book advent

Wow... I can't believe it is already December 10! I had good intentions of writing some fun holiday posts this month, but it is flying by too fast. I also realize I may have sounded a little braggy a few posts ago... you know where I boasted about having my Christmas shopping done? Yeah, well rest assured until a couple days ago that is the only thing crossed off my list! And that's only because my mom, sister, and I are part of the
crazyambitious 4 a.m. Black Friday crowd. We go every year, but I go with a list and try to get everything on that list, whether it's a doorbuster or not! I face the shopping craziness for one day so I can avoid it the rest of the season.

Anyway... I wanted to share a tradition I started with my kids a few years ago. Rebecca Cooper posted about this same tradition on her blog at the beginning of the month, so you may want to check it out. We have a book advent where I wrap up a Christmas book for each day in December until the 24th. My kids get to take a turn unwrapping a book each night and we read it together before bed. I first saw this idea in Family Fun magazine a few years ago, so we tried it. We've done it every year since, and my kids really look forward to it. Here is my basket of wrapped books for this year:


So, there is one more thing I got to check off my list! Ideally I would have had these ready to go before December 1, but it just didn't happen. I finally got them all wrapped around the 6th or 7th, so for the first few nights we just played catch-up and opened more than one book. The kids didn't seem to mind.

Here is a list of the books that made it into the basket for this year:

• I Smell Christmas by Mercer Mayer
• Merry Christmas, Big Hungry Bear! by Don & Audrey Wood
• A Merry Little Christmas by Mary Engelbreit
• Room for a Little One by Martin Waddell
• Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner
• The Sweet Smell of Christmas by Patricia Scarry
• The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore, illustrated by Mary Engelbreit
• A Snowman Named Just Bob by Mark Kimball Moulton
• Bear Stays Up for Christmas by Karma Wilson
• Queen of Christmas by Mary Engelbreit
• I Believe in Santa Claus by Diane Adamson
• The Tale of Three Trees retold by Angela Elwell Hunt
• I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown by Charles M. Schulz
• Olive the Other Reindeer by J. Otto Seibold and Vivian Walsh
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
• The Christmas Blizzard by Helen Ketteman
• You Are My Miracle by Maryann Cusimano Love
• You Can Do It, Sam by Amy Hest
• Santa's First Flight by Sam Beeson
• Frosty's New Friends by Richard Cowdrey
• Mooseltoe by Margie Palatini
• Frosty the Snowman by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins
• A Charlie Brown Christmas by Charles M. Schulz
• The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore, illustrated by Christian Birmingham

There are some books (like The Polar Express which is probably my favorite) that I intentionally left out of the advent box so they would be out all month for us to read.

This is a really fun, simple tradition. If you don't have enough holiday books, you could even just do a 12-day advent or check some out of your local library to use. I have some other fun ideas I've gathered over time... I'll try to post more when I have a minute! Happy weekend!