Reading Advent for Families with Children

Today is the first day of December, which means it’s day 1 of the Christmas countdown, for those who celebrate. There are so many different advent ideas out there. The most common being a chocolate calendar, but you can find all sorts these days. Beer, wine, cheese, toys, other types of candy, even things for pets or specific hobbies. My favourite one being books! Last year I decided I wanted to do a reading advent for my children. It’s a super simple DIY and it encourages reading and quality time as a family. This blog is going to be a quick guide to making your reading advent!

Step 1: Decide on a Timeframe

This can be done wherever you want. You can do it for 24 days, from the 1st of December to Christmas Eve. You can do 25 days, and add in a book for Christmas Day. Or you can do 12 days, done either the 12 days leading up to Christmas day or the traditional 12 days of Christmas starting Christmas Day and ending January 5th. Of course, this is entirely up to you. You can pick one or combine them to make your own calendar. Whatever you want and what works for your family. We personally go from December 1st to Christmas Day.

Step 2: Pick Your Books

This is actually the most difficult task, especially if you’re doing it for 25 days. I recommend picking seasonal books, things that are Christmas themed or festive or winter-themed books. On the winter solstice, December 21st, I have a book about the winter solstice. And Christmas Eve is The Night Before Christmas. Then the day of Christmas will be a book about the day of Christmas or our favourite Christmas book. Leading up to that, I didn’t have them in any particular order, but I do keep them on theme for the season.

Step 3: Wrap Them

This part is easy, but time-consuming. Of course, you don’t have to wrap them, you can choose other ways to present them. Besides wrapping each individual book and labeling them with a date, you can print out pictures of the book covers or write out their book title onto paper and put them in a DIY Advent calendar with pockets. Each day you pull out the paper and then go to a designated shelf or box where you will keep those books. You can even have a reusable gift bag or something similar that you can replace the book each day and still give the excitement of opening it for the kids. Wrapping is fun, and it adds to the aesthetic of opening up the advent books, but it’s not the most eco-friendly option. So, if you prefer to avoid waste, then definitely consider the other options.

Step 4: Enjoy your daily books!

This is the best step; reading! Each day you can pick a certain time to do this. It could be first thing in the morning, after the kids get home from school, or use it as a bedtime story. No matter what you choose, it’ll be a great time for the family to come together and enjoy a book together.

I really hope you enjoy this fun Christmas idea. I know it’s something I’ve been looking forward to! If you do this and love it please post it and tag me on Instagram @momma.needs.to.read so I can see it! You can also comment and share this post with your friends to give them an idea too.

Thank you for reading my blog. I really hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please like, comment and share. I appreciate the love and support. You can also follow me on Instagram and Goodreads for more!