Literary Christmas Traditions

Do you have any Christmas traditions this time of year that revolve around books? What are they and why?

For example, a Christmas tradition that was in my home growing up and one that I have continued in my own home is that of the Christmas Mouse.

My Mom created this tradition on Christmas Eve out of the frustration of having kids underfoot, unoccupied and way too excited for Christmas morning and out of her love of reading. Thus the Christmas Mouse was born.

Each Christmas Eve, the mouse would come alive and hide somewhere in the house. We would get so excited when we noticed that he had gone missing and would run around trying to find him. When we did he was always sitting on a box of presents. Cleverly, my Mom used this tradition to build our book, game and media library. Inside this box was something to keep us occupied for the rest of Christmas Eve, be it a book to read, a movie to watch, or a game to play. Even though, the presents inside the box were not wrapped, there was always one gift for each child, and depending upon their current interests we always knew who it was intended for.

This was a great way to build our libraries, have fun, and build great memories. All six of us children continue this tradition in our home.

Another great Christmas tradition is the countdown to Christmas book basket. Choose any length of time that your comfortable with, 24 days for the whole month, 12 days for the 12 days of Christmas, etc. Each night open a wrapped book or dvd from a basket, unwrap and enjoy for the evening! What a great way to build your personal libraries while instilling a sense of tradition and value of reading in your children!

So I ask again, do you have any Christmas traditions this time of year that revolve around books? What are they and why?

Oustanding topic!, I'm floored that we don't have a tradition per se in regards to books. Looks as if I'll have to start one in my home. Thanks for the great idea.

Wow. I wish we'd done something like that. But my family isn't particularly bookish so we don't really have any traditions related to books. We have cookies and a tree as our traditions but then again almost everyone does that. So you had much better, in my opinion, traditions and I think that if I ever have kids I'll initiate that so thanks for the idea.

Oh, I love those ideas! I'll have to do them both with my daughter. I think she's to young to do the christmas mouse this year, but the book basket would work out great.

Thank you so much for sharing them!

The only christmas tradition of my childhood that inlvolved books was reading christmas/winter themed stories. About two weeks before Christmas, my sister and I would go to the library and check out a bunch of books. Then, each night we would take turns reading aloud one of the stories to the family. My mom also encouraged us to write our own stories for holidays. So there were usually a fair number of our own creations in the mix.

My family tried having us read The Night Before Christmas, but it didn't happen enough for it to become a tradition. We don't have any book traditions. I may start my own once I have a family.

my mom always read "the polar express" to us on christmas eve. we had the special edition version that came with a sleigh bell and she and my dad would pretend that they couldn't hear the bell ringing (if you've read the story, you know what i'm talking about.) we're now 21, 19 and 17 years old and i'm pretty sure we'll be breaking it out this christmas again.

What are some great holiday themed stories? I'd like to broaden my holiday library and collect more books we can read together as a family this time of year.

Of course, there is The Polar Express, 'Twis the Night Before Christmas, etc. I'm right in the middle of The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans. I read it every year. Anyone read his new one yet? The Gift. I'd like to read it.

We don't really have any family traditions related to books except that we used to always read Santa's Twin and try to find the snowman on each page. I still enjoy looking at the art in that book.

For myself, I always read Skipping Christmas around Thanksgiving and I read A Christmas Carol on the 23th or 24th.

It's a relatively new tradition, but the last couple years I've read and re-read David Baldacci's The Christmas Train. I think I'm going to add Grisham's Skipping Christmas to the list, it's a wonderful little story!