How to create a Book Advent

A few evenings ago I was having a very rare night out and we were discussing Christmas. Someone asked if we had any special Christmas traditions and I’m not sure I realised until then that we have lots. Perhaps having young children helps, but I want to make Christmas a magical time for all of us and create some special memories.

My Christmas preparations start early as Advent marks the beginning of Christmas for our family. I bring out the Advent Box and set up the Book Advent tower in the lounge. I’m not sure how I heard about a Book Advent but I’m glad I did. In case you haven’t heard of it before I thought I would share our book list with you.

How to create a Book Advent

A Book Advent is simply a different festive book to read for each day of Advent. When I started a few years ago I visited my local charity shop and bought up their entire display of Christmas books. Every year we add some new books and pass on some of the younger books to friends. We all love to snuggle up with a book at bedtime and we really look forward to seeing some of our old festive favourites.

This week we got our Advent books out to sort through them. Our aim was for 24 festive books so we took out a few which were a little young for the children. In their place we added The Dinosaur That Pooped Christmas, which has been a very popular read in our house, and the special gift edition of Stick Man we reviewed last month.

Our 2015 list of books for Book Advent (suitable for a 3 and 5 year old) are as follows:

Father Christmas by Raymond Briggs
The Polar Express by Chris van Allsburg
Little Robin’s Christmas by Jan Fearnley
Mrs Christmas by Penny Ives
The Gruffalo’s Child by Julia Donaldson
Father Christmas needs a wee by Nicholas Allan
Bless You, Santa by Julie Sykes
Aliens Love Panta Claus by Claire Freeman and Ben Cort
The Night before Christmas by Clement C. Moore
Stick Man by Julia Donaldon and Axel Scheffler
The Christmas Bear by Ian Whybrow and Axel Scheffler
The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition by Carol V. Aebersold and Chanda A. Bell
Winnie in Winter by Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul
The Dinosaur That Pooped Christmas by Tom Fletcher and Dougie Poynter
The Snowman by Raymond Briggs
Santa’s Christmas with flaps and a sparkly surprise ending
The Jolly Christmas Postman by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
Mater Saves Christmas
Peppa’s Christmas Wish
Miffy in the snow by Dick Bruna
Elmer in the Snow
The Gingerbread Man
Santa Claus has a busy night
Mr Christmas by Roger Hargreaves

This afternoon we lit some candles and wrapped them up so the children can’t guess which book is which and added some numbered stickers. Hopefully this will help add to the surprise as we celebrate every day of Advent with a book (as well as a healthy dose of chocolate!). My 5 year old wrote a sweet sign for the box so now we’re almost ready for the start of Advent.