Christmas Book Box--25 Books of Christmas

Are you getting ready for some Holiday Reading?  I'm much more into cheesy Christmas movies than I am interested in reading Christmas themed books.  Mostly because I'd rather take my cheesiness in movies than in books.  However, now that I have a daughter, I love reading Christmas books with her.

So we have the Christmas Book Box with 25 days of Christmas books (27 this year, but I'll get to that soon!).  Last year was the first year we had this box.  My daughter was 1.5 and she had a great time with it, but really wanted to open all the books at the same time.  This year I'm really excited about it because she understands the idea of opening one at a time, plus we have more books than we did last year.

Bought the crate at Michael's and spray painted it red,
then added the writing.  The first line is her name,
which I don't share on this blog, so it has been blurred out.

Now I understand that you're probably thinking I'm crazy and that I'm buying her 25 new Christmas books every year.  No no no.  We didn't even buy 25 last year.  I bought three and inherited 16 others.  We only did 19 days and no one cares.  This year we had those same 19, plus I bought a few after Christmas and also my mom found a bunch at a yard sale or something.  In addition, I bought her some books on other holiday traditions so she can be exposed to more than just Christian based holidays.

So we ended up with quite a lot of books (more than I had anticipated) and I came home on Sunday from spending some time up at school working and my husband had wrapped them all up for me!  Of course he didn't know about the new ones I bought a month or so ago and so added those and realized that we had 27--not 25.  Oh well.  A few extra days is no big deal.  Then I found all those books my mom gave me last year and we just added those into our crate unwrapped.

The great thing about this is that at this point we are pretty set for the next few years with Christmas books and won't have to purchase any until she outgrows them.  Even then we'll keep the ones we love and add in a new one now and then.  They're become traditions that our daughter will look forward to reading and remember from year to year.  It's our own little advent calendar.

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Children's Book Review: When Santa Was a Baby

When Santa Was a Baby
by Linda Bailey
Illustrations by Genevieve Godbout
Tundra Books, 2015
Source: Netgalley in return for an honest review
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I realize it seems early for a Christmas book, but we're getting close to November!  That means that Christmas is just around the corner and somebody better get a move on her Holiday shopping.  Or I'll wait until after Thanksgiving and order as much as possible online. :)

Here's a bit about this book:
How did Santa become Santa?  Well you'll find out in this story about how Santa grew up.  With his need to wear red and his big belly laugh, his parents knew he was something special right away.  We watch as he grows up and gives away toys, instead of asking for his own birthday gifts.  His parents dote on him, and love him, and are extremely proud of him as they watch him from the time he is a baby, until he's an adult.

The pictures are beautiful and bright and fun, filled with rosy cheeked people and bright toys.  There isn't too much going on on each page, but enough for kids to find interesting images throughout.

My daughter has a box of Christmas books that we wrap up (most are borrowed and passed down) and open each day leading up to Christmas.  We'll use the same books each Christmas, but add one or two each year to it.  She only has 20 right now and I'd like to have 24.  This might be a great addition to our Christmas book round up.

Image Source: Goodreads

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