Growing up we always counted down the days to Christ’s birth by counting down the advent calendar. My Grandma Caroline would wrap up 24 gifts and we took turns opening 1 gift every day until Christmas. This was a tradition we LOVED growing up and I wanted to share it with the boys.
Since last Christmas I have been collecting favorite Christmas books to countdown advent with this year. I started last year when we put away our Christmas stuff by pulling out all of the Christmas books we already owned and packing them up. I also searched garage sales and thrift stores for the Christmas classics. I substituted Christmas movies (that we already owned) for each of the Saturdays of advent. I would say that my total investment into these 24 days was under $5!
I just wrapped them all with craft paper and then used my number stencils and a permanent marker to write the numbers on each of the gifts. If you’re hoping to build a quick collection of advent countdown books, here’s my Amazon wishlist of great choices.
The boys are SO excited to open a new gift every day and it has been fun so far to celebrate the countdown with a new book at bedtime every night!
Wow! That is a really cool idea! Thanks for sharing it.
Yeah! It wasn’t my idea but once I saw it I knew with my LOVE of kids books that we had to do it!
This is such an precious idea!! I love it!! Your boys are so lucky to have you as a mom!!
Thanks! Some days they’re lucky… other days I’m the psycho DIY’er who is too busy painting or sewing to give them the time of day. You’re an AWESOME mom to Ashton too and I’m sure you guys are going to have some AWESOME traditions!
out of all the things i pinned on pinterest, this was the ONE thing i followed through with this year!! 😉 i did the exact same thing as you and shopped garage sales all summer long 🙂 i let my kids open them before naptime though, in hopes that it will make the process a little easier lol
Before nap is a good idea, some days it is meltdown central by the time we open the book and there is no joy at all. I’m hoping to keep building on the collection until we have 24 nice, hardcover, christmas classics that all focus on Jesus and the real meaning of Christmas. This year though they got a few cheapies about elfs, santa, and the north pole.