Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Unwrapping Christmas

Our hands-on approach to our children's education has given us inspiration in crafting our own family Christmas traditions that focus on the spirit of the occasion.


A Book A Day

I also saw around the web last year another activity that I had wanted to do – unwrapping and reading one Christmas book every day until Christmas Eve. It was already too late then to gather the appropriate titles, so I vowed to start the tradition this year. 

I’m wrapping our books now and looking forward to cuddling nightly with my little ones as we read. The books that I’ve chosen for our family are mostly about the story and spirit of Christmas – though I’ve included some about Santa Claus too, just for fun! 

I plan to start on the first of December. We will pile our wrapped Christmas books high and will (im)patiently wait for our night time surprise. It will be like unwrapping Christmas, one book at a time, relishing the details of the story from different angles as the much-awaited date nears.

And these are some of our books! I will definitely be adding to our collection through the years.


  • B is for Bethlehem: A Christmas Alphabet by Isabel Wilner
  • Books by Catholic author Tomie de Paola: The Night of Las Posadas, Merry Christmas Strega Nona!, The Legend of Old Befana, The Legend of the Poinsettia, The Clown of God
  • How Many Miles to Bethlehem? by Kevin Crossley-Holland
  • Baboushka and the Three Kings by Ruth Robbins
  • The Christmas Path: A Legend of the Luminarias by Sue Wright
  • The Christmas Story by Jane Werner Watson
  • We Were There by Eve Bunting
  • The First Night by B. G. Hennessy
  • The Story of Mary by Barry Martinson
  • Silent Night (a sing along book)
  • Christmas is Coming!
  • Mary's Baby by Jane Chapman
  • The Christmas Alphabet by Robert Sabuda
  • The Stable Where Jesus Was Born by Rhonda Green
  • 'Twas The Night Before Christmas by Clement Moore - a classic!





Many of these books are available at our shop for you to start collecting Christmas books to start a new family tradition of your own too! 



Make magic!




Best Blogger Tips
  • Share On Facebook
  • Digg This Post
  • Stumble This Post
  • Tweet This Post
  • Save Tis Post To Delicious
  • Float This Post
  • Share On Reddit
  • Bookmark On Technorati
Blog Gadgets

8 comments:

Chris Amador said...

Great idea! :) Thanks for sharing. I will start collecting some books now :) How many books does one need to have? :)

Mariel @ The Learning Basket said...

Hi Chris! It really depends on you. We will start on Dec 1, so that means 24 books for us. If you have more, you can open two or more, or probably even start earlier :D Have fun!

TrulyRichMom/TeacherMamaTina said...

We actually started the wrapping of Christmas books tradition last year! :) Here's my blog post related to it: http://teachermamatina.blogspot.com/2011/12/holidays-and-holy-days-in-our.html#more :) Some of the books we used were not necessarily Christmas-themed, but had faith themes. :) More close-up pics of the books here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.108856172565778.10560.100003241872231&type=3 :) Fun, fun, fun! :)

daisy said...

Love this idea! Will definitely look for books now. My kids loved the Corduroy book I bought from your shop and I'm so glad to have found Corduroy's Christmas book- very timely! 

Mariel @ The Learning Basket said...

Hi Daisy! We're glad your family is enjoying the books you got from us! And Corduroy's Christmas is a great go along! :)

Mariel @ The Learning Basket said...

I remember Mama Tina! We should swap books next year! :D

Ditas Aldover-Chu said...

I want to start this tradition as well. But first we have to collect more books. 

Mariel @ The Learning Basket said...

Oh we might have some more Christmas books over at the shop !:D Visit our FB :) And thank you for changing the link to my blog post. Appreciate it! :)