Can you tell that Courtney and I are getting into serious Christmas modes at our houses?!?! One of my friends was out visiting last weekend from the city and compared my husband and I to Mr. and Mrs. Claus, because we seriously love this time of year so much!! One idea that I started last year, thanks to the wonderful knowledge of other bloggers, is a Christmas Book Countdown!!!!!
Here’s the idea…wrap 25 Christmas related books and lay them under the Christmas tree. Each night starting the night before December 1st all the way through December 24th…we open up and read one book a night as a family before we head up to beds (and sometimes many more, on the requests of my boys)! Starting the last night of November, we read Elf On the Shelf and magically, he appears for the whole month of Decmeber. Then, every night we choose a new book to read. For Christmas Eve, I wrap up a new book that is a new addition to the collection and we also make sure we sneak in one last reading of The Night Before Christmas!
The kids LOVE it and so do I—a perfect way to end the night this holiday season!
I have a few more days to get the books wrapped, but just pulled them down from the attic and wanted to share the idea with you visually! Where do we get most of the books??? Gifts, store deals, library sales (are amazing!), and garage sales!
I like to look for books that are cute/fun/festive, but also like to include some that share the true meaning of Christmas (that is simple enough for preschoolers to understand!). I wanted to include some of our favorites for you, in case you are on the search for some good children’s Christmas books.
Llama Llama Holiday Drama
Max’s Christmas: Cute story with the characters Max and Ruby
Babys First Nativity: A really simple version of the Nativity—perfect for toddlers
Duck & Goose, It’s Time for Christmas: Got to love Duck and Goose?!
The Elf on the Shelf: A household staple!
Santa Roo: Featuring Pooh and friends
Frosty the Snowman: We LOVE our Hallmark recordable version, but it’s one of our favorite holiday movies/stories in this house.
Merry Christmas, Curious George: Got to have Curious George in the mix, right?
The Night Before Christmas
The Story of Christmas
Franklin’s School Play: This may be perfect to add to our collection this year as Aiden will be in his first Christmas play at preschool this year.
Mooseltoe
Joy to the World: This one is really cute—it plays Joy to the World at the end.
Snowbear’s Christmas Countdown
The Little Christmas Tree—Mercer Mayer does it again!
So those are some of the ones that we have in our collection, but I’m always on the search for more? Share your ideas with us in the comments below—we would LOVE to hear them! And get your books ready, Christmas is coming soon!
We did this last year too! I'm pulling our books out tonight to get started wrapping. Good idea posting a list of favorites. I might have to do that too!
I blogged about this same thing yesterday!
http://tickledpinkmandy.blogspot.com/2012/11/counting-down-to-christmas-with-books.html
I will have to add some of your favorite books to our collection! Love hearing about new books! Thanks!!
I just ordered some through the scholastic book club at my sons school. Some of the ones I ordered That are different from the ones you listed were The Littlest Elf, Gingerbread Mouse, Little Critters: Just a snowman, A Christmas Goodnight, 10 Trim-a-Tree'ers, Jingle Bells and God Gave Us Christmas.
Can't wait to add some of the ones from your list to our collection!
Hi, lovely to meet you. Thanks for joining Friday Chaos Blog Hop. I hope you will have a great time meeting new friends and reading new blogs. You have an adorable family. Thanks for being an inspiration!
hugs
shannel @ http://www.shannellee.blogspot.com
Great Idea Julie! I've been trying to add new traditions to our Christmas (I just got an elf on the shelf yesterday). This is a great one!
I'm so glad you shared your list! I need to get a few more for our collection. I feel like I have 5 of the same book–some sort of nativity baby book!
Love your list, it's such a great collection! I'd love for you to share this post with my Book Hop if you are interested. Stop by whenever!
Marissa
http://forfunreadinglist.blogspot.com
Great idea ~ Love that it's family oriented and just completely different!
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Lanaya
http://www.raising-reagan.com
I love this idea so much that I am in the process of starting this tradition since it is my daughter's first Christmas. I am so excited at the thought of doing this every year!
Thank you so much for linking up to Raising a imperfection, we love having you every week!
Leslie
http://www.violetimperfection.com
Awe, such a good idea!
http://www.southernramblings.com
Thjat's a lot of Christmas books but a great idea.
Excellent list!
Thanks for linking to Mom's Library.
Julie @ Hey Mommy, Chocolate Milk
As well as you make sense. Thanks for sharing such a good idea. also thanks for list.
I wanted to do this, this year. Time got away from me. The books you have look great. Have fun. Thanks for linking up to tip-toe thru tuesday.