Tuesday, November 04, 2014

A New Christmas Tradition - The Book Advent Calender ♥

 Whilst scrolling down through my Facebook feed one day (as you do) this image of books wrapped up in gorgeous Christmas wrapping paper popped up and being a Christmas lover I had to click on the photo and see what it was all about. The idea is to wrap up twenty-five books, they don't all have to be new and they don't all have to be Christmas themed, in fact, I've gone with the theme of childhood favourites of Tyler Lee's father and I, winter and Christmas and some of the books are ones which were in his Christmas Eve basket last year but the idea is for the child to choose a different book each night before bed beginning on December 1st so that they have a new bedtime story each night leading up to Christmas Day. Now my little bean is far to young to pick just one book, I know he'd grab them all so I've got tags on the books to say what book they are and what date they should be read on starting with the least Christmassy and winter themed books first. Of course, when he's older it'll be a pot luck pick for him which will add even more excitement to his book advent calender. I simply love this idea, my boy is a little bookworm and I regularly catch his taking books off his shelf and sitting down on his toy box for a look throughout the day. He loves bedtime stories and has even now begun looking for a story at nap times too. He always wants to see the books after he's been read them and he really shows and interest in the pictures, turning the pages and pointing to the characters he likes so I think the book advent calender is something that he'll really love throughout the years.

I have just eleven books wrapped up at the moment as I'm waiting for for more to arrive from Amazon and for a trip to Waterstones when they have their Christmas displays up but I will show the other books when I have them. People on Instagram have been asking where I get Tyler Lee's books from so below are the books I already have wrapped up for him and links on where to get them all.

1. The Gruffalo's Child // 2. The Snowman and the Snowdog // 3. The Christmas Tale Of Peter Rabbit // 4. The Night Before Christmas // 5. Richard Scarry's Best Bedtime Stories Ever // 6. Santa Is Coming To // 7. One Snowy Night // 8. The Nativity // 9. Baby's First Christmas (Similar) // 10. Stick Man // 11. Millie-Mae In Winter

I think the book advent calender idea is perfect for Christmas time too as it promotes what Christmas is all about for me - spending time with family and treasuring each moment with them. Jacek and I have tried to make bedtime a fun and enjoyable time for our son with all his night lights, lullabies and bedtime stories and this book advent calender just adds another fun element to this time of day with a great festive twist.

Do you have this tradition in your house? Is it something you would like to do this Christmas?
Share:

37 comments

  1. I saw one of my FB friends post about doing this recently, too. I love the idea of this.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is such a fun idea. It's a great way for the family to get together and bond over reading.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow.. you are ready for Christmas. We don't have any traditional at our house.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Omg we are planning on doing this with my princess!!! Trying to tie it in with the whole elf thing!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sounds like a good idea.. we do not have this kind of tradition since we do all the holidays.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is so cool. I will start this next year.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love this idea. I was just telling my mom this week that I need to do an advent calendar for my son. This would be a great way to do it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Carmen Perez says: I absolutely love this idea. I've never had this type of tradition, but I like it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Love the idea. Don't have this tradidion, but it's worth trying it sometime

    ReplyDelete
  10. What a great idea!!! Might have to give this a go!!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I do this and it's lovely. We have a great collection now and we just put them in a big box under the tree and every night of december one of the children chooses a book to read. It's really lovely and the great thing is the stories become familiar which makes them even more special every year! Enjoy your new family tradition.

    ReplyDelete
  12. As a teacher I LOVE this idea!!! Reading is so important. Reading holiday stories creates wonderful memories for kids. Definitely sharing this one!

    ReplyDelete
  13. What a unique idea! Never heard of doing this until now but it looks fun!

    ReplyDelete
  14. My kids are too old for this now, but this is such a great tradition! I'll be keeping this in mind for when I have grandkids!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Oh I also love the idea. I'm sure kids would love to open them and read the books. Now I'm excited for Christmas!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Brilliant parenting... how great is this pile of books over advent. So smart.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Now that is one of the best advent countdowns I've heard of. This is so smart and fun!

    ReplyDelete
  18. I saw this last year and couldn't wait to do it for Thomas this year. I just have a pile of books to wrap now :( lol
    www.mummyslittlebeauty.com

    ReplyDelete
  19. Gosh, I don't think we have prepared anything yet. Seems like you started early!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Wow, I'm so doing this! Thanks for the suggestion.

    ReplyDelete
  21. This is such a great idea, I love christmas books and my nephew does too I think he would love this big time.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Wow! It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas around here. :) I've read a lot about advent calendar but it is something that we haven't tried yet. Maybe this year?

    ReplyDelete
  23. This is a great idea for a tradition which I love teaching the the kids traditions that last from one generation to the next. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  24. This is an awesome idea. It seems that kids and reading books(not one on kindle) is rare. I'm going to do this as well, thanks for sharing the idea!

    ReplyDelete
  25. This is a great spin on a classic idea. I love to read and my kids do too. They would love doing this.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Now that's just one of the things that I love about Christmas and that's reading Christmas stories to the kiddies. I have a pop up book that's everyone's favorite of a Christmas Carol.

    ReplyDelete
  27. We don't really have a tradition in my home. In my ex-husband's home, the only tradition is celebrating on Christmas-eve.

    ReplyDelete
  28. I love this idea for a tradition. This would work well in our family. Both of my children are book worms!

    ReplyDelete
  29. We love Advent Calendars! The idea of a book advent calendar sounds like so much fun!

    ReplyDelete
  30. This is a FANTASTIC idea and I will definitely keep this in mind for this year!!!!!!! My children love books and devour them like crazy. <3

    ReplyDelete
  31. I REALLY love this idea! I can't wait to do it for my kids one day!

    ReplyDelete
  32. We always read Christmas stories that were compiled into a binder. My favorites are still the ones I read over and over when I was a kid.

    ReplyDelete
  33. I love this idea but my kids have so many books already I don't want to get them more. I also have read the idea of getting pjs and a movie for Christmas Eve. I think that would be awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  34. Love this idea so much very good I have to say.

    ReplyDelete
  35. I love this idea!!! Thanks for sharing it!

    ReplyDelete
  36. We have a few traditions, not quite like this, but I totally love it!

    ReplyDelete
  37. I love all the books! This gives me the idea of posting our holiday traditions too! :)

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for reading my blog and taking the time to comment. I appreciate all your comments and try to reply whenever I can.

© Dolly Dowsie | All rights reserved.
Blog Layout Created by pipdig