This year, I’m trying to keep Christmas simple, but I do want to honor my kids’ requests for their favorite Christmas traditions. Our oldest really only wanted to do one family tradition this year: unwrapping books.
Over the past few years, I’ve squirreled away 25+ Christmas or winter-themed books that only come out of my hiding place in the month of December. Each year, in late November, I painstakingly wrap them all while the kids are napping and hide them, so I don’t have to wrap them again.
It is what it is, folks.
Then, each day in December, the kids get to select one book to unwrap and read. The majority of them are beautiful books with meaningful stories. A couple are really foolish, junky board books that I hope to replace at some point, but we’re not out of that stage yet. Two of our kids still think chewing and standing on books is okay.
In any case, we unwrap a book a day and read it. I usually have a few backup crafts that can go with any activity. i.e. snowflake making, cookie baking, making paper ornaments for our tree.
Last year, I put numbers on the wrapping paper and attempted to open them in correct order; this year, I’m just going to let them choose a random book.
Click on the photos below for links to some of our more favorite Christmas books. I guarantee you, though, some of them will make you cry misty tears if you try to read them aloud to kids. Pre-read is definitely warranted. (This note especially goes for An Orange for Frankie and Christmas Day in the Morning.)
Our 20 Favorite Children’s Christmas Books
(I’ve got a whole wish list of children’s Christmas books to add to this list eventually. Am I missing one of your favorites?)