Picture Book Advent Calendar

All year long, as my sewing skills matured, I've been pinning more and more elaborate DIY advent calendars that I planned to recreate. But of course procrastination got in the way, and here it is, mid-November, and I haven't started on one. Usually procrastination doesn't pay, but in this case, it did, because I'm in love with the advent calendar we ended up with, featuring Christmas (and Hannukah, and Solstice)-themed picture books, 25 in all.

I scouted these books over the past few months from various thrift stores and used-book shops. (All in all, for a total of 24 books, I would estimate that I spent roughly $12). I wrapped each book individually in Trader Joe's bags, tied some with bakers twine, stamped others, labeled each with a number decal, and put them all together in a basket. Come December 1, Nou will have one to open every night, and James and I will read it to her before bed. By Christmas, she'll have a whole collection, and after Christmas, they'll all go back in the attic to wait for next year (prewrapped, to cut down on prep time). As she gets older, we can replace some of the more toddler-appropriate books with books for big kids or even chapter books and YA.

The winter holiday season is definitely already heavy on the sugar and material goods, so it meant a lot to me to be able to find a way to offer Anouk a holiday treat that was fun without being unhealthy, and also offered us a way to spend time together as a family. Anne has already been poking around the book basket, asking, "Mama, WHEN can I open them?" The anticipation builds. I can't wait for December, and our first holiday season with our big girl. :)

For a complete list of all the books we used in this project, click here or visit the tab at the top of the page.

What are your favorite holiday reads? For grownups, too? For some reason I always think of Gone With the Wind as a Christmas book, not sure why. It's definitely the opposite of heartwarming.