The annual Christmas Book Countdown is on! This countdown is near and dear to my heart and to the hearts of many other parents and teachers out there. With this tradition, you celebrate the countdown to Christmas by reading a Christmas book each night.
You can do a full countdown starting on the first of December up until Christmas, or try a modified version, with a lead-up for the 12 days before Christmas. That’s what we will be doing this year as my kids have gotten older and inevitably, our evenings are busier.
I want to share all the books we’ll be unwrapping this year and spotlight my personal favorite from this year’s Christmas book haul! You can also grab a set of number labels for the books, which we’ll discuss below.
{Disclaimer: Affiliate links have been used throughout this post, but I only share books I actually read and enjoy!}
Just looking for book ideas? I’ve got you! Our Christmas books for this year’s countdown can be found on this list.
The Christmas Book Countdown is a fairly easy way to celebrate as you inch closer to Christmas. It’s like counting “sleeps”, but instead, you’ll wrap a set of books for each day and unwrap it each night you choose in December to read with your kids.
Here are a few tips I’ve learned since we first started this tradition in 2015.
Do:
Don’t:
As mentioned earlier, we will be doing our Christmas book countdown for the 12 days before Christmas and we unwrap new Christmas books each year. My children love books and thanks to my job, having new books is just a part of the process! I like to be able to provide recommendations for you.
But again, none of these things are required.
Here’s a look at the books we’ll be unwrapping this year! But first, let me tell you about my favorite from the bunch.
Admittedly, I make sure to read these books before I introduce them to my kids and this year, I’ve found my favorite! How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney? by Mac Barnett answers the question that I can say with confidence, every.single.kid. is wondering!
This book answers it in such a hilarious way that I just know the kids will be hooked! I can’t wait to unwrap this one.
Now, here’s the full list.
You can find all of these book recommendations in one place using this list.
You can find several other Christmas book recommendations from our previous years of Christmas book countdowns in our lists from 2020, 2021, and 2022.
Once I’ve chosen all of the books, I wrap them all! You can do this all at once or piece by piece. Then, for an added element of surprise, place them under the Christmas tree like presents.
Of course, you don’t HAVE to wrap the books. You could tuck them away and pull each out day by day, but just look at how cool this looks!
I like to use Christmas wrapping paper and I’ll often, though not every time, label the books with numbers. The numbers represent each day we will open the books, so on the first day (which is day 12 for us) we will open book #12. We count down from there!
I do genuinely love the idea of numbering the books because it builds excitement as the numbers go down, i.e., it means we’re closer to Christmas. In previous years, I’ve even added a bible verse that we read each night too.
If you want to use these numbers with your countdown, download these FREE number tags right here.
If you adopt this Christmas Book tradition, you’ll likely accumulate a TON of books. So, what do you do with them?
As mentioned earlier, you can simply reuse these books year after year. Or, if you plan to purchase new books as you go, you can store the books away until the next Christmas then pull them out and on display for your kids to read throughout the season.
Of course, you can always donate them to classrooms or kids in need once they’ve had their run in your home or class!
Hey, y’all! My name is Amy Lemons and I am passionate about providing students with both engaging and effective standards-based Math and ELA lessons.
Sample a day of Rooted in Reading with these lesson plans and activities for Reading Comprehension, Vocabulary, and Grammar!
