An Easy DIY Book Advent Calendar

Advents calendars played a big part of my childhood during Christmas. It was exciting to wake up each morning and get a taste of milk chocolate before breakfast. I don’t ever recall there being options outside of chocolate calendars. Now you can get calendars with beauty products, lego pieces, tsum tsums, teas, wine (this is one I would love to buy), and basically a lot of things other than chocolate. So cool. Well, that got me thinking about Wendy’s advent calendar. She loves reading, so then I thought why not put together an easy DIY book advent calendar? I know she already has a pretty big book collection, but she doesn’t have many Christmas books.

So I ran over to the near thrift store and I searched online and found 24 Christmas-y children’s books. Pro tip: If you are looking to buy children’s books, check your local thrift shop. I have found so many brand new books. Like, the books haven’t ever been opened, they still have that fresh crack sound to them. Also, you’re being mindful of our planet since you are recycling. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, then the second best place would be Amazon. I found they had the best prices, especially for hardcovered kid’s books.

I chose to only wrap up hardcovers because little hands ripe through everything…quickly. So after I bought the books, I bought two rolls of gift wrap and started wrapping. I completed all the wrapping in one night, with a glass of wine, and Netflix on in the background. Then I found a cute Disney countdown magnet to keep track of the countdown, put all the wrapped books in a basket and set it by the tree. Then I set up her little chair and I was done. We now have a little spot by the tree where we’ll read together before bed.

I know a lot of people might number their books, but I wanted to keep it spontaneous for us. So each night, Wendy will be able to go to the basket and randomly pick a book. She already has her eyes set on a small square book…she keeps grabbing it out of the basket and bringing it to me. It’s rather cute.

So there you go, an advent calendar that encourages your family to spend a few minutes each night during this busy season, reading together. It’s so easy to be busy during Christmas, this countdown forces us to actually slow down and spend time together. Plus, Wendy gets super excited when she sees the wrapped books, and it just melts my heart. I’m now counting down to December because I can’t wait to see her get excited each night!

You don’t even have to stop at books, you could mix it up and create a family activity advent calendar, movies, cookie ingredients, the list can go on. I’ll be doing that next year for sure. The thing to remember is it’s more than just a countdown to one day, its 25 chances to create wonderful memories that will last for years.

So now I want to know how are you counting down to Christmas?