Christmas Book Countdown

Posted on December 3, 2015

by Charli Johnston

I don’t think this tradition is all that unique, but it is my favorite. Here’s how our version goes: I wrap up twenty four Christmas books and each night from December 1st till December 24th we open one and read it together. A couple of weeks ago my four year old asked me if I was going to do “that thing [I] did at our old house”, referring to this. She told me how much she loved it and that makes it totally worth the effort. We started doing this two years ago and it’s the best. The first year I only managed to come up with 12 books so we read starting twelve days before Christmas. The following year we doubled our collection and read every night in December. This year we have more than forty books. I remember how overwhelming it seemed when I wanted to start this tradition but didn’t have the money to go out and buy all the Christmas books we would need. I have a few tips for starting out without adding a lot of expense at the time of year when you really don’t need an extra expense.

Use the library. Christmas books might be flying off the shelves this time of year, but your library might even have some of the titles that you want available for e-readers. If you don’t actually have a kindle or nook, download the app. It’s not the same as having a book to wrap, but it works!
Thrift Stores! Go to the DI or the Goodwill or whatever you have near you. This is where most of our books came from. I have an awesome mother in law who found the majority of our collection in various thrift stores. We are so grateful for the time she put into finding them for us. As a bonus you can find awesome vintage copies while saving money.
I love this set of Little Golden Books my mother-in-law found for us at a thrift store.
Buy used. I love how Amazon has books available from other sellers that are still prime eligible. You can buy the book used and still get your free shipping. They are much cheaper than new, but still very convenient. My mailman can attest that I love to order books that way.
Check book orders. My sister teaches kindergarten, so the first year our collection consisted mainly of paperback books that came from a book order she let us in on. I first bought a set of Christmas books that cost all of $10 or so and that got us started.
Be patient. Buy one new book each year and slowly build up your collection.