Counting Down to Christmas

We are counting down the days till Christmas in three ways this year.

1) We have an "advent" tree that hangs on the wall in the hallway between the kids bedrooms. The top of the tree has a cord that dangles a felt candy cane that can be slipped into the numbered pockets for each day of the month. So every morning, Will gets out his stool and moves the candy cane to the next numbered pocket and informs us what day it is.

2) Of course we made a paper chain too that we started on the first of the month.

3) And the third countdown (the one I have been most excited about and planning for months) is our book countdown. I had been purchasing some of our favorite books from our library lists off of Amazon, as well as some new un-read Christmas books from Will's Scholastic order, and collecting them in a box until I had 24 books. Then I wrapped them all up and stuck them in a pretty, silver basket on our buffet. Each night after dinner, the kids take turns opening one new book that is theirs to keep (and share). We read them together and they have become a fun ritual as we count down the days till Christmas. I love this and the kids do too! I found the idea on a couple other blogs. Others are using ALL Christmas books and even wrapping up some of their already-owned books or even library books that they plan to return. I, however, intended for this to be a part of their Christmas gift. There are plenty of books from all of our library lists that I had hoped to own one day, so this was a perfect opportunity to check off some of the list! I've made sure to include a good variety of books appropriate for each child.

So far we've opened several new Sandra Boynton's, as well as Thunder Cake (Patricia Polacco), Time for Bed (Mem Fox), and a couple Christmas titles we'd never read before. I can't wait for Will to recognize books from months ago that he'd loved so much when we borrowed them. He's going to be SO excited! And this will cut down (a little bit) on all the opening Christmas morning.