As a book lover, I have always wanted to do the Christmas book advent calendar. I started looking around for books a few years ago and always came up a little short for the whole 24 days. This year I saw a few new books I liked while buying Christmas presents and finally found enough books to make my advent calendar work. Here are the ones I hope to do with my kids!

Christmas-Books

We have to start off with the classics of course like How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Polar Express, The Night Before Christmas, A Wish to Be a Christmas Tree and Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.

These were a few of the newer titles I saw this year: The Wish Tree, Last Stop on Reindeer Express, The Little Reindeer and Finding Christmas

Rudolph Shines Again – I saw this addition to the classic story and thought it would be a perfect way to explore characters we already knew while reading a new story.

Bear Stays Up for Christmas – I love the Bear series. I started reading them when I worked in a pre-school before my own children and bought several, including this one, to save for when I did have kids.

Pick a Pine Tree – Getting a Christmas tree every year from the farm is a family tradition for us so, I thought it would be fun to read a story about seeing what other families look for when buying their trees.

Santa’s Toy Shop – I had this book as a child and remember my mom reading it to me and wondering about all the things that happened in Santa’s workshop before Christmas. I imagine my own kids have the same questions as I did when I was little and this will be fun to share with them and think back to when I was their age.

The Day Santa Stopped Believing in Harold – Cale Atkins is an author illustrator Drake and I both are fans of. I typically buy most of his books as I like the illustrations and the humor he adds to the story, and I think Drake will be excited about this one to add to his collection.

The Lost Gift – One of Santa’s gifts falls off his sleigh and into the forest. A few woodland friends find it and talk about what to do with it. Drake heard this story a while back in school and came home talking about all the different things the animals could do. I looked the book up and shelved it to remember to buy in the future since he seemed to enjoy it so much and I thought the message was a great one to teach to all my kids about the spirit of Christmas.

The Littlest Elf –  Even if you are little you can always help. I found this book when I was trying to complete my 24 days and liked the message that everyone can play a part in helping. I thought especially for my girls this would resonate well since they are both at the age of trying independence and learning to do small chores around the house despite their ages and sizes.

The Nutcracker – I have always wanted to see the Nutcracker and I can’t wait to experience it one day with both my girls now. I bought this lovely copy of the story to share with them now so that one day I can get them excited about the idea of seeing it on the big stage.

When Santa Was a Baby – What a funny question to wonder about — Santa as a baby? What was he like, naughty or nice? It will be fun to find out and see.

Gingerbread Mouse – This was one of the books we already own as it was a gift from Drake’s pre-school teacher, and it’s actually one of Juliet’s favorites.

In this house Frozen reigns supreme so I had to add Olaf’s Night Before Christmas and Olaf’s Frozen Adventure to our list. We got Olaf’s Night Before Christmas last year and it’s a cute and funny story, and Olaf’s Frozen Adventure is based off the small short that recently came out in theaters.  =It aired on TV a while back and we watched it together as a family.

Berenstain Bears Meet Santa – Another one from my own shelves, I loved the Berenstain Bears a kid and had a huge collection.

The Gingerbread Man Loose on Christmas – Drake is familiar with the Gingerbread Man and his many antics so I think he will be most excited about reading about another one of his adventures.

Maple and Willow’s Christmas Tree – Maple and Willow remind me of Juliet and Fiona. Watching my girls together when they play is so endearing and I hope reading them a story about sisters might resonate with them even they are young.

Here are also some other Christmas books I didn’t add to my list since it’s catered more to picture books and older stories since my older two like them more and Fiona goes along with it well enough in my house. I have a few of these younger books already and share them with Fiona; maybe your smaller ones will like them like she does.