Christmas in July – Book Advent

Happy Christmas in July friends! I know it’s technically August 3rd, I’m running a little behind, but I really wanted to share this idea with you. It’s a really good idea!

Last year, my good friend RR over at Rookie Roadsters, told me that she had made her kids a Christmas picture book advent. She wrapped up 25 Christmas picture books and her kids got to open one each evening for read-aloud before bedtime beginning December 1st. I’ve seen the idea around before, and had another friend, JG, do it as well. The clincher of RR’s idea, was that she had purchased all of the books at thrift stores for a dollar or less apiece! Sheer genius!

Obviously, I had to copy her idea but I didn’t have time for Christmas 2020. I decided that if I started in January 2021, by Christmas 2021, I would have 25 books. Believe it or not, I had 25 books by March! I kept on shopping until I had 50 books by May. I gave a set of 25 to a friend. And then I stopped shopping.

I’ve seen this idea on Pinterest and there are so many cute ideas of how to wrap and display the books. I opted to use brown craft paper that had come in packages in the mail from Amazon and other online retailers. Using brown craft paper is eco-friendly because you get to reuse it and you can recycle it when you’re done. ♻️

Wrapping 25 books is a rather daunting task, so I’ve been purchasing a few books at a time and wrapping them as I go. If you wrap 5 books per weekend you’ll be done before you know it!

I tied up the packages with jute cord from Dollar Tree to go with the rustic theme. “Brown paper packages tied up with string”, anyone? They certainly are one of my favorite things!

I feel like the simplicity of the wrapping helps me remember the simple true meaning of Christmas. I hope this simplicity reminds me not to get too caught up in the commercialism of the Holiday season.

Add to the simple wrapping these adorable (free printable) candy cane stripe advent tags from Lansdowne Life and voila!

Now it’s the beginning of August, and if you wanted to do this project I think you still have time to pull it off before Christmas 2021. I think any kids under the age of 100 would enjoy it! For a little over $25 you can give the gift of a simple advent activity, encourage a love of literature, and help make warm snuggly holiday memories of reading stories together.

Happy last few weeks of summer friends!