Our Christmas Book List

This year we are doing the ABC’s Of Christmas so I tried to incorporate books that would fit in with each letter. I had trouble with a few so I added our favorite books on those days. Here are the books that you will see cropping up on my blog over the next month :-)

Some of these books may be out of print as I’ve had them for a while but I’ll link the best I can.

Books for 2011

 

A – Alabaster’s Song

B – There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell

C- The Christmas Cookie Sprinkle Snitcher

D – Drummer Boy

E – The Happy Elf

F- Once There Was A Christmas Tree

G – Gingerbread Mouse

      The Gingerbread Pirates (a favorite from last year).

H – Humphrey’s First Christmas

I – Snowmen at Christmas (I’m thinking icicle….)

J – Tiny Baby Jesus

K – The King’s Christmas List

L – The Light of Christmas

M – Mortimer’s Christmas Manger

N – The Nutcracker

O – Olivia Helps With Christmas

P – The Jolly Christmas Postman

Q – A Magical Christmas

R – Olive, the Other Reindeer

S – Song of The Stars

      Oh, What a Christmas!

T – Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree

U – Merry Christmas Curious George

V- Angel Pig and the Hidden Christmas

W – Willy and  May

X – The legend of the Poinsettia (for xmas around the world)

Y – The Legend of the Christmas Kiss

Z – The Christmas Lizard

 

others we’ll be doing for a special day (if we have time):

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

The Polar Express

 

Some Aussie Favorites:

An Aussie Night Before Christmas

An Aussie Day Before Christmas (I had trouble finding a link)

Wombat Divine

The Golden Kangaroo

A Bellbird in a Flame Tree

Santa’s Aussie Mix up

 

If you are looking to get a new book for Christmas this year, my favorite book of all time is “The Christmas Lizard” (see list above)…….Amazon only sells used copies now but it id well worth it! I so wish I had have bought 2 copies as mine is getting a little worn but the illustrations are BEAUTIFUL and the story is WONDERFUL and kind of ties Christmas all together by explaining the true meaning. We always save this one for Christmas eve :-)

I’d LOVE t hear what your favorites are! Leave a comment or link to your list in the comments below – I look forward to checking them out!

Check out some other GREAT books at TBA – click on the link below!

The Christmas Bag

Each year, we do a countdown to Christmas with books. In the past, I wrapped each one up and then the boys got to open it each day – they had an absolute blast! This year though I got to thinking about paper………..it’s expensive AND it takes me forever to wrap up all of those books (not to mention how many trees I was wasting by the amount of paper I’d be using each year to wrap my books). I was brainstorming one day and came up with “The Christmas Bag”. I think I’ve mentioned before that I am a TOTAL novice on the sewing machine and really have no idea what I’m doing……but where there’s a will there’s a way!

The bag is big enough to hold all sizes of books (and some Christmas DVD’s too) and the boys will simply open the bag each day to find what goodies are inside. I also made 25 of the little number ornaments that I can easily pop on the  bag so the boys know what number we’re up to. We’ll hand these up after each day on the wall in the shape of a tree:-)

I hand stitched the middle part of the bag. I have the pattern for the tree if anyone is interested in making their own {Click HERE}.

I even lined the inside of the bag (to a non sewer, this was a BIG deal and caused me great stress but I think it turned out).

I alternated the red and green color (material and number buttons). The buttons came from Jo-Ann but are kind of pricey (about $6 a packet and I needed 2……make sure you take a coupon along).

 

There is a green rope that ties the bag together (which you can vaguely see in the top picture). All in all I’m happy with how it turned out and am having visions of passing it down to grandkids one day :-)

I can’t WAIT to start filling the bag with books! Stay tuned tomorrow for a list of the books we’ll be reading.

North Pole Breakfast

Last year we did “The Elf On The Shelf” and it was a MASSIVE hit with our 2 little guys. This year, I snagged this (much cuter) elf at Hobby Lobby for only a few dollars and thought I was set to go…………THEN I saw the “North Pole Breakfast”  idea on Pinterest and knew it was a tradition that I wanted to start with our family too. I decided that our breakfast would be today (first Sunday after Thanksgiving) and here’s what it looked like:

The cute plates came from Hobby Lobby during their 50% off Christmas sale last week (not sure if it’s still going on) and the adorable little elf cups came from Wal-Mart for only $1.

“Trix” (our elf) left us a hat, socks and PEZ….all from the dollar section of Target.

The menu…….

The letter to Santa that “Trix” asked us to fill out so he can take it to Santa tonight.

Santa left a note for the boys reminding them why we celebrate Christmas and the “rules” of Trix being in our house (like not touching him).

It’s a little hard to find “treats” that Sully can eat with his peanut allergy but I did find some white Cotton Candy and called it “Snow Clouds”.

Here’s a quick picture of the boys……I (unfortunately) didn’t get too many as I was busy dishing out and cutting up the food :-)

 

We were too full at breakfast to have our “snowman soup” so we had it after lunch instead.

 

All in all, it was a HUGE success and I hope the start of a great tradition! I made the printables using clip art from  KPMDoodles and Miss Tina. Unfortunately I can’t share the files with you due to the copyright on some of the graphics BUT if you head over to “Me & Marie”, Ashley Has some WONDERFUL printables that you can use (for free!).

Come back tomorrow for a post about another tradition we are about to start!

I’m Having A Sale!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! As a thank you to all of you, I am having a little sale in my TPT store. You’ll be able to get 15% off everything…….. no need to do anything special, the discount is already applied to all of my items :-)

The sale will only last until tomorrow, so head on over and check it out (you can click on the picture above to get there).

Enjoy your family!

The above clip art is copyright and designed by Dianne J. Hook. Thanks you Djinkers!