Blogmas Series: Our Christmas Book Basket

"A book is a present you can open again and again." - Unknown

Everyone in our family loves books, even our kids which is such a wonderful blessing. From the time they were babies, we’ve put books in the girls hands and tried to teach them to love and cherish books as much as me and Jon. 

So far, our plan is working.

Last year, as apart of our homeschool, I decided to try something new. I got the idea from Ashley at ‘Grace and Grit’ on YouTube. Ashley is a homeschool Mom and she uses ‘The Morning Basket‘ technique, by Brave Writer aka Julie Bogart, with her homeschool curriculum. I really liked this idea and couldn’t wait to try it out during our 2017-18 school year.

This technique has been a hit in our home and we've been doing it ever since. The girls know that all of the books that we will read from each day are found in our special morning basket. We take time each morning to complete our required reading for our Sonlight curriculum. There isn't any question about where I put the books, because they belong in the morning basket. On Fridays, I change the books so I am all ready for our upcoming school week.

This Christmas I thought it would be fun to have our very own Christmas Book Basket that is designated specifically for Christmas and winter books!! 

I started out by going on a treasure hunt around the house, searching high and low, for all of our books about winter or Christmas. I brought them all downstairs to the living room, so that they can be together in one central location. I also found a basket (actually, my basket is currently a box until I can get a cute Christmas basket) that I could these holiday books inside. Then I placed my basket under our Christmas tree. That's right, our small Christmas tree is set up in the living room on a table. The basket fits perfectly underneath the table.

I hope that this will help all of my girls to remember to return these holiday books to the Christmas Book Basket.

I also plan to go to the library each week to get new Christmas books for us to read as well. If I find anything that is a good read, I will be sure to share it with you on my Instagram Stories. 

Incase you are wondering, scroll down to see a list of the books that I found around my house and put in our basket. Just for fun, I also included some of my other favorite Christmas books that I don't have at our house.

Christmas Books:

“A Creature Was Stirring: One Boy’s Night Before Christmas” by, Carter Goodrich

“Animals in Winter” by, Henrietta Bancroft & Richard G. Van Gelder

“Big Bird Brings Spring to Sesame Street” by Lauren Collier Swindler

“Frozen” by, Disney

“God Bless Christmas” by, Hannah C. Hall

“How the Grinch Stole Christmas” by, Dr. Seuss

“Noodles: I Love Christmas” by, Hand Wilhelm

“Snow” by, Roy McKie and P.D. Eastman

“The 12 Days of Christmas” by, Jane Cabrera

“The Berenstain Bears and the Joy of Giving” by, Jan and Mike Berenstain

“The Chilly Little Penguin” by, Russell Punter

“The Gingerbread Kid: Goes to School” by, Joan Holub

Chinese book called...

“Green Festival” by, Unknown

Other Favorite Christmas Books: 

"A Christmas Carol" by, Charles Dickens
"Bear Stays Up for Christmas" by, Karma Wilson
"Christmas in the Big Woods (Little House Picture Book)" by, Laura Ingalls Wilder
"Fancy Nancy: Splendiferous Christmas" by, Jane O'Connor
"Little Miss Christmas" by, Roger Hargreaves
"Llama Llama Holiday Drama" by, Anna Dewdney
"Merry Christmas, Geronimo!" by, Geronimo Stilton
"Mr. Popper's Penguins" by, Richard Atwater
"Red Sled" by, Lita Judge
"The Bears' Christmas" by, Stan Berenstain
"The Berenstain Bears' Old-Fashioned Christmas" by, Jan Berenstain

"The Family Under the Bridge" by, Natalie Savage Carlson
"The Legend of the Candy Cane" by, Lori Walburg
"The Polar Express" by, Christ Allsburg