Tuesday, December 1, 2015

An Advent in Books

Can you believe that the Advent season is just around the corner?! I know, me either!

I love this season for the magic, the lights, the coziness of snuggling in with blankets and hot cocoa and the family traditions built around the holidays.

I am not such a fan of the consumerism, the rush to get things done, the pressure to create a perfect holiday or the endless to-do lists. So much not a fan.

For the past few years we have started a few simple traditions for our family, but one of my favorite is our Advent Books.


During the Advent period I fill our reading nook bookshelf up with our holiday books, many of which we have had for several years, and read one aloud at bed time. I don't do this every night, and it is not all brand new books, but cozy-ing up on the sofa to read, makes for a sweet and simple tradition. Sometimes we read by candle light with cocoa and (vegan! - these are amazing!) marshmallows, and sometimes we don't!

It's lovely! It doesn't add undue stress to our days (nothing kills a moment than having a frazzled mama!), it's not a budget breaker (I think I added four new-to-us books to our holiday stash this year for a grand total of $10, and even have a few library books that I'm adding to our shelves and returning after they've been read) and it's centered around one of our very favorite things to do - reading aloud!

Perfect!

Here are some of the books that will be included in our Advent collection this year:

Silver Packages: An Appalachian Christmas Story, by Cynthia Rylant

The Christmas Day Kitten, by James Herriot

Morris' Disappearing Bag, by Rosemary Wells

Winter Story (Brambly Hedge), by Jill Barklem

The Twelve Days of Christmas, illustrated by Jan Brett

 The Shortest Day: Celebrating the Winter Solstice, by Wendy Pfeffer


The Story of the Snow Children, by Sybille von Olfers (This one is a particular favorite; the story is delightful and the illustrations are magical!)

The Cowboy's Christmas, by Joan Walsh Anglund

The Legend of Old Befana, by Tomie dePaola

Winter, by Gerda Muller (Another absolute favorite, this is one of four part seasonal series. The illustrations are lush and detailed; my children talk about these books all year long).


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