Count Down to Christmas...

This is my all-time favorite tradition of all! I thoroughly immerse myself in the holiday season...everything about Christmas is fun for me...as you'll see if you keep reading this month.  But this tradition?  This tradition trumps everything else and is by far, my favorite.

There are few personal pleasures more important, or satisfying, to me than reading a good book.  I do love to curl up and read.  When my oldest, Connar, was approaching his first Christmas I wanted to start something special that would become a time-honored tradition.  (That's a lot of pressure for a new, young family...but I succeeded!)  I read about this idea somewhere, and I wish I could give credit to the original source. 

I built a Christmas Book Count-Down...

What a fantastic box full of presents.  When Connar was a baby, and I was dreaming of this amazing family tradition, I was thinking about having a gift to  open every day.  Here's our book box...there are 23 wrapped Christmas books and two wrapped copies of "Twas the Night Before Christmas". 

The first few years of the Christmas Book Count-Down  I didn't have a book for every day of the month... we started opening books later depending on how many there were.  Since I have added books, liberally, to the collection I now have more than enough.  I store the books all year, so they are not on the kids book shelves...the only time we read the books is  during December.  Every night before bed they take turns choosing a book to open.  There are several favorites in the collection and they spend hours flipping through the wrapped books trying to predict which is which. 

With a little wrapping paper, a couple of hours and a much-loved collection of books...I put together my favorite Christmas tradition of all time.  And if the boys excitement at seeing the box of wrapped books is any indication...it's one of their favorite traditions as well!