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It’s Advent! How are you counting down the days to Christmas at your house? With a little baby in the house this year, I wanted something super simple with very little prep work. So for 2014, a literary advent calendar was the perfect solution!
In case you’re unfamiliar with the idea, I took every Christmas book we own and wrapped them. After years of collecting, we finally have enough for all 25 days! If you don’t have 25 books, you can always borrow from the library, which is very cost-effective if you remember to return them on time.
The goal is to unwrap one book a day. I labeled each one with a number (using this awesome printable) and recorded the book titles in my planner, but it will be a complete surprise for the kids. Some days we’ll only read the book; on other days, I want to include a craft or activity. Our list of “must-do” traditions include gingerbread houses, hot cocoa in their special snowman mugs, making Santa cookies with Poppa, and an after-bedtime drive around the neighborhood to see the lights.
For record’s sake (and in case anyone is interested in the books we’re reading), this is the list:
1. Merry Christmas, Curious George
2. Tomie’s Little Christmas Pageant
3. Gingerbread Baby
4. Through the Animals’ Eyes: A Story of the First Christmas
5. The Jolly Christmas Postman
6. Saint Nicholas: A Veggie Christmas Story
7. Pete the Cat Saves Christmas
8. The Clown of God
9. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
10. I Spy Christmas: A Book of Picture Riddles
11. Christmas Cookies: Bite-Size Holiday Lessons
12. Franklin’s Christmas Gift
13. Story of Christmas
14. Frosty the Snowman
15. The Night Before Christmas
16. Santa’s Favorite Story: Santa Tells the Story of the First Christmas
17. Santa’s Reindeer
18. Twelve Days of Christmas
19. Christmas in the Manger
20. The Christmas Angel
21. Madeline’s Christmas
22. Room for a Little One: A Christmas Tale
23. Spot’s First Christmas
24. The Night Before Christmas
What are your favorite Christmas books? When I was little, I loved The Jolly Christmas Postman!
I love this idea! I already have a few of these books and I'm thinking I could borrow several more from the library.
Yes! That's what we've done in previous years. Depending on when you needed to return them, I just made sure all of the library books were toward the beginning…anything to avoid those inevitable library fines! 🙂
Great list…I see some of our favorites and some new ones, too! I look forward to checking them out. We add a few to our collection every year.
What a neat idea! I have friends who spread their Christmas books on their coffee table and put them away with their decorations so they can't be looked at other times during the year, but this is even cooler!
We keep our Christmas books hidden away during the rest of the year too! I love the surprise of opening up old favorites!
Oh – your books look so pretty! My kids love the book basket!
I LOVE this idea!! Filing it away for next year…and every year after that!
Great book choices and I adore the picture of your mantle, it looks great. We save our books until the twelve days of Christmas that way we continue to celebrate the season all the way through.
I've seen this idea float around the last few years. I really LOVE this idea! I love picture books.
My mom bought me the picture book/children's story about La Bufana (http://www.amazon.com/Legend-Old-Befana-Tomie-dePaola/dp/0152438173/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417631318&sr=1-1&keywords=la+bufana) a few years ago b/c she got tired of me asking about the tradition and the story behind what we celebrated on Epiphany.
Thanks for linking up to the Advent Blog-Hop!
Ooh, I love Tomie dePaola! I'll have to add this one to our list for next year! Thanks for the recommendation.
You're the best! Such a great list of books – we also love Mr. Willoughby's Christmas tree, Snowmen at night, and If you take a mouse to the movies. Xxoox
Ooh, adding those titles to my list for next year!
Love this Ashley! We're just starting our collection but I love how you wrap the books you already have. Next year we will definitely be doing this! Thank you! 🙂
My kids are so excited to open a book each day. I'm loving the memories we're making and it's SO easy for Mamma too 🙂 Your boys will love it next year!