25 Days of Christmas Books

Recently, I guest posted over at Sugar Bee Crafts on my family's 25 Days of Christmas Books tradition. Thought I would go ahead and share here as well!  Enjoy!  :)

Looking for an easy and meaningful family tradition this Christmas?  Start the 25 Days of Christmas Books and enjoy time with your family during the busy holiday season.

I started this tradition three years ago after my daughter was born.  I did it for two reasons: 1) As my husband and I were starting our family, I wanted us to start our own traditions as well.  2) In the midst of the craziness of the holidays, I wanted to ensure that we had something that would bring us together as a family each and every night.

Plus, I liked that the books would give us a countdown to Christmas (like an Advent calendar), without my kids receiving candy or small trinkets. So, we decided to start the 25 Days of Christmas Books.  

Starting this tradition is really easy to do:  just find 25 Christmas/holiday books, wrap them up and open/read one each day from December 1st to December 25th. Easy right? :)

Finding 25 books might require a little bit of work, assuming you don't just want to buy 25 brand new books at your local bookstore or on Amazon. I picked ours up over the past four years at garage sales, local thrift shops, and from various retail stores. I try to pick up at least one new one each year. Several of them were given to our kiddos as Christmas presents as well. You could also ask your friends and and family if they have some gently-loved books that their children have outgrown. 

Some of our favorites include:

 The Classics

The Childhood Favorites
(so fun to read one of my old books to my kiddos!)

The Reason for the Season
(and another of my childhood favorites)

 Interactive Books

(these Jingle and Bell books are my daughter's FAVORITE! I was so happy to see they put out two new books this year because we read the others at least once a week, year round!)

 Modern Favorites

Books For Every Age

And our two new books for 2013...

If you have more than 25 books, as we do, you could begin on Thanksgiving evening and read a book every night until Christmas.

So just wrap up the books and throw them in a cute basket underneath the tree.  

Most of the time, the hubby, kiddos and I will sit down after the kids have gotten ready for bed and will enjoy a book over a bedtime snack.  Both of our children love to read, as do we, so it's such an effortless yet meaningful part of our night-time routine! 

So there ya go!  Hopefully this will inspire you to start your own holiday tradition! 

Thanks again to Mandy at Sugar Bee Crafts for the opportunity to guest post!