Christmas Book Countdown
Today is Day 1 of our Christmas Book Countdown! This is the third year of this family tradition, and we FINALLY have 24 books, thanks to a donation of some old Golden Books from my parents. If you don’t have 24 books, just start a few days later. Building a big collection of Christmas books takes time (and money)!
I’ve changed out a few of the baby books (though I still have others I’d like to replace/acquire for next year). I’ve also incorporated a few more books about The Christmas Story, since that’s the reason for the season.
I’ll be honest, I have 7 books wrapped so far, but I’m hoping to get the rest done tonight and tomorrow. I don’t use bows because they just get squashed. This year I’m numbering the books to incorporate a little number recognition for The Littlest Apple.
Here’s are the Christmas Books we’ll be reading this year:
1. My First Christmas, by Tomie dePaola: A beautifully illustrated board book with introductions to all of the basics of Christmas. Probably a little babyish for The Littlest Apple, but great for 2 and under.
2. Counting Christmas, by Karen Katz: Karen Katz is always a favorite here, and this one will be great for a little boy learning to count!
3. Jingle Bugs, by David A. Carter: This is a pop-up book with music (Jingle Bells) and lights at the end. This is a current favorite, but the pop-ups are a little too delicate for my rough little 3 year old.
4. The Mitten, by Jan Brett: Jan Brett’s illustrations are amazing in this traditional Ukranian tale, and I especially love the extra insight you get from the border illustrations.
5. Gingerbread Baby, by Jan Brett: Another great book illustrated by Jan Brett. The Gingerbread Baby has the whole village trying to catch him, and a little boy comes up with a smart way to do it!
6. I Spy Christmas, by Jean Marzollo: The Littlest Apple is starting to enjoy searching for things in pictures. There is so much to look at!
7. Curious George Christmas Countdown, by Tish Rabe: The Littlest Apple loves all things Curious George, so this is definitely a favorite.
8. Russell’s Christmas Magic, by Rob Scotton: I love the whimsical illustrations and offbeat Christmas story.
9. A Merry Little Christmas: Celebrate From A to Z, by Mary Engelbreit. This was one of my son’s favorites last year. An alphabet Christmas book with Mary Engelbreit’s gorgeous illustrations.
10. A Scratch & Sniff Night Before Christmas, by Clement C. Moore. The scratch and sniff books were always a favorite of mine when I was little, so I’m happy to share this with The Littlest Apple.
11. The Sweet Smell of Christmas, by Patricia M. Scarry: This was the scratch and sniff book my parents read to my brother and me growing up. My parents bought a copy for the The Littlest Apple, and I am excited to pass along this wonderful book (and scents!) to him.
12. The Polar Express, by Chris Van Allsburg: The Littlest Apple is probably a little young for this one right now, but this book is just so beautiful to look at!
13. Santa Claus, by Rod Green. I spotted this book at Target last year. What a neat, interactive book, with many flaps and letters to open! This book, as you can tell from the title, is all about Santa Claus. I think this book is perfect for older elementary school aged children.
14. The Night Before Christmas, illustrated by Mary Engelbreit: The classic story with Mary Engelbreit’s colorful illustrations.
15. How the Grinch Stole Christmas, by Dr. Seuss. Need I say more?
16. Dream Snow, by Eric Carle. We love Eric Carle’s books, so it was great to find a Christmas one!
And new to this year’s collection….
17. The Story of Christmas, by Patricia Pingry
18. The Biggest Most Beautiful Christmas Tree, by Amye Rosenberg
19. Santa’s Toy Shop, by Al Dempster
20. The Animals’ Christmas Eve, by Gale Wiersum
21. Jingle Bells, by Kathleen Daly
22. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, by Rick Bunsen
23. Frosty the Snowman, by Annie North Bedford
24. Who is Coming To Our House?, by Joseph Slate
What’s your favorite Christmas book? Do you have a Christmas Book Countdown at your house?
I’m sharing this post with…
Love this idea… I think I’ll hit the sales this year and grab some books 🙂
I love this idea – I’ve picked up some this year that are younger for my kids and I have quite a few for as they get older but I keep looking for more! Thanks for giving this great idea 🙂
Love this idea we do it at our house too. You have some great books I’m going to look for some of them. Merry Reading
This is a great idea! Although I think I may have to start the week before Christmas this year, I have to work on our collection.
We also read The Sweet Smell of Christmas growing up and my mom bought my little guy one for his 1st Christmas. I still have my copy and the scents are actually stronger! I just picked up “Today Is Christmas” by P.K Hallinan (our favorite author). I like that he incorporates the actual reason for the season.
We’re building our collection this year — I was so inspired by you last year! 🙂 We’ve also just been reading random Christmas books since Thanksgiving. So far, Andrew’s favorites are The Grinch (of course!), Duck and Goose, It’s Time for Christmas, Snowmen at Christmas, and Olive the Other Reindeer. I highly recommend all of these!
We do a countdown too, but I haven’t been wrapping them, the books are just in a big Christmas basket in our reading area. We probably only have about 10 in our collection, but we have gotten 30+ from the library this year. It’s really allowed us to try out a lot more books and since we have a 2-year old and a 5-year old we read a little board book and then an ‘older’ kid book. Both kids have really enjoyed Cock-A-Doodle Christmas and one called Stable in Bethlehem (it’s a counting backwards book)! Merry Christmas 🙂
Oh I love this! I remember seeing this last year and had forgotten about it. We don’t have 24 books but I am definitely doing this with the ones we have. I always add to our collection each year too.
Thanks for linking this up to Christmas Fun 2010
Hi Cara,
I saw your link up from Kylie’s Christmas Fun 2010 linky and we do the Christmas book countdown too and I wrap the books up in purple paper for the season of Advent. We have lots of Christmas books and my children love unwrapping one book per night 🙂 Fun!
You can read my post from Kylie’s link up or here: http://asliceofsmithlife.blogspot.com/2010/11/advent-some-ways-our-family-prepares.html
Have a blessed Advent!
Tracy at “A Slice of Smith Life”
We have gathered library books to do this activity. It has been such fun.
What a great idea! I stumbled upon your blog while I was looking for a ribbon wreath idea, and I’ve been coming back to see what you are up to since checking out your oh-so-cute Halloween wreath. I work in the infant room at a daycare and I am really big on reading as many books as possible and since our theme for the entire month of December is Christmas, I checked out a ton from the library. One of our favorites so far has been Nutcracker Twinkle Toes by Karen Katz…we loved the Counting Christmas one too. Her books are always so cute! We also really liked Snowmen at Night and Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner. Keep up the awesome work! 🙂