Our advent calendars

Q and I enjoyed beginning some traditions with the girls during the holiday season. One of them was the advent calendars. Do you remember when I bought this one?

I bought it almost two years ago at our local thrift store. It was missing a couple of pieces, so I made a felt baby Jesus (I also set out to make another star, but didn't get to it...oh well...). We took turns filling up the nativity scene until the day before Christmas.

Before we had kids I knew that I wanted to do the book advent calendar. All you do is wrap books and number them. You can do 25 or however many Christmas books you have, then read one a day until Christmas.

Even though I own over twenty Christmas books (and could have borrowed a couple from the library), I decided to do ten books that do not focus on Santa, reindeer, the Grinch, etc,--but rather on the real meaning of Christmas, and a couple of fun ones (like snowmen). Our girls are very impressionable, especially the eldest who came from a home that only focused on the "pretend" things of the season. The fun books can be enjoyed much later, as I wanted to instill the real focus of Christmas during their early years.

The last book we read through has eleven chapters, so we were able to read something almost every day during the month of December. I have made a special note of that one at the bottom of my list. Here are some great options for you that mostly focus on Jesus' birthday. Hope this is a help to you if you'd like to try this.

The Crippled Lamb, by Max Lucado

Merry Christmas, Mouse! by Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond

The Story of Christmas, by Patricia A. Pingry

The Legend of the Christmas Stocking, by Rick Osborne

Snow What Fun! When Snowmen come to life on Christmas Eve, by Cheryl Hawkinson

Jingle Bell Sleigh, by Monique Z. Stephens

Simeon and the Baby Jesus, by Evelyn Marzhausen

ABC is for Christmas, by Jane Werner Watson

The Christmas Story, by Jane Werner

The Twelve Days of Christmas, illustrated by Sheilah Beckett

The Animals' Christmas Eve, by Gale Wiersum

The Gift of the Magi, adapted from the story by O. Henry, illustrated by Robert Sauber

The Legend of the Candy Cane, by Lori Walburg

Little Miss Spider-A Christmas Wish, by David Kirk

The Christmas Star, story adapted by Moira Butterfield

The ABC's of Christmas, by Jane Belk Moncure

The Candymaker's Gift, by David and Helen Haidle

A Little House Christmas (Holiday Stories from the Little House Books), by Laura Ingalls Wilder

One Wintry Night, by Ruth Bell Graham (This was the final book we did with eleven chapters. It is my absolute favorite. It covers sin and our need for the Savior and highlights a few notable characters from the Bible before ending with the Nativity and life/death of Christ.)