25 Books Till Christmas (a picture book countdown)

psst...you can use library books

Hello! If you’re looking for a fun, easy, and free way to count down the days to Christmas, have you considered a picture book countdown?

Well, to be honest, I thought about it for years, but the idea of buying twenty-five books about Christmas and individually wrapping them felt overwhelming.

But you know what? Library books work, too! And you can just use one box, bag, or pillowcase that the kids open up each day to reveal the day’s new book. You can even put a DVD or a piece of paper with a movie title in the bag for some of the days. It doesn’t have a big complicated thing to be a sweet tradition.

Here’s the printable, if you want it:

Instead of doing a book club this month, each week I’ll share some of our family’s favorite Christmas-themed picture books. There are so many good Christmas books and better lists exist elsewhere—the big one on Can We Read comes out today—but these are some of my family’s tried-and-true favorites. We’ll share more each Wednesday until Christmas.

• Shooting at the Stars: The Christmas Truce of 1914 by John Hendrix (one of my very favorite illustrators!) tells the unbelievable story of opposing sides in WWI enjoying a moment of peace one Christmas Eve. It’s one of those rare sweet stories from something as awful as war, and it helps us think that maybe we can be kind to people who oppose us, because they’re almost certainly hurting, too.

• The Lump of Coal by Lemony Snicket and illustrated by Brett Helquist brings together the power team from A Series of Unfortunate Events to bring us a hilarious (and mildly meaningful) tale about a lump of coal who went out on his own. It’s so smartly written, and I can never think about Korean BBQ without thinking about this book.

• Great Joy by Kate DiCamillo and gorgeously illustrated by Bagram Ibatouline took my breath away. It’s a powerful, simple story about a girl who preparing for a Christmas play but who kept being distracted by her concerns for a man that no one else seemed to care about.

• Christmas Cookies by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrated by Jane Dyer is part of a lovely series of books that give simple explanations of powerful words, using cookies as the example. Each page invites conversation with your kid about their own experiences and feelings. I love this one (and all the other Cookie books by Rosenthal, who left an incredible legacy in the world of children’s books.)

• The Family Christmas Tree Book by Tomie dePaola tells a fairly thorough (and definitely interesting!) history of Christmas trees and why we decorate them. You should, of course, snatch up anything your library has by this author. You could almost do the whole 25-day countdown with exclusively Tomie’s Christmas books; he was prolific!

Movie Recommendation: Klaus (streaming on Netflix.)

Earning a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s the fictional origin story of Santa that none of us knew we needed. Klaus isn’t even the protagonist, but the plot is so good that it’s actually okay. The art is gorgeous and serious, the writing is fantastic, the cast is lovely…the creativity and depth are just wonderful and you leave the movie feeling like you grew as a person. It has some dark and sad parts so you might want to screen it first if you have young children. (Yep, it’s so good that it’s not an insult to an adult’s intelligence to watch it without children present.)

I hope this gave you some good ideas. I’m eager to share more in the next few weeks, and I would love to hear some of your favorite Christmas picture books and movies!

Warmly,

Hope from Family Scripts