Simple Christmas {day 01}
I hope you’re all just as excited as I am to be kicking off our
Simple Christmas countdown! Tonight begins this series of 25 blog posts centered on keeping things simple this Christmas season.
To start off I’m thrilled to welcome my good friend Melissa Deakin who is sharing a special Christmas tradition in her family. We adopted this fun Christmas book countdown into our family a couple of years ago after seeing the idea on Melissa’s blog and it is something I know we’ll continue to do for a very long time! It’s such a simple idea but does so much to bring our little family together throughout the holidays.
Advent Countdown With Books:
A favorite tradition in our family is our Advent countdown with books. At the end of each November, I go to my bookshelf and pull out 24 holiday books that will be included in the year’s countdown to Christmas. I was an elementary teacher before becoming a mama, so I had lots of books in my collection, but it isn’t hard to find lots of great bargain books and begin your own holiday book collection and advent tradition.
While there are numerous titles available, these are the ones I have chosen for this year. Each year, I usually add one or two new titles to the collection and weed out a few from the past. Lots of times the new titles come from the Scholastic book orders my boys bring home from school. This year I found a few great titles at The Christmas Tree Shop and they were very cheap.
The titles in the photo above are:
While there are numerous titles available, these are the ones I have chosen for this year. Each year, I usually add one or two new titles to the collection and weed out a few from the past. Lots of times the new titles come from the Scholastic book orders my boys bring home from school. This year I found a few great titles at The Christmas Tree Shop and they were very cheap.
The titles in the photo above are:
The Stable Where Jesus was Born: Rhonda Gowler Greene
The Best Christmas Present of All: Linda Jennings
Olive the Other Reindeer: Vivian Walsh
Clifford’s Christmas: Norman Bridwell
Mrs. WishyWashy’s Christmas: Joy Cowley
The Very Snowy Christmas: Diana Hendry & Jane Chapman
The titles above are:
Bear Stays up for Christmas: Karma Wilson
Christmas Angel (a Clifford’s Puppy Days book)
Shhhh!: Julie Sykes
Little Porcupine’s Christmas: Joseph Slate
The Dog Who Found Christmas: Linda Jennings
The titles above are:
Jingle Bells, Homework Smells: Diane deGroat
Night Tree: Eve Bunting
Frosty the Snowman: Annie North Bedford
You are My Miracle: MaryAnn Cusimano Love
Joy to the World: unknown
Merry Christmas, Davy: Brigitte Wenninger
The titles above are:
How the Grinch Stole Christmas: Dr. Suess
Santa and the Three Bears: Dominic Catalano
Santa Mouse: Michael Brown
I’ve Seen Santa: David Bedford
This is the Star: Joyce Dunbar
A Snowy Surprise: Amy Hest
After collecting the books, I then wrap them all up with wrapping paper. The final book, The Night Before Christmas is reserved for December 24th and is wrapped uniquely from the others to distinguish it so that it isn’t accidentally opened before Christmas Eve. I also make a special tag bearing these instructions.
Once all the books are wrapped, they are placed in a special basket that is placed in our living room. The children take turns selecting a book each night and unwrapping it. Then we read it together as a family.
I have been doing this for at least 4 years now and today, when my oldest saw me putting the finishing touches on the wrapping of the books and placing them in the basket, he looked at me with glistening eyes and said, “You’re getting it ready? I love picking the books each night.” That was so special to me…I cannot even put it into words. I hope this is something that my boys always remember. It is a tradition that is loved by our family and I hope it becomes a treasured one in yours too.
Merry Christmas!
You can find out more about Melissa by visiting her blog
Savoring the Details. Melissa’s blog is filled with simple inspiration, beautiful photos. and weekly photo challenges. Oh, and don’t miss checking out her darling etsy shop where she sells custom made products using her gorgeous photography!
Rebecca Cooper is a 42-year-old wife and mother of four from Alberta, Canada. As a photographer, crafter, author, and blogger, she finds joy and fulfillment in celebrating everyday moments. She loves to read and eat chocolate, and is a firm believer in afternoon naps. Rebecca shares her family’s adventures, photo tips, simple craft projects + more right here at Simple as That.
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We have this same tradition and i LOVE it!!!!!
We also have this same tradition, and my kids look forward to it every year. I love it! I think I read about it in Family Fun several years ago and decided to try it out. It was such a hit that we haven’t missed a year since.
We have this tradition, too! I love it, and my kids look forward to it every year. I first saw the idea several years ago in Family Fun, so I tried it out and we haven’t missed a year since. Such a fun thing to do!
This is SO awesome. I’d love to give this a try, thank you so much for sharing your wonderful tradition.
I have been searching and searching for a great idea and thanks to you I found one! Thank you for sharing this great post. I was also a teacher before becoming a Mama and have tons of Holiday books. Hubby even liked it! Thank you!
We are trying this tradition this year and hoping it’s one to stay!
I love this idea and hope to start it in the future when my little one isn’t so little 🙂
great idea that has created a perfect tradition!! i think i will do this…but next year!!!!!!
I’ve been reading this blog for such a long time, admiring photos and ideas, but I couldn’t not comment this post.
This book countdown is a GREAT idea ! My daughter is still a little too young, and I don’t have that much Christmas books at home (only one actually…) But I’ll sure be preparing it next year !
Now, I need to find 23 more Christmas books matching our beliefs and educational habits (not too much of Santa Claus, I hate lying to my kids)
I love this idea…I will need to get VERY busy tomorrow, it is 1st Dec in only a few hours in Australia.
And…Mrs Wishy Washys Christmas…how cool (I too was a teacher and remember doing Mrs Wishy Washy as a play )
I do this too! Well, except I omitted the wrapping part now because last year I totally forgot to wrap them in advance. So I put them all in a basket (more than 25 though because some nights we are in the mood to read more than one or if a relative stops by during the month & wants to read them one, they pick from the basket). Each of my three girls loves when its their turn to select.
Thanks for the peek into your titles. I might have to get some of those!
What a wonderful tradition! Your son’s comment says it all…
I have passed your idea on th my “kindergarten teaching friends” and they are excited to try it at school.
i love this idea!!!
love this idea
oh my gosh. we need to do this ASAP!!! what a great idea!!!!!
So much better than the piece of chocolate from the calendar my brother and I would fight over. I’m looking forward to the other 24 posts to come.
I’m an English teacher myself, so I think this is pretty much the greatest tradition ever.
Rebecca! Thanks so much for commenting on my blog! It made my day – you don’t even know. I am a faithful blog stalker 🙂 of yours and was so excited to see you feature the storybook advent knowing that I was putting one together at home too. I almost fell over dead when you commented on my blog. Thank you!
Aurelie,
I am still building up my collection of Christmas books (well I will be when we move back home) so I actually checked out a few books from the library last year and wrapped them up with the countdown…just make sure you remember which ones are the library books so you open before they’re due. 😉
This is such an awesome idea! My boys would love this 🙂
(I thought I already commented on this…so sorry if it’s a duplicate).
I LOVE this idea! Thanks so very much for sharing it. I wandered over to this blog a few days ago for inspiration, and I just wanted to say that I love the design and the photos.
So, today I went out and bought about 10 books from our used bookstore…and only ended up paying $1.99 out of pocket. We had 14 or so…so now they’re all wrapped and under our tree. My son is thrilled, and I can’t wait to start our new tradition. THANKS again so much. 🙂
Thanks for such a fantastic idea. I read this yesterday and quickly went to the bookshelf to find all our Christmas books and wrapped them up. The kids loved picking out a “present” last night and opening it. They have even picked out which one they are going to read tonight. Thanks!
What a wonderful idea! I don’t have enough holiday books yet, but maybe I can do the last 10 days before Christmas and plan ahead for the 24 next year. Thanks for sharing this!
This is such a wonderful idea! We read a book to our son every night before bed, and it would be fun to use holiday books as a countdown. I don’t have time to find and wrap 24 books this year, but we can definitely do 10 or 12. Thanks for sharing such a great idea!
I just did a post on our Christmas Book Basket and linked to your post! Here is the link:
http://theintentionalhome.blogspot.com/2010/12/count-down-with-christmas-book-basket.html
I found your blog by googling Countdown to Christmas with Books. . so I am excited to take a look around.
Thanks for this cute idea. I hope you don’t mind but I linked to you on my blog simplyfreshdesigns.com with your fun idea.
By the way, I just love reading your blog. Your family is so darling. You guys are so brave to do a big fun adventure moving to the Caribbean. What a neat bonding time for you guys.
Happy Christmas!
Thanks for this wonderful idea !!! I love it. It’s too late for me this year, but next time…
My kids are loving this! Thanks for the great idea.
It also satisfies 2 things: my kids desire to unwrap presents and my desire to cut back on all the stuff my kids get! 😉