After collecting most of our Christmas or winter themed books, I put them in the order I wanted them opened and wrapped them up, writing the number of each on on the front. I started out with the winter themed ones first, moving into Christmas stories like The Grinch, Merry Christmas Stinky Face, etc., and had the last books be the more religious, Christ centered ones the closer we got to Christmas. Our last book, to be opened on Christmas Eve, will be The Christmas Story.
This has been a HUGE hit! My boys have had so much fun with it and ask every night to open their book. Being as I have 3 small children, and wasn't about to wrap 75 books, we just put the book in the middle of them, count to 3, and they all tear into it. They love having a present to open every night, even if it is something they already own, they love the surprise of what book it is, and they love reading it together under the lights of the tree.
I put all of our books in a Christmas basket but with a toddler in the house it's just not feasible to leave it out, they'd all be ripped into by the first day, so the basket is kept up high and brought down when it's time to open a book. Once a book is opened, it goes under the tree for us to read whenever we want. An added bonus to this, is that it's spared me from reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas 587 times already like I have in previous years. ; )
This afternoon I brought down the basket to take a picture for this post and my 3 year old, who I didn't even think was paying any attention to me, jumped up from his activity and excitedly ran over to the basket-proof of what a hit this is!
So far, we're loving this activity and I think it will become a yearly tradition in our home!
I saw that on pinterest too and thought it was a great idea! Fun new tradition!
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