Our picture books are all wrapped, despite running out of the dark purple paper and having to finish up with light purple rather than making another trip to the store! There is one wrapped for each day of Advent, with the remaining books placed in additional baskets. I also filled a couple baskets with all of our remaining Christmas Books, and I don’t think I will be needing to check any more out from the library this year… We have plenty to keep us busy all of Advent and Christmas!
Just like I have done in the past (here are our lists from 2008 and 2010, or you can scroll through all our Christmas Picture Books here), I thought I would share our list of books for this year. I will be back soon with the new books I choose for the feast of St. Nicholas, and pictures from another new favorite we will be surprising the kids with in a couple weeks.
November 27 ~ Waiting for Noel: An Advent Story
November 28 ~ An Early American Christmas
November 29 ~ The Christmas Cobwebs
November 30 ~ Waiting for Christmas: A Story about the Advent Calendar
December 1 ~ Cobweb Christmas: The Tradition of Tinsel
December 2 ~ The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey with CD: Gift Edition
December 3 ~ The Little Fir Tree
December 4 ~ The Gift of the Christmas Cookie: Sharing the True Meaning of Jesus’ Birth
December 5 ~ The Miracle of Saint Nicholas
December 6 (Feast of St. Nicholas) ~ A Gift from St. Nicholas
December 7 (Feast of St. Ambrose) ~ The Christmas Candle
December 8 (Feast of the Immaculate Conception) ~ Mary, Mother of Jesus
December 9 ~ Pablo’s Christmas
December 10 (Feast of Our Lady of Loreto) ~ The Three Gifts of Christmas: Book with Audio CD
December 11 ~ An Orange for Frankie
December 12 (Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe) ~ Our Lady of Guadalupe
December 13 (Feast of St. Lucy) ~ Lucia, Saint of Light
December 14 ~ Hanna’s Christmas
December 15 (Rose’s Birthday) ~ The Legend of the Christmas Rose
December 16 ~ The Night of Las Posadas
December 17 ~ Night Tree
December 18 ~ The Clown of God
December 19 ~ Shoemaker Martin
December 20 ~ Mortimer’s Christmas Manger
December 21 ~ Little Star
December 22 ~ The Donkey’s Dream
December 23 ~ On Christmas Eve
December 24 (Christmas Eve) ~ The Night Before Christmas: Book & DVD
The following are wrapped in gold paper and will be placed in the empty basket on Christmas morning:
December 25 (Christmas Day) ~ Bethlehem
December 26 (Feast of St. Stephen) ~ Stephen’s Feast
December 27 (Feast of St. John the Apostle) ~ Good King Wenceslas
December 28 (Feast of the Holy Innocents) ~ The Little Match Girl
December 29 ~ Saint Francis and the Christmas Donkey
December 30 ~ The Mitten 20th Anniversary Edition
December 31 ~ The Huron Carol
January 1 (Feast of the Circumcision) ~ All for the Newborn Baby
January 2 ~ Angela and the Baby Jesus
January 3 ~ The Stable Where Jesus Was Born
January 4 ~ The Last Straw
January 5 ~ The Story of the Three Wise Kings
January 6 (Feast of Epiphany) ~ We Three Kings
Our Additional Books for Advent and Christmas:
- A Small Miracle
- Advent Storybook: 24 Stories to Share Before Christmas
- Bells of Santa Lucia
- Bright Christmas: An Angel Remembers
- Christmas Around the World
- Christmas Cooking (Activities)
- Christmas in the Barn
- Destination: Bethlehem
- Father and Son: A Nativity Story
- Golfer’s Night Before Christmas , A
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas
- Lucia, Child of Light: The History And Traditions of Sweden’s Lucia Celebration
- Lucia Morning in Sweden
- Mary: The Mother of Jesus
- O Holy Night
- One Christmas Dawn
- One Winter’s Night
- Our Lady of Guadalupe
- Our Lady of Guadalupe(Coloring Book)
- The Christmas Bell
- The Crippled Lamb
- Saint Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe
- Saint Nicholas
- St. Nicholas: A Closer Look at Christmas
- Santa’s Favorite Story
- The Christmas Bird
- The Christmas Promise
- The Church Mouse of Saint Nicholas
- The First Christmas
- The Lady of Guadalupe
- The Legend of Saint Nicholas
- The Legend of the Candy Cane
- The Legend of the Poinsettia
- The Real Santa Claus: Legends of Saint Nicholas
- The Story of Our Lady of Guadalupe Empress of the Americas
- The Tale of Three Trees: A Traditional Folktale
- The Trees Kneel at Christmas
- The Twelve Days of Christmas
- The Very First Christmas
- There Was No Snow on Christmas Eve
- Tomie dePaola’s Make Your Own Christmas Cards
- Twelve Days of Christmas Stained Glass Coloring Book
A Basket of Board Books for our Littlest Ones:
- B Is for Bethlehem: A Christmas Alphabet Board Book
- Who Is Coming to Our House?
- Christmas in the Manger
- The Legend Of The Three Trees – Board Book
- Saint Nicholas: The Real Story of the Christmas Legend
- Touch and Feel Baby Jesus Is Born
- Tomie’s Little Christmas Pageant
- The Best Christmas Story (Hide-Away Books)
- The Christmas Story Board Book
- The Twelve Days of Christmas
- The Saving Name of God the Son
Note: Quite a few of the books on our reading lists have study guides in either Christmas Mosaic, An Illustrated Book Study for Advent and Christmas or Catholic Mosaic: Living the Liturgical Year with Literature an Illustrated Book Study for Cathoilc Children, which we will be using as well!
Great work, Jessica! I've been working on my list too. I'm looking forward to incorporating this into our Advent & Christmas this year. Have a blessed week, Lori
Hi Jessica!
Thank you for sharing your list with us! We are just starting out on our journey with the kids and I find it very inspiring how much you incorporate books into your traditions. With a 2 year old, a 1 year old, and another due in May, I am hoping to start building these traditions in our home as well. Do you wrap the same books from your collection every year? If so, how do the older kids react if it's not a "new" book? Are they just surprised at the order with which they are revealed and excited to read an old favorite? It would be costly to buy 28+ new books every year.
Thank you for your help!
Yes! It would be very costly to buy all new books each year! I am finding it hard enough to continue our tradition of one new book each, since we started this when we just had a couple children, and now we have 7! Some years I have had to be very creative, due to a tight Christmas budget, but if you watch the sales you can find great deals on Christmas themed books throughout the year.
My children know that the books that they unwrap aren't going to be "new" – but they are always so excited to unwrap it and see it again for the first time since last Christmas. They don't know which of the books they will be unwrapping, since I tend to vary the list each year, but they do have a good idea that on the feast of St. Nicholas it will be a book about him, and on the feast of St. Lucy it will be a St. Lucy or Lucia Day book, etc.
An idea for the future: Usually the library lets you check out books for at least 3 weeks, so you could always check out books from the library to wrap, placing them in the first few weeks, and use your own books closer to Christmas. For many years we were checking out lots of books every Advent. Only these past year or so have I not needed to do that, since our collection has grown so much.
I hope that helps… Have a very blessed first week of Advent!
What a wonderful suggestion to use the library! Thank you for all your ideas and help!
Oh, my goodness! Jessica, your "new favorite" is the same book I found at the Telluride bookstore on our anniversary getaway a few months back! I was so jazzed I even posted about it then, lol. It's awesome, isn't it? I'm so excited to add it to our Advent/Christmas basket and share it with my kids this year. 🙂
Kelly ~ It is awesome! I pre-ordered it last year, and it didn't arrive until after the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, so I ended up saving it for this year. I've been dying to take it out of the closet to share with the kids ever since! They are going to love it!! 🙂
I am the same way about finding new books–my Christmas book wishlist keeps growing! I will have to check out many of the titles you listed.