It’s hard to believe that it’s already time to start thinking about Christmas. I don’t know about you, but for me, Christmas is my favorite time of year! Seriously, I have already started decorating because I want to enjoy the decorations for as long as possible, plus I am making a lot of decorations for the new house and I need time to make them.
The thing is, I always remember as a child how exciting Christmas was. It wasn’t just the gifts either, I always loved all the decorations, putting them up and enjoying them, and the time spent with family. One of my favorite things is when the Christmas tree is the only light on in the room. I also love seeing the lights outside! It’s just the time of year where everything is warm and inviting, even though its freezing outside!
I always knew that I wanted to start some traditions with my children as they got older, but I had no idea what traditions I wanted to start. As a child, we didn’t do too much in the way of traditions. We had gifts, we put up the tree as a family, and we visited family on Christmas eve and Christmas day. My dad and step-mom started the tradition of making and icing cookies with their children, which I rarely got to be a part of.
That’s when I decided on a few different traditions I wanted to start with my daughter. The first tradition is 25 days of Christmas book. Basically, we have 25 Christmas books that I have wrapped up. She will get to pick one book a night from November 30th until December 24th to read, with the last book being “The Night Before Christmas”. I want to also get her a special pair of Christmas pajamas for that night.
I thought I would share with you the 25 books we are going to be reading this year:
- Is it Christmas Yet?
- The Crippled Lamb
- Santa’s Toy Shop
- The Nutcracker
- Holiday Helpers
- This First Christmas Night
- The Christmas Wish
- The Twelve Days of Christmas
- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
- Up on the Housetop
- God’s Christmas Gift
- The Legend of the Candy Cane
- The Night Before Christmas
- How to Catch an Elf
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas
- The Pups Save Christmas
- The Polar Express
- Gingerbread Christmas
- Llama Llama Holiday Drama
- Santa Pups
- Llama Llama Jingle Bells
- The Berenstain Bears and the Christmas Angel
- The Poky Little Puppy’s First Christmas
- The Christmas Story
- Gingerbread Mouse
I am so excited for this year because it is the first year that my daughter will actually have an idea about what is going on. Honestly, I can’t wait to start being able to let her pick out the books and start reading them!
While I love Christmas, I love what it represents more! Let’s not forget the real reason for all the celebration, the birth of Jesus. I want to show my daughter the joy that God and Jesus can bring in our lived every day, not just at Christmas.
There are other traditions I want to try to start, but this is just the first one. I would love to add more Christmas books to the collection, but for now, these 25 will work.
What Christmas traditions do you have? Do you read Christmas books like this leading up to Christmas day? What books do you read? I may add them to our list!