New Christmas Tradition

With the kids being so little and not really understanding the concept of time, we often make paper chains to count down to a big event, or trip.  It helps them to visualize how much longer they have until the day will be here.  (How many "sleeps" they have left!).  

I've been seeing this idea floating around on Pinterest and decided to give it a try this year!  The idea is to gather up a bunch of Christmas/holiday books and wrap them up.  Each night before bed, the kids get to unwrap one book and read it.  It is something fun we can do as a family, and helps them see how many days are left before Christmas.  

To my surprise, we only had about 4 or 5 Christmas books, so I went to the library while they were at school and checked out a ton of Christmas books.  (Saved me money, and we can get a fresh selection next year!)

Last night I brought out the basket and let them each open one since it was the first night.  (I wasn't sure how I would let them decide who got to pick the first book...lots of fighting over who goes first these days!)  I tried to get an even selection of Santa-ish stories, as well as stories about the birth of Jesus...just to keep things real around here!  With the commercialization of Santa as well as me shoving "Elf-on-the-shelf" down their throat every morning, I want to make sure they understand the true meaning of Christmas.

I think this should be a fun new tradition we can continue each year.