Christmas Traditions - A Month of Books

Now that it is officially December, I can't wait to get started on all our family traditions. It takes awhile for a family to develop their own traditions and the last couple of years I feel like we've finally acheived that. It's a nice mix of traditions from both sides of the family and new things we've added and borrowed. It's so much fun when the kids start asking for traditions and getting excited about what we do every year.

One tradition they can't wait to start involves our Christmas book collection. We wrap up all our Christmas books and each night one child (they are very judicious about taking turns) chooses a book to unwrap that we read together. Because they've been packed away all year, they are excited to read old favorites and surprised by books they had completely forgotten about. I always add a few new books each year too. We've try to collect a variety of books: traditional, spiritual, secular, fun & silly, tear inducing, different reading levels, etc . . . I love to take time wrapping them to fit the color and theme of our tree and house. Last year it was all red, this year I'm thinking sliver and shades of blue. We pile them under the tree or in a basket. We miss some nights when it gets to busy and that's ok. Some of the books are longer reads or collections of stories. We read a little the first night and then read more when it's convenient. Some of our favorites include The Nutcracker, How The Grinch Stole Christmas!, Junie B. Jones Batman Smells p.s. So Does May, The Farolitos of Christmas, Who is Coming to Our House, Gingerbread Baby.