Whether this is your first Christmas with a new little one or you already have Christmas traditions in place. Starting a Christmas Book Advent is something you might want to add to your Christmas traditions.
We love reading books at our house so what could be better than a book advent calendar counting down to Christmas?
What is a Christmas Book Advent?
A Christmas book advent can be as simple as reading a Christmas book each day leading up to Christmas. You can pick to do this for the 24 days leading up to Christmas or simplify and do just the 12 days leading up to Christmas Day.
To make our advent a little more fun we wrap each of the Christmas books in Christmas wrapping paper and each day we open a surprise book to read.
You can number the books so a specific book is opened each day, or you can let the kids pick which package looks the most fun to open each day. This year we decided to leave the books unnumbered and let the books be random.
Putting Together a Book Advent
There are several different ways to put together a Christmas Book Advent. It depends on how many Christmas books you already have and what your budget is.
Gather the Books
First, decide how long you want your Christmas book advent to be. Do you want to do the 24 days leading up to Christmas, or do you want to keep it short and simple and only do 12 days of Christmas books?
Purchasing 24 or even 12 new Christmas books is a lot to get all at once. So here are a few suggestions to help you save money and build up your Christmas book advent:
- Collect books throughout the year – check for sales after Christmas and watch for books in thrift stores and at yard sales.
- Use books you already have – if you already have a collection of Christmas books use those.
- Use Library books- If you don’t have many Christmas books already and it’s not in the budget this year, use books from the library. Just mark the due date on the back of the wrapping paper so you get them returned by the due date.
- Do a mix – If you can buy a book or two each year and continue to use books you already have and the library. You can slowly build your library of Christmas books while keeping the cost each year minimal.
Wrap the Books
Decide if you want the kids to open specific books each day. If you do then figure out what order you want to books to be opened in and be ready to number them after you wrap them.
If you don’t care what order the books are opened in then all you need to do is wrap the books. I have seen book advents wrapped in all different kinds of paper.
This year we got a mix, I love the simplistic look of brown paper but I knew the kids would love character wrapping paper so I did a little bit of each.
Pro Tip: If you have all of the books early – wrap them! This will make it so easy to pull out the advent at the beginning of December. If you don’t have it ready to go, don’t worry you can easily put this together the night before you want to start!
What Books Should I Include?
What books to include is probably the hardest part of this whole Christmas book advent. You can include favorite Christmas books (See some of ours here) or all new books. This year we decided to get a variety of different books to add to our Christmas collection.
Some of the books in our Christmas Book Advent this year are activity books so they won’t be added to our library since the kids will use the pages.
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The wonderful thing about this advent is that it can change year to year. We don’t have a lot of Christmas books so I wanted to get a variety of books to see what books we can add to our Christmas favorites.
Books in Our Advent this Year
I’m really excited to be working with Clever Publishing this year and adding some of their fun New Christmas books to our Christmas book countdown.
This year our book advent is 24 different books. Below you will find each of the books and a little bit about the book. They are listed in no particular order.
The Grinch’s Great Big Flap Book is a fun lift the flaps book has over 60 flaps inside and tells a shortened rhymed text of the classic Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! – Get the book here
Happy Holidays, Pirates is a fun lift the flap books about you guessed it, Pirates. The illustrations in this book are adorable and the story is so cute, I can’t wait to read this one with my kids. – Get the book here
Duck & Goose It’s Time for Christmas! – My kids have loved the Duck & Goose books since they were babies so I figured it was time to add a Duck and Goose Christmas book. – Get the book here
Usborne Christmas Magic Painting Book – This magic painting book is filled with detailed black and white Christmas scenes. All you need is a brush and some water and you will see the magic start to happen, as colors appear on the page. – Get the book here
Look and Find The Holiday Season – This book by Clever Publishing is filled with hundreds of adorable attention-grabbing illustrations. This book will provide hours of fun for the whole family with different questions and challenges on each page. – Get the book here
Llama Llama Holiday Drama– If you’re at all familiar with Llama Llama you know there is one thing he doesn’t like… it’s waiting. He and Mama Llama rush around doing all the Christmas things but he wonders will Christmas ever come? Mama Llama reminds him that gifts are nice, but the true gift is we have each other. – Get the book here
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The Berenstain Bears Trim the Tree – The Berenstain Bear books were some of my favorites growing up so we had to include one of their Christmas books in our book advent. In this book, Christmas is coming fast and everyone in the Bear family wants to help decorate the tree. – Get the book here
Merry Christmas Daniel Tiger – It’s Christmastime in the Neighborhood of Make Believe and Daniel Tiger and his family can’t wait to celebrate. Join Daniel as he enjoys the festivities of Christmas with friends from his neighborhood. – Get the book here
Warm and Busy Holidays is a fun lightweight activity pad perfect for holiday travel or simple fun at home. The activities include mazes, puzzles, games, doodles and more. – Get the book here
Nativity – This book is filled with award-winning art pieces from the artist J. Kirk Richards. The art is accompanied by the text of the Gospels to tell the timeless story of the birth of Christ. – Get the book here
Snowmen at Night – What do snowmen do when no one is watching? Find out in this adorable picture book. Don’t forget to look for the hidden images on each page. – Get the book here
Holiday Celebration Sticker Book– This fun sticker book has 1000 Clever Stickers that are full of holiday charm. The stickers are perfect for decorating holiday cards and gifts. I can’t wait to show you the fun little craft we are going to make when the kids open this book! – Get the book here
Who’s That Knocking on Christmas Eve? – This fun book written by Jan Brett is perfect to read during the Christmas season. It tells a unique story and features beautiful borders and illustrations. – Ge the book here
The Polar Express – The polar express is a Christmas classic so I had to include it in our book advent. After reading this story you could watch the movie or go on your own polar express train ride. – Get the book here
Busy Christmas – Spin the wheel in this adorable book for a festive learning adventure. The book has a study spinning wheel for little ones to enjoy as they learn. The illustrations of this book are adorable and it’s really well made for young kids to enjoy over and over again. – Get the book here
Usborne Nativity Flap Book – This little flap book introduces young children to the story of baby Jesus. The illustrations are bright and fun, perfect for young readers. – Get the book here
Merry Christmas, from Biscuit – This simple Christmas book follows Biscuit and the little girl as they make a very special present for Grandma and Grandpa. – Get the book here
All I Want for Christmas is You – The classic Mariah Cary “All I want for Christmas is you” lyrics alongside pictures of a young girl whose greatest Christmas wish is for a new puppy, bring to life this one of a kind picture book. – Get the book here
Merry Christmas, Baby Shark – with how popular the baby shark songs are right now this book was a must for this year. I’m not sure if it will become a family favorite or not, but I know the kids are going to love it. – Get the book here
Santa Claus is on His Way to My House! – Santa is on his way but he can’t find a very special present for a very special child. Will Santa and his elf, Alfie, find the present in time? – Get the book here
Frosty’s First Christmas – This fun lift the flap book is based on the 1969 television special Frosty the Snowman. Kids will love lifting the flaps to discover the joys of Christmas. – Get the book here
The Mansion – The mansion is a classic tale told at Christmastime that illustrates the importance of giving unselfishly. It tells the story of John Weightman who wanted the best of everything.
Until one night he dreamed that he died…John joins a group of travelers on their journey to the Celestial City where each individual will be rewarded with a mansion. Thinking his mansion will be the grandest, John learns what it truly means to lay up treasures in heaven. – Get the book here
The Snow Tree – this is an older book that can sometimes be hard to find. My great-grandparents gave it to me when I was a child and this is the first time I’m pulling it out to read.
Inside the cover is a note written by my great-grandparents that makes this book so special to me. The story is simple and cute. Each page has beautiful illustrations that are textured. – Get the book here
How to Catch an Elf – This is a fun story with adorable illustrations perfect to read in the days leading up to Christmas. No this is not a book about The Elf on the Shelf. – Get the book here
Now that you have some fun book suggestions, have fun picking which books you will include in your Christmas Book Advent this year and don’t forget to wrap the books. I mean half of the excitement is unwrapping them!
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We have done this for the last few years and it is one of my favorite traditions!
It’s such a fun tradition, we are loving it this year and can’t wait to continue it each year as the kids grow.
I so love this! We’re still in the phase where we rip every page out of every book we see. I’m hoping we’ll be ready for something like this next year!
The nice thing about creating your own book advent is that you could use board books for little ones. Even several of the books we are using are board books.
How fun! My kiddo would love this…she loves opening presents and she loves books even more!
We love doing a Christmas book advent activity every December! Amazingly, I don’t think that any of our book selections overlap except The Polar Express. If you’re looking for any new books, check out my family’s favorites.
Thanks, I’ll have to go check out what books you have included in your Christmas book advent.
We’ve been doing an Advent book calendar for years and my kids love it. They look forward to it every year. You have some great book recommendations too!
That’s so fun! I’m really excited to do it this year for the first time. I’m sure it’s something our family will continue doing each year.
What a great idea! And I love the tips for saving money while doing this- I had thought about doing this, but knew it wouldn’t be in the budget. But the idea of doing library books is perfect! Thanks!
I love that doing this book advent can work with any budget.
Oh this is such a great idea! I love anything that has to do with encouraging kiddos to read!
Thanks, it’s so important to make reading fun for kids.
I love this idea! So much better than candy or toys each day! And that’s a great idea about using library books. My girls will love this!
What a great idea!! I am not sure if I can do the whole 24 days this year but I would love to try to do 12 days or even an epiphany book after Christmas to mix in that holiday. Lots of great ideas.
That’s what I love about this advent you can choose to do it for as long as works for your family.
We do an advent book tree every year, but I never thought of writing the library due date on the packaging. Thanks for the tip! And I need to get my hands on that Nativity book with the award winning art work. Looks beautiful.
I hope that tip helps you avoid some late fees. The book is really beautiful.
What a great idea! My boys would love this!