Children’s Book Advent Calendar
November 30, 2010
I’ve been wanting to do this advent calendar for years…and I finally get to do it! This will be our first Christmas home since having children, and I’ve wanted to have this be a family tradition of ours since I saw this idea from a neighbor of mine years back.
Children’s Picture Book Advent Calendar: What is it?
24 Christmas Picture Books, all wrapped up and marked for each day leading up until Christmas. This way, we will be reading one Christmas story a night!
Now don’t panic…getting 24 Christmas Books isn’t as hard as it looks. When you can check out Christmas books from the Library for 3 weeks at a time, it makes it rather simple….you may need to renew one time in there, but it still makes for a lovely tradition! And inexpensive too!
And Book #24……is the Bible, so that lessens the load a bit. But you’d be surprised how many Christmas books you already have. Really, I am sure you have more than you think you do. I think books on winter can even count too… And don’t forget any Christmas Anthologies with short stories in there too.
Here’s a list of a few of mine in there:
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Oh there are SO many Christmas books that I want to get my hands on….I have so many favorites that I don’t even have own yet! But this year, most of the books in our Advent Calender we DO own (thanks to the need to have a few books for “research” when working on my book) but even still….to the children, these books will be like new since they are all wrapped up.
These books are now in our open bookcase in the basement (thus the really lousy photo…sorry!) But this way, they are in plain visibility. Another good place is the hearth of the fireplace…or in your child’s bedroom.
Anyways…I wanted to share in case anyone needed a good idea for an advent calendar this year. And the best part? It’s either “rented” or a good reason to add to your already established Christmas collection.
Have any of you ever tried this one? It’s a new tradition for us this year, and I think this one is here to stay!
Happy Christmas!
xo
sarah
P.S. And don’t forget! The Cyber Monday and Tuesday Sale in the shop ends tonight at midnight!
27 Comments for this entry
8 Trackbacks / Pingbacks for this entry
-
Let the Christmas Countdown Begin | Make and Takes
November 30th, 2010 on 4:49 pm[...] Children’s Book Advent from Sarah Jane Studios [...]
-
Advent Calendar Ideas — Budget Wise Home
November 30th, 2010 on 11:58 pm[...] found this creative advent calendar over at Sarah Jane Studios and just had to include it in the tips this week. There are 24 books all wrapped up and marked [...]
-
DIY Christmas Book Advent Calendar « Stayfunnie Mom
December 1st, 2010 on 12:21 pm[...] Christmas Book Advent Calendar on December 1st, 2010 Happy December First! Check out this Advent calendar where you wrap a Christmas story for each day until Christmas. I just love this! Thanks Julie [...]
-
Advent Calendars: fyi@iyk | ImpressYourKids
December 4th, 2010 on 6:03 am[...] Children’s Book Advent Calendar from Sarah Jane Studios [...]
-
still talking about… « more milk
December 14th, 2010 on 1:05 pm[...] 24 days – 24 different Christmas books. Don’t panic. They’re from the library. With all the sweets/snacks available during the holidays I would like to keep advent sugar free in the future, and I think this is a great solution. More details. [...]
-
Great Homeschooling Links: December 19, 2010
December 20th, 2010 on 6:03 am[...] post has all sorts of ideas for December Family Fun, including some advent related suggestions! Children’s Book Advent Calendar – Sarah Jane Studios Wonderful idea pairing reading & books with the concept of an advent [...]
-
Christmas Book Advent Calendar | BOOKFINDS
December 22nd, 2010 on 12:13 pm[...] just love this idea for celebrating the holidays and incorporating books! Thanks to Sarah Jane Studios for this beautiful inspiration. I will definitely be doing this when I have children…or maybe [...]
-
It’s Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas! | Terrabyte Farm
December 1st, 2011 on 2:08 am[...] we have wrapped up a book to be opened each night and read all together, based on a suggestion from this blog. There is a LOT of reading that takes place in our house. I must spend an hour each day reading [...]
Leave a Reply
Newest Books
FABRIC
See our Children at Play Dollhouse
D E C O R A T E
S T I T C H
P L A Y
R E A D
W E A R
G I V E
what a brilliant idea!
Sarah, Sarah, Sarah,
My “children” are now 33 and 36. I purchased a new Christmas book each year until they were teens…now I have a great way to separate them.
Thanks Sarah for bringing me back to the ages of Addie,Ian, and Emma.
L
I have done a version of this tradition since I first had children and I LOVE it! I actually have a folder of 24 short Christmas stories. We read through those, one each night. Then, I also have a HUGE selection of Christmas books that I display for the whole month and we read from those whenever the mood strikes us (which is many times a day)! Your children will love this!
Rebecca@RootsAndWingsCo
I am doing this! I just had a similar idea last night then came to visit your blog and your ideas made it even BETTER! LOVE the idea of wrapping each book. And thanks for the book recommendations as well!
)
I LOVE this idea! Wonderful!
Love, love, love this idea! Thank you.
THANK YOU SO MUCH for this creative, educational, WONDERFUL, inexpensive idea!!! I decided to do an advent calendar with my daughter and had decided to do a collection of 24 packages for her to open, but had not settled on what to put inside the packages. Money and time are tight and I hate using candy as the prize for everything. I looked on my library website and there were almost 200 children’s christmas books at my local branch alone!!! I was even able to request that they hold 14 for me so I can just pick them up very quickly and get started. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! You are my favorite crafty elf today!
That is such a BEAUTIFUL idea!! xxx
[...] Children’s Book Advent from Sarah Jane Studios [...]
[...] found this creative advent calendar over at Sarah Jane Studios and just had to include it in the tips this week. There are 24 books all wrapped up and marked [...]
I love, love, love this idea! I have a collection of children’s Christmas books, and this is the perfect way to use them. Some of my favorites that you haven’t listed are: Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree by Robert E Barry, Christmas! by Peter Spier, The First Christmas by Tomie DePaola, Petunia’s Christmas by Roger Duvoisin, and Santa’s Favorite Story by Hisako Aoki and Ivan Gantschev. Now to wrap up all my books… Thank you so much for the inspiration!
Brilliant and beautiful, I love it!
Fantastic idea! I will be pulling the books together today! I always put out a basket of Christmas books, but this is such a special approach.
My wife’s been doing this for the last few years and the kids LOVE it. Except she hides the books and each night they open a hint and have to run and find it.
[...] Christmas Book Advent Calendar on December 1st, 2010 Happy December First! Check out this Advent calendar where you wrap a Christmas story for each day until Christmas. I just love this! Thanks Julie [...]
I love this idea and I have been telling everyone about it too! Another good resource for books are second hand stores and Paperback Swap. I have gotten lots of great kids books from both of those places!
What a FABULOUS idea!!!!!!!
(am totally going to copy it)
I love this project and I love books, so, I might try to do it next year. Christmas are so different when you have children! Have a good weekend! Regards from Barcelona, Spain,
Marta
[...] Children’s Book Advent Calendar from Sarah Jane Studios [...]
this is so smart & sweet. love the idea of checking them out from the library!!!! and the way you wrapped them up with the little gift tags …. oh it’s so precious! LOVE IT. will have to keep this in mind for next year!!!!!
For any other moms looking for random holiday ideas now that their kids are home for winter break, the burger crafts I found on this recipes for kids site went down rather well if I do say so myself!
I did this! It has turned out to be fun but unexpectedly it helped diffuse arguments about who would open each book! We have the Lego advent—so my 8 yr. old opens and puts those together in the morning. The book advent “belongs” to the 3 yr. old, at night. No fights! Everybody’s happy!
This is such a great idea I just had to share it with my friends on my Library Project blog. PS I love your illustrations And your tastes in books!
I LOVE this idea!! Definitely going to start the tradition next year. Right now, I’ve just placed all the christmas books in a basket by my daughter’s bed, but this would make it so much more exciting.
Here’s a list of some of our favorites:
http://www.sillyeaglebooks.com/2009/12/great-christmas-books-for-preschoolers.html
Absolutely in love with this idea! Can’t wait til my kids are a little older to start this. I may just start it next year anyway! Definitely plan to share this on my blog! Thanks!
We’ve acquired several Christmas books over the years with this very idea in mind, however, our little guys sometimes get hooked on the same 2 or 3 stories on repeat, so we simply keep the books unwrapped and accessible. It’s fun to see how their favorites evolve from year to year, thought our oldest is only 4! Snowmen at Christmas, The Night Before Christmas, 9 Days to Christmas, Who is Coming to Our House, Christmas Day in the Morning, The Christmas Tapestry, and of course Grinch and Polar Express are some of our collection.
[...] 24 days – 24 different Christmas books. Don’t panic. They’re from the library. With all the sweets/snacks available during the holidays I would like to keep advent sugar free in the future, and I think this is a great solution. More details. [...]
This is a good idea, I really love it
[...] post has all sorts of ideas for December Family Fun, including some advent related suggestions! Children’s Book Advent Calendar – Sarah Jane Studios Wonderful idea pairing reading & books with the concept of an advent [...]
[...] just love this idea for celebrating the holidays and incorporating books! Thanks to Sarah Jane Studios for this beautiful inspiration. I will definitely be doing this when I have children…or maybe [...]
I have been building a library of books for this advent activity since before my son was born. I also have Hanukkah books and books about snow. I have been looking for books about Kwanzaa, but I live in a not very diverse community so they have been harder to find locally. If we have enough we will do the whole month of December and hopefully end with a new year’s book.
What a wonderful idea. We are starting the tradition this year at our house. You can see what we are reading by checking out this post: http://inspirationthief.blogspot.com/2011/10/christmas-book-advent-calender.html
[...] we have wrapped up a book to be opened each night and read all together, based on a suggestion from this blog. There is a LOT of reading that takes place in our house. I must spend an hour each day reading [...]
Oh my gosh, I love this idea. We don’t have any kids yet, but I’m tempted to do it just for us! We’ll read to the dog:)
Thanks for every other informative site. Where else could I get that kind of info written in such a perfect approach? I have a mission that I am just now operating on, and I’ve been on the glance out for such info.