand, or a cold one anywhere else.

What did we type for Banjo's book, and what came back?

We filled in the same form you would: a photo each of Banjo, Mum and Dad, his name, nickname and age, his interests, what he's like, a lesson, and then a short story idea and a few moments. What came back was a nine-scene book called "Eight Reindeer, One Bowl, and Banjo".

His interests were the beach, his boogie board, mangoes, backyard cricket with Dad, Christmas lights and koalas. Most of the steering came from three boxes. In the one about what he's like, we wrote:

Cheeky and kind, always checking that everyone is okay

In the story box:

It's Christmas Eve on the hottest day of the Australian summer. Banjo looks at the reindeer on the Christmas lights and starts to worry: Santa's reindeer live in the snow, and tonight they fly all night into a hot Aussie summer. Who checks they're okay? Banjo wants them to have a cold drink when they land, and he tries three times, each try bigger. We never see Santa or the reindeer, only what they leave behind. The last page ends on those clues, not on a lesson.

And in the moments box, one line each:

Backyard cricket on the hottest Christmas Eve, and Dad is puffing
A bowl of water, but Banjo counts: eight reindeer, one bowl
A bucket after lunch, but by teatime the water is warm as a bath
The paddling pool, filled with the hose and every ice cube
Mum says reindeer eat carrots; Banjo cuts up his own mangoes instead
Christmas morning: pool half empty, mangoes gone, hoof prints in the wet grass

You don't have to fill in the story or moments boxes. Leave them empty and the book comes up with a story from everything else. We filled them in because we wanted a book about the heat.

Everything else came back on its own: "puffing like a steam train", "Hot nights need juicy", the plate licked clean, and Snooze. Each moment turned into a page or two, in the same order we wrote them, from the cricket on page one to the hoof prints on the last page.

The line about what he's like ended up doing the most work. It's "You okay, Dad?" in the backyard, and "Who checks they're okay?" under the reindeer lights. Then on Christmas morning, looking at the half-empty pool and the licked-clean plate, he whispers the answer to his own question: "They're okay."

The lesson lands on page seven, and nobody says it out loud. Those were his last two mangoes, saved just for him, and he cuts them up for eight reindeer he'll never see. There's no speech about giving, just a four-year-old handing over his favourite thing, which is exactly how I'd want a lesson to land.

Then Mum points at the lawn. Pressed into the wet grass, all the way to the fence, there's a trail of hoof prints. That's the last page, and the story stops right there, on the clue.

A few pictures did get redrawn before we were happy with them. On page five the bucket came back metal when it had been blue on page four. The last page is also the cover, so we wanted it to end on Banjo laughing next to a clean paddling pool. And Mum's eyes came back as plain dots, so we had them redrawn on the five pages she's in.

Can Mum and Dad be in it too?

Yes. An Almia book has room for your child plus up to two others, people or pets, so Mum and Dad can both be in it, from one clear photo each.

In Banjo's book, Dad gets the cricket, the bucket and the hose. Mum helps fill the first bowl, shakes the last ice tray into the pool and holds up the carrot that loses out to the mangoes. They're both there on the last page, and it's Mum who spots the hoof prints. Your own people would look like themselves on every page, and you get to check that in the free preview before you decide anything.

With two spots you do have to choose, but whoever misses out can come along in the next book. If a grandparent, auntie or uncle is the one giving it, they can take a spot themselves, and a personalised gift from a grandparent, auntie or uncle covers how that works. If the dog would never forgive you, a best friend or a pet can come along instead. And if the book is really about one parent and the child, a book about a child and their dad shows what that looks like.

When do you need to order for Christmas?

For Christmas 2026, order by Friday 11 December in Australia and by Monday 7 December in New Zealand.

Books take about 7 to 10 business days to reach you in Australia and 10 to 14 in New Zealand, and that includes printing rather than coming on top of it. Those dates use up the whole delivery window, so if you can get in a few days earlier, I would. The birthday book for a three-year-old does the same maths for a birthday, with more breathing room built in.

If you've missed those dates, there's another kind of Christmas book you can make: one about the Christmas they just had. A personalised book about a real day shows how that works, and a day that's already happened doesn't have a deadline.

What does a personalised Christmas book cost?

An Almia hardcover is A$59.95 plus A$16.00 delivery, and you can read the whole book free before you pay anything.

We're Almia, and every book is built from scratch around the child it's for. Banjo's is the one where eight reindeer drink half a paddling pool and lick a plate of mango clean. Yours would have your child's own Christmas in it.

It's a hardcover, 26 pages on 170gsm silk paper with a matte-laminated cover, and it comes with tracked delivery. Right now we deliver to Australia and New Zealand, with global shipping on the way.

Ellen & Diego, Founders of Almia