Advent Books

Every night we read 3 books plus one scripture story chapter to the kids as part of our bedtime routine. Sometimes we read together and sometimes separately, or a combination. But for most of December we read Christmas books each night all together by the light of the Christmas tree. There are an incredible amount of great Christmas picture books out there, and if you are on goodreads with me, I apologize for your having to scroll through all of my evaluations of them! We easily found three different Christmas books to read each night of advent-- so 75 books total. I tried to have at least one book on the true meaning of Christmas and one fun Christmas book each night. I'm sure my list will change with each year, but as a reference for next year, here are my top 25 for each category.

Nativity Story/Christ Centered Christmas books

1. The Crippled Lamb, Max Lucado
2. A Shepherd’s Gift
3. Christmas Prayer
4. Little One
5. Mortimer’s Christmas Manger
6. The Berenstain Bears and the Joy of Giving
7. The First Night
8. An Angel Came to Nazareth
9. Room for a Little One
10. One Baby Jesus
11. If You’re Missing Baby Jesus
12. When Jesus was Born in Bethlehem
13. The Christmas Candle
14. Christmas Oranges
15. Christmas Tapestry
16. A Dress for Ellen
17. The Christmas Angel
18. Pippin the Christmas Pig
19. The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomay
20. Christmas Day in the Morning
21. Christmas Mouseling
22. The First Christmas-Carol Heyer
23. Humphery’s First Christmas
24. The Legend of the Candy Cane
25.  The Tale of three trees

     Winter or Santa themed books

1. The Polar Express
2. Fancy Nancy Splendiferous Christmas
3. Red-headed Robbie’s Christmas Story
4.  Ten Christmas Wishes
5.  Russell’s Christmas Magic
6. Millions of Snowflakes
7. Gingerbread Baby
8.  Franklin’s Christmas Gift
9. A Magical Christmas
10. Angelina’s Christmas
11. Queen of Christmas
12. The Stocking Stuffer’s Story
13. Perfect Soup
14. Mater Saves Christmas
15. Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire—The Christmas Song
16. A Wish to be a Christmas Tree
17. The Biggest Snowman Ever
18.  How Santa Lost His Job
19.   Auntie Claus
20. If you take a mouse to the movies
21. Bear Stays Up for Christmas
22.  Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree
23. Christmas Farm
24. Mouse’s First Christmas
25.  Olivia Helps with Christmas

      I am ever so grateful to live in a county with such a wonderful library system! It's so great to try out books before I buy them... or skip the buying phase altogether. I've seen a lot of ideas on the blogosphere about wrapping the advent books for each day, either in paper or fabric bags, I might have to try that next year. With an organized list and the holding power of our family's 3 library cards, I think I could get most of them ahead of time! I think the kiddos would get a kick out of that!