Note: This Christmas book advent calendar is a 2-3 year project in the making. I originally wrote this post in December 2009 and posted it again here today.
************************************************************************
I started collecting ideas for Christmas traditions that are especially fun for kids last year. Ava will be 5 months old at Christmas this year and we will be keeping things really low key for her this year. This year, I got Ava some Christmas pajamas, an ornament, a stocking with her name on it and one little toy that I haven’t told Paul about yet! ha! In my family, we always got Christmas pajamas that we would open on Christmas Eve which is a tradition I would like to continue and I’d like to get Ava an ornament every year so that by the time she is 18 she has her own little collection of memories from her childhood.
Another idea that I would like to do in the future is to gather up 25 different children’s Christmas books and wrap them individually. 25 is quite a few Christmas books so I’ll start collecting a few here and there now and maybe even borrow some from the library when the time comes. I’ll just need to keep careful track of when they need to be returned and for the ones that we own, I’ll probably box them up for most of the year and just bring them out in December. Then, on the 25 days leading up to Christmas, Ava and etc, etc, etc (if we have any more kids, ha!) can unwrap a book each night that Paul or I will read to her/them.
Picture from Babyccino Kids.
I think it a wonderful and simple way to have some quality family time and something to look forward to in the days leading up to Christmas. Plus, because Ava is opening a “gift” each day throughout the month of December, my hope is that it will curb some of the desire to open gifts NOW that I had as a kid. It could work, right?!
Here are some of the books on my wish list for this little project…
1. The Snowman
2. The Spirit of Christmas
3. How the Grinch Stole Christmas
4. Olivia Helps with Christmas
5. Elf on the Shelf
6. Nutty Nutcracker Christmas
7. Polar Express
8. The Snowy Day
9. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
10. Babar and Father Christmas
11. The Nutcracker
12. Fancy Nancy: Splendiforous Christmas
13. Olive, the Reindeer
14. There was an old lady who swallowed a bell
15. 12 days of Christmas in Minnesota
16. A Very Marley Christmas
17. My First Christmas
18. Dream Snow
19. Snowmen at Christmas
20. The Story of Christmas
21. Bear Stays Up For Christmas
22. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
23. Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree
23. Madeline’s Christmas
24. The Night Before Christmas
What other favorite Christmas children’s stories am I missing?
*****************************************************
Since that original post was published in December 2009, I was busy, busy collecting Christmas books and now I have a stack that looks like this. This is *almost* all 24 of them. There were still a couple on order in the mail when I took this photo.
Here are the ones we have in our collection:
5. Olivia Helps with Christmas
6. Bear Stays Up for Christmas
8. A Nutty Nutcracker Christmas
10. If you take a Mouse to the Movies
12. The Snowman
14. The Sweet Smell of Christmas
15. A Wish to Be a Christmas Tree
16. Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree
17. The Santa Trap
18. How the Grinch Stole Christmas
21. The Snowy Day
23. Dream Snow
24. Duck and Goose It’s Time for Christmas
This is the first year, I am actually going to start this tradition with Ava. I’ve got about half of the books wrapped and since December 1 is tomorrow, I better get to the rest of them!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
For some reason your blog stopped showing up in my reader! I love this idea, I saw it on Babyccino last year I think and meant to do it this year and didn’t get around it so maybe next year
Hey Andrea!
Thanks for stopping by. I switched my blog from a Typepad to a Wordpress platform about a month ago and I think that messed up everyone’s readers. Luckily, the domain name is still the same, but I’m not sure how to correct the readers. Sadly, my technical skills are somewhat limited.
Pxx