Books Under the Tree

Last year we started a tradition. During the month of December, the girls really look forward to two things. They love to do their daily advent activity and they love their daily Christmas book.

You see, on December 1st, the girls wake up to find the advent calendar set up and 24 presents under the tree. Each present is a book — a fun and festive book for us to read together.

Now, I don’t buy 24 new books. But, what I do is wrap up 24 Christmas books that we already have. Since my teaching days, I’ve slowly built up my collection, adding a book or two every year, stalking up when they go on sale after the holidays.
Now I wrap up 24 of those books. We’ve got classics like “The Night Before Christmas” and “The Nutcracker.” We’ve got some wintery books, like “Frosty the Snowman.” There are also fun and quarky books, like “Saumari Santa” — which is a favourite around here.

We wrap up each book and put them under the tree. On odd days Alexie opens the advent calendar and Zoé picks a book, any book under the tree. The next day, we alternate. Once we open it, we put the books in our book basket (kind of like a reverse book basket) and we read them again and again over the weeks leading up to Christmas! 

Here are the books that will be under our tree this year!

• The Night Before Christmas
• Is it Christmas yet?
• The Pajama Elves
• The Nutcracker
• The Twelve Days of Christmas in Canada
• Bonhomme de Neige
• Finding Christmas
• Away in a Manger
• This is Christmas
• Christmas in the Castle
• Mr. Christmas
• Santa’s Sleigh is on it’s way to Canada
• A Very Veggie Christmas Countdown
• That’s Not My Snowman…
• The Twelve Days of Christmas
• Samurai Santa
• Our Little Deer
• Silent Night, Holy Night
• The Christmas Story
• Joyeux Noel Peppa
• Casse-Noisette
• The story of Christmas
• M is for Manger
• Berenstain Bears and the Joy of Giving

These are the books that we will be wrapping up this year. What favourite holiday books are on your list? I’ve always got my eye out for some new great books to add to the collection.