Friday, November 29, 2013

countdown to christmas

This year we are going to start a new tradition with Pearson.  We are going to countdown to Christmas by unwrapping and reading a Christmas book each night.  I can't take credit for this idea at all.  I first got it from a friend in college, but since then it's all over Pinterest.
 This was an easy tradition for me to get started because I have an abundance of children's books from when I was a teacher.  I had way more than 25 Christmas books to choose from this year, however some of them are not the greatest.  Pearson won't care this year though.  He doesn't understand all of the stories we read to him, plus he mainly likes to just look through all of the pictures.  Each year I'm going to buy a new Christmas book to add to our collection.  I'd like to get more books that focus on the birth of Jesus.  I don't really have any since I taught in a public school.  I'm totally okay with having Santa books, but I'd like to have a good mix of Jesus and Santa books.  
This year our new book was a Search and Find book that I found at Sam's.  Pearson is totally into these books so I thought it would be a fun book for him to open on December 1st.  
 Here are a few of my favorite books from my collection.........

We  bought this book for Pearson last year and he absolutely loves it.  He calls it the "La La" book.  I love all of Leslie Patracelli books.  They are perfect for toddlers.  Quick easy reads!!
This book isn't totally a Christmas book but it is definitely Jesus centered.  It kind of has a little Christmas story part and an Easter story part, but it's a neat book so I threw it in the mix. 
This was always a favorite of my students.  Each letter has a page you open with a pop-up illustration to represent each letter.  They are all such neat pop-up and my kids always loved guessing what was behind each page.  While this book is really cool, we'll have to open it and then put it high on a shelf to only read with Mommy & Daddy.  It's a fragile book that I would hate to have messed up. 
This is just a good ole classic Christmas book.  I remember reading this book as a kid.  It's short and simple and I know Pearson will love it this year!
One of my very favorite Christmas books has gone missing.  I just might have to buy a new copy of it because the story is just so cute.  It's called How Santa Got his Job by Stephen Krensky.  It's all about the jobs that Santa had before he got his "real job" as Santa.
If you don't have 25 books to start this year, here are a few places you can check out before you go to Barnes & Noble and spend $15 per book.  

1.  Library
2.  Scholastic Book Orders
3.  Half-Price Books
4.  Amazon
5.  Facebook Garage Sale Sites

And also, I found this link on Pinterest that had some great ideas for Jesus Centered Christmas Books.  I will definitely be checking some of these out for our family in the future!!
What are some of your favorite Children's Christmas books?? I'd love to know so I can add them to my list for our collection!!

4 comments:

  1. Love this idea!! You're so creative!

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  2. When I was in line at Hobby Lobby there were books on display, and one was called The Story of Christmas that's a very basic board book for little ones that tells of Jesus' birth and why we give presents at Christmas. I read it to Audrey tonight, and I think it would be totally age-appropriate for Pearson. It was only $5 or $6, so not too expensive :)

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  3. Our personal favorite this year (we've already started!) has been "The King's Christmas List" and it's a beautiful book about why the King is not receiving any gifts and it's His birthday. At the end it connects to World Vision and other organizations like that - Ryleigh loves the pictures and since we adopted a little girl through World Vision this year it's been easy to make the connection for her. The main character is a little girl though - just so you know :)

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  4. I have "The best thing about Christmas" - you can have it. I gave them out to my SS kids several years ago. I have a paper back and a hard back.

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