Last year my daughter ended up with her very own Book Advent (a different festive book to enjoy in the run up to Christmas). My son decided he wanted to read The Christmasaurus by Tom Fletcher so read the one book during December (this year he read The Creakers by Tom Fletcher and A Notchmas Carol). So my daughter got to enjoy the Book Advent all to herself, alongside the handmade Advent calendar I made her, and her chocolate one! I’ve always loved putting together a selection of festive books for kids, this year my daughter helped me!
What is a book advent?
So what is a book advent? A book advent is an advent calendar made with books, Christmas books! It’s fun to put together and you get to read a different book every day with your child.
A book advent is one of our family traditions but it’s quite simple to do. The first year I started it I found a shelf of Christmas books in my local charity shop and picked 24. I took them home and wrapped them up and put them in a special box. They were brought out on the 1st of December and each day a new book was opened and read together.
What books featured in our Book Advent?
I love looking through all our Christmas books but every year we have to weed some out that they’ve grown out of and add some new books. We added two three new books this year – Pick A Pine Tree, The Christmas Truce and The Crayons’ Christmas. My 8 year was really excited to help me put it together this year and helped wrap each book up.
Our 2019 Christmas Book Advent books:
The Dinosaur That Pooped Christmas by Tom Fletcher & Dougie Poynter
Aliens Love Panta Claus by Claire Freeman and Ben Cort
A Treasury of Christmas Stories: festive tales and songs
Santa’s Sleigh is on it’s way to Wiltshire
Winnie and Wilbur Meet Santa by Valerie Thomas
The Polar Express by Chris van Allsburg
The Christmas Bear by Ian Whybrow and Axel Scheffler
Stick Man by Julia Donaldon and Axel Scheffler
The Night before Christmas by Clement C. Moore
Father Christmas needs a wee by Nicholas Allan
The Gruffalo’s Child by Julia Donaldson
Mrs Christmas by Penny Ives
The Jolly Christmas Postman by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
Bless You, Santa by Julie Sykes
The Gingerbread Man by Estelle Corke
Santa Claus has a busy night
Elmer in the Snow by David McKee
Mr Christmas by Roger Hargreaves
Pooh’s Christmas Adventure and Pooh’s Christmas Letters
Hortense and the Shadow by Natalia and Lauren O’Hara
Walking in a Winter Wonderland, illustrated by Tim Hopgood
A Dot in The Snow by Corrinne Averiss
The Snowman and The Complete Father Christmas by Raymond Briggs
The Nightmare Before Christmas by Tim Burton
The Crayons’ Christmas by Drew Daywalt
Pick a Pine Tree by Patricia Toht
The Christmas Truce: The Place Where Peace Was Found by Hilary Robinson & Martin Impey
Have you read any of these? The Christmas Truce was my favourite but it was great to re-read some of our favourites too.
Previous Book Advent reading lists can be found here:
Book Advent 2018 (perfect for an 8 year old)
Book Advent 2017 (perfect for ages 5-7)
Book Advent 2016 (perfect for ages 4-6)
Book Advent 2015 (perfect for pre-schoolers)
Book Advent 2014 (perfect for pre-schoolers)
Book Advent 2013 (perfect for a baby and a toddler)
Book Advent 2012 (perfect for a toddler)
I do a book advent for my twins every Christmas too, I tend to buy the 10 for £10 deal at the works as it gets a bit expensive when you have 5 kids of varying ages haha
This is such a good idea! As a child, I used to love reading books (still do) and what’s better than having an advent calendar with different books? I remember this one time my mum had bought a Scrooge Calendar for me with small books about the story, it was my favourite calendar and we used it every year!