Christmas Countdown with Books...

Last year, somewhere on the internet I saw the idea of wrapping 24 children's books and unwrapping and reading one each night to countdown to Christmas. (This year that idea is all over pinterest as well).

At that point in time I had exactly 3 children's Christmas books to my name and didn't have the money to go buy 22 more, but I did hold onto the idea for this year and put it in to action. I had 14 books that I owned and my MIL bought a few, and also let us borrow some from her collection to fill out the days. The rest was easy...

All the books ready to be wrapped. I probably spent way more time than necessary planning the order in which they would open the books. But there were a few days that I had specific books in mind. For example on December 13th we celebrate St. Lucia's day and so we're reading a book about her and the celebration on the 12th night in preparation. 

Then I wrapped them all up and put a number tag on them. I follow a blog called Clean Mama. She's doing the same thing with her kids and created these adorable tags that you can download and print for free. If you haven't ever looked at her blog or her etsy site you should. It's adorable. I've ordered a couple of things from etsy, including a custom made worship planning sheet to use when planning my sunday services. Seriously, her blog and site are amazing I love it. Go check it out immediately. (She also often has freebies like these cute tags).

All the books go under the small tree in our family room. Eli and Emerson got to open the first one tonight. They are finally starting to grasp the concept of unwrapping. 

And they did a good job sharing the job. Although when Emmy finished unwrapping this one she immediately headed to the tree and said, "I another one." Once I told her we were going to read the new book she was fine. We all climbed onto our couch in front of the Christmas tree and read the book. 

Then we took the tag, punched a hole in it and hung it on our countdown tree. By Christmas the whole tree will be filled with count down numbers (Sorry for the bad picture the lighting and shadow were not being my friend).

I'm so in love with this new tradition and I hope we can continue it forever haha (I asked Marcus if I could have an adult version with 24 novels for me he didn't think that was a very good idea).

And in case anyone is interested here's our list of books and the days we'll read them. We'll read the book on the 25th first thing in the morning before church.

1. The Spirit of Christmas by Nancy Tillman

2. The Christmas Story with Holly Babes
3. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Adapted by Rick Bunsen
4. A Night in Santa's Great Big Bag by Kristin Kladstrup and Time Jessell
5. Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner
6. Fletcher and the Snowflake Christmas by Julia Rawlinson
7. The Last Straw by Fredrick H. Thury
8. The Story of Christmas by Patricia A. Pingry
9. Elf A Short Story of a Tall Tale As Told by David Berenbaum by Buddy Hobbs
10. The Little Christmas Tree Illustrated by Susanna Ronchi
11. Ten Christmas Lights Illustrated by Jo Parry
12. Lucia Saint of Light by Katherine Bolger Hyde
13.  Mortimer's Christmas Manger by Jane Chapman and Karma Wilsom
14. Biscuit's Christmas Eve by Alyssa Satin Capucilli
15. Santa's Toy Shop By Al Dempster
16. My Christmas Stocking Filled with God's Love
17. The Christmas Story
18. Zeek the Christmas Tree Mouse by Richard H. Schneider
19. What's Coming for Christmas by Kate Banks
20. The Mitten by Jan Brett
21. If You Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numeroff
22. Bear Stays Up For Christmas by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman
23. The Animals' Christmas Eve by Gale Wiersum
24. The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore
25. Today is Christmas by P.K. Hallinan

CLEAN MAMA: Holiday Gift and Advent Labels - Freebie