I finally gave up looking for purple wrapping paper and wrapped all the books for our Advent Book Basket in brown paper since I had plenty… It’s the first year I haven’t been able to find the purple paper locally and I couldn’t bring myself to order it online… I ended up making little tags for each and am loving how they are turning out! Almost done, just in time for Advent.
If you’d like to use them too, you can download my Advent Book Basket Labels for 2014 here.
This year the books in our basket are a mix of some of the children’s 35 Favorite Christmas Picture Books with a few new ones mixed in to surprise them… We’ll unwrap and read one book each night following our family rosary. The rest of our Advent & Christmas book collection is in additional baskets for the children to read whenever they’d like. The children will also each receive a new Christmas picture book on the feast of St. Nicholas. You can find this year’s picks here.
Here are the 25 picture books that ended up in our 2014 Advent Book Basket:
November 30 – 1st Sunday of Advent: Waiting for Christmas: A Story About the Advent Calendar*
December 1: The Christmas Cobwebs*
December 3: The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey*
December 4: Cobweb Christmas: The Tradition of Tinsel*
December 5: The Miracle of Saint Nicholas (study guide in Catholic Mosaic)
December 6 – St. Nicholas: St. Nicholas: The Legend of St. Nicholas (NEW) GREAT new book for the feast!
December 8 – Immaculate Conception: Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree
December 9 – St. Juan Diego: The First Christmas Stocking*
December 10 – Our Lady of Loreto: A Small Miracle*
December 11 – Our Lady Queen of the Angels: The Donkey’s Dream
December 12 – Our Lady of Guadalupe: Our Lady of Guadalupe
December 13 – Santa Lucia Day: Nutcracker (NEW) Purchased on clearance last January. I also hope to take the girls to see the performance on either the 13th or 14th.
December 14 – 3rd Sunday of Advent/Gaudete Sunday: Bambinelli Sunday: A Christmas Blessing
December 15 – Rose’s Birthday: The Legend of the Christmas Rose
December 16: Katie’s London Christmas (NEW) Love all the Katie Books and look forward to reading this one too. They have been a great addition to our art course.
December 17 – O Sapientia: Christmas at Stony Creek
December 18 – O Adonai: The Doll’s Christmas
December 19 – O Radix Jesse – Bud’s Birthday: Christmas in the Barn
December 20 – O Clavis David: A Christmas Carol: A Pop-Up Book (NEW) This will wrap up our December Christmas Carol Literature Unit Study and we’ll be going to see the performance at a local theater.
December 21 – O Oriens: One Christmas Dawn*
December 22 – O Rex Gentium: Christmas in the Trenches
December 23 – O Emmanual: Bethlehem
December 24 – Vigil of Christmas: The Night Before Christmas (NEW) So excited to see this book back in print this year. It’s the version I remember from my own childhood.
* = Study Guide Available in Christmas Mosaic
I also purchased A Tree for Peter (and pre-ordered The Chestry Oak for Snuggles’ Easter Basket). I’ve had these book on my wish list for years and had been unable to find a reasonably priced secondhand copy. I’m so excited to see that it was re-released last week! It will end up in one of the children’s Stacks of Books on Christmas Morning.
I hope you all have a blessed First Sunday of Advent!
These labels are fantastic, Jessica! Thank you for sharing them with all of us! Did you use a special circular punch for them? I don't have one, so it will be a little bit of a challenge with regular scissors…
2014-11-30 05:02:09
…to get them cut out well, that is! 🙂
2014-11-30 05:02:50
Hi Jessica, I did ours with kraft paper also and used number tags. Found your post too late! But still they did come out great and I will be using your labels next year :-). … Thank you for sharing (labels and list). God bless you and yours!
2014-11-30 05:13:08
Awesome addition! Thanks, Jessica!
2014-11-30 05:27:24
I'll have to modify them for next year, since the first Sunday of Advent will be on November 29th in 2015, but I'll make sure I don't wait until the very last minute to share them! 😉 God bless you too!
2014-11-30 05:47:57
Thanks Krista! No, I just cut them out with scissors, and recruited one of the boys to help! Next year maybe I'll modify the size to work with my circular punch, but the only one I have right now is a 2" and I wanted the labels to be a little bigger than that. I'm glad you like them! 🙂
2014-11-30 05:49:43
I was just finishing wrapping our books for this year and these labels are PERFECT! Thank you!
2014-11-30 11:48:11
I love these labels! I got lucky and found some purple paper at dollar tree this year. Last year, I used tissue paper.
2014-11-30 15:24:27
These are so lovely, Jessica! Thank you so much for sharing. I'm sure they can be used in other ways as well as for books, such as counting down the days in general. You are always so creative and generous! Blessed Advent to all of you! PS I read A Tree for Peter aloud to the family one year and we all enjoyed it. We love Kate Seredy -especially as we're Hungarian. It's a wonderful story for this time of year.
2014-11-30 18:52:00
Thanks for letting me know – the cutting just looks GOOD, so I thought you might have done it with a circular punch!
2014-11-30 19:09:44
Yes, Kimberlee – I was thinking the same thing that these could be used in other ways, like for an Advent calendar and they could be placed on it each day, etc!
2014-11-30 19:10:46
These are awesome! thank you for sharing! I am just getting to my books. I had hoped to unwrap the first one tonight. Oh well. I had a hard time with gift wrap too. I found pink and purple at the dollar store, but the purple wasn't exactly the right color. Thanks for all you do! God bless~
2014-12-01 01:35:56
Seriously, this is one of the best book lists – pinning this for next year! I'm thinking of doing this but for the 12 Days of Christmas…I'm a bit late to the game this year 🙂
2014-12-01 04:24:32
Purple paper is so hard to find… the Dollar Tree here has it, but the rolls are small. For the past couple of years I have been wrapping our books in plain white paper and then using a purple Sharpie to write a saint's quote on the front of each package. I use the "Quotable Saints" book- I just flip through and find quotes that seem to speak to our family at the time. We don't number our books- the kids just pick one from the basket each day. It is amazing to me how often the random saint quote I wrote on the wrapping is perfect for the day we have had! It's also nice to have the quote in addition to the story – it adds something a little extra. Thanks for sharing all your wonderful books with us- I always look forward to your book lists!
2014-12-01 11:44:21
Oh! I love the label idea. I just took a sharpie and wrote the number and any special feast day on the back, lol.
2014-12-01 15:04:15
The labels are beautiful – thanks for sharing. And thanks for the heads up on the Seredy book reprints!
2014-12-03 19:42:53
I just wrapped the books and put them in order in a basket this year…I was patting myself on the back for getting that far, because last year I just brought a new book out from my bedroom every morning 🙂 Found these a little late, but I think I might still print them out and slap them on the books we have left!! Thank you – they are beautiful!!
2014-12-10 14:04:57
By the way, just a heads up for anyone looking for wrapping paper next year – I found plain purple and pink wrapping paper at Party City for $3.99/roll. Shipping isn't cheap if you're ordering online so it's probably not worth it unless you have one close enough to drive to!
2014-12-10 14:12:21
Hi Jessica, Unfortunately I didn't see your Advent stickers in time to use them last year, but I have had them 'bookmarked' to use this Advent. I am wondering if you are planning to update the file so that the Sunday dates are correct? Or maybe make an undated set that can be laminated and used from year to year. Thank you so much for all that you do!
2015-10-16 21:41:26
Yes! I'm planning on it and will try to get to that soon – probably right after our annual All Hallows' Eve party. I'm hoping to make a set that can be used year after year, including all the possible dates/feasts, and then extras for the various Sundays of Advent (without dates listed on those tags).
2015-10-16 21:48:39
Actually, as I think about it a little more, it might be challenging to make a set of labels that can be used year after year, if I want to keep one week pink…. Hmmmm… Well, no matter what I will have 2015 labels available to share within the next two-three weeks.
2015-10-16 22:08:23
Doh…I didn't think about the pink week either. Either way, a 2015 version will be very much appreciated. I know whatever you decide to create will be awesome. 🙂 This will be our fourth year to do an Advent Basket, and it is a new tradition that has quickly soared to the top of our list of Advent activities. I've already ordered a few 'new to us' books that I can't wait for us to enjoy. Blessings to you and yours, Jessica!
2015-10-17 02:21:51