An Advent Countdown with Books: 2013 Edition

It's that time of year again!  A little pre-Advent planning for this booklist helps get the season off to a terrific start.  I am revisiting last year's booklist for this year's tweaking.  I am also hoping to purchase a few of these books, especially the Tomie dePaola books, for our collection.  I have been blessed to find books used; so, I am hoping that will be the case this year, too!

Sunday, December 1st is the first day of Advent this year.  I will need 24 books, 1 Bible for the 25th, and possibly 12 books leading up to Epiphany on January 6th.  I have no leftover wrapping paper that will really work for this project, but I will just purchase some inexpensive paper for the 24 books, wrap the Bible in some pretty gold paper I still have and tie it with a gold ribbon (also already have), and maybe have enough for the final 12 books.

I will also split the content of the books up into Advent and Christmas, with the 24 books being focused on feast days and preparation for Christ's birth and the final 12 books being about celebrating Christmas and Epiphany (lots of books on the 3 wise men we haven't not read yet, not to mention St. Wencelas and St. Stephen).  Books will be scheduled for the night before a feast.  So, I will begin reading about St. Nicholas the night before St. Nicholas's Feast Day (December 6th).  Though, St. Nicholas is so fun that we will read about him more than one night.  Last year, we read the books right before bed.

Here's the list:

Sun, Dec 1: The Story of Christmas - Pingry & Thornburgh
Mon, Dec 2: An Early American Christmas - dePaola
Tues, Dec 3: St. Joseph's Story - Guadagno & Lo Cascio
Wed, Dec 4: Saint Nicholas: The Story of the Real Santa Claus - Joslin & Cann
Thurs, Dec 5: Saint Nicholas: The Real Story of the Christmas Legend - Stiegmeyer & Ellison
Fri, Dec 6:  The Legend of St. Nicholas: A Story of Christmas Giving - Mackall & Porfirio
Sat, Dec 7: Immaculate Conception (booklet) - Winkler
Sun, Dec 8:  Our Lady of Guadalupe (pop up) - Serrano, Davano, & Guzman
Mon, Dec 9: Tony's Bread - dePaola
Tues, Dec 10: The Candle in the Window - Johnson & Elliott
Wed, Dec 11: Our Lady of Guadalupe - Bernier-Grand & Engel  
Thurs, Dec 12: The Birds of Bethlehem - dePaola
Fri, Dec 13: Tomie's Little Christmas Pageant - dePaola
Sat, Dec 14: The Little Fir Tree - Brown & LaMarche
Sun, Dec 15: Bambinelli Sunday - Welborn & Engelhart
Mon, Dec 16: The Night of Las Posadas - dePaola
Tues, Dec 17: Bear Stays Up for Christmas - Wilson & Chapman
Wed, Dec 18: The Gift of the Christmas Cookie - Mackall & Chabrian
Thurs, Dec 19: The Very First Christmas (a Hallmark book recorded by hubby's parents in 2010)
Fri, Dec 20: There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell! - Colandro & Lee
Sat, Dec 21: A Gift from Saint Francis: The First Creche - Cole & Lemieux
Sun, Dec 22: Room for a Little One - Waddell & Cockcroft
Mon, Dec 23: The Legend of the Poinsettia - dePaola
Tues, Dec 24: Gospel of Luke 2:1-14  Family Bible, NAB -  (can find online at USCCB)

Wed, Dec 25:  Stephen's Feast - Richardson

Thurs, Dec 26: Good King Wenceslas - Henterly
Fri, Dec 27: The Twelve Days of Christmas - Long
Sat, Dec 28: An Angel Came to Nazareth - Knott & Kneen
Sun, Dec 29: The Nativity - Sanderson
Mon, Dec 30: The Friendly Beasts - dePaola
Tues, Dec 31: The Clown of God - dePaola
Wed, Jan 1: Mary, the Mother of Jesus - dePaola
Thurs, Jan 2: O Holy Night - Christmas with the Boys Choir of Harlem - Ringgold
Fri, Jan 3: The Last Straw - Thury & van Kampen
Sat, Jan 4: Humphrey's First Christmas - Heyer
Sun, Jan 5: We Three Kings - Spirin
Mon, Jan 6: Baboushka and The Three Kings - Robbins

A blessed Advent to you!  What's on your reading list this Advent?

An Advent Countdown with Books

I created a list of books I wanted to introduce to the boys during Advent 2012.  I drew inspiration from a couple of places, and I was excited to try out unwrapping a book each night.  It ended up being a lot of fun, a great way to use up some wrapping paper, a good introduction for each feast day, and a fantastic way to keep the focus on the meaning of the season.  For example, we read Saint Nicholas, the story of the real Santa Claus the night before St. Nicholas Day, and because we love him so much, we read another book about him the next night. I linked to books that we particularly enjoyed.  I don't know what we read the first of December.  Wait, maybe that's when Advent began?  I already don't remember!  

Staring at this list more and more, I don't believe this is the most updated list.  I feel as though I moved the books around a little more than this.  Oh, well......at least I have these titles.  Some books we already had, some we got through interlibrary loan, and some we purchased.  We will probably be purchasing a few of the Tomie dePaola books, though I was glad to peruse them via library loan first.  

All I did was wrap each book at lightening speed during quiet time with my husband's help and label them with the correct calendar day on a back corner of the wrapping.  I set them all aside in a canvas bin and placed it in our bay window.  I did not wrap the family Bible until later in the month, in order to have access to it.  When I did wrap it, I used a shiny gold paper to get the boys' attention that this book was a very special book compared to the selections that came before it.

2: Merry Christmas, Strega Nona

3: The Story of Christmas

4: A Stocking for Jesus

5: Saint Nicholas, The story of the real Santa Claus

6: Saint Nicholas, The Real Story of the Christmas Legend 

7: Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer

8: Immaculate Conception  (booklet) 

9: Our Lady of Guadalupe by Bernier-Grand & Engel  

10: An Angel Came to Nazareth

11: Our Lady of Guadalupe (pop up)

12: Lucia and the Light

13: The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree: An Appalachian Story

14: The Very First Christmas (a Hallmark book recorded by hubby's parents in 2010)

15: The Night of Las Posadas

16: The Nativity

17: Great Joy

18: St. Joseph's Story

19: Bear Stays Up for Christmas

20: Who is Coming to Our House

21: An Early American Christmas

22: Little Star

23: Room for a Little One

24: Gospel of Luke, family Bible (wrap in gold, very special wrapping) Luke 2:1-14

Off the top of my head, highlights of the collection included our new Our Lady of Guadalupe books (so nice to have books about her!), The Night of Las Posadas, Bear Stays Up for Christmas, Who is Coming to Our House, and An Early American Christmas.  We also enjoyed reading the dePaola book about the poinsettia, but I don't remember when we read it.  It either made its way into the wrapped collection without an edit to the list, or we read it after Christmas.  Room for a Little One is awfully sweet, as well, setting a quiet and hushed scene for the arrival of a special little one.  Bear Stays Up for Christmas is secular but very sweet.  Its illustrations are lovely, and the friendships depicted are charming.  An Early American Christmas, a piece of historical fiction, depicted what it might have been like in colonial New England when a family moves to town that celebrates Christmas more demonstrably.

I did not enjoy the Rudolph book, which was a shame because it was the old, Montgomery Ward version that is attached to memories for my husband's side of the family.  It was terrible.  I don't even think my sons enjoyed it.  It will not make it into next year's collection.  I was surprised to find the addition of magic in the Strega Nona books (one was read after Christmas Day), but I did like them.  Little Star was also a little disappointing.  Too wordy.  Lucia and the Light scared my almost-five-year-old a bit too much right before falling asleep.

I was also going to prepare some wrapped books for at least the first eight days of Christmas, but I let go of that thought after a while.  Maybe next year.  One of the books I received via library loan was The Clown of God by Tomie dePaola, and I really enjoyed it because of how it mentions Christmas reverently in the story.  I think I will have to add that one to our collection.  

What about you?  Did you create an Advent book countdown?  Any favorites you'd like to share?