Our 24 Books of Christmas Tradition (And How to Start Your Own)

There’s something extra special about becoming the person responsible for the Christmas magic once you become a parents. The traditions you start and the little things you do year after year, the same decorations, the same movies, the same silly routines, slowly becoming what Christmas is to them.

One of my favourite Christmas traditions I started with my kids is wrapping 24 Christmas books for December. Each night leading up to Christmas, we unwrap one book and read it together. Some are old favourites we’ve read a dozen times, some are newer additions to our collection, and every December they come out again.

It sounds elaborate, but it really doesn’t have to be. You don’t need to buy 24 new books every December (please don’t!), and you don’t even need 24 books to start. The magic isn’t in having the perfect collection, it’s in creating intentional moments your kids can look forward to every night.

Here’s how our 24 Books of Christmas tradition works, why I love it so much, and how you can make it work for your own family.

What is our 24 Books tradition?

In our house it ties into our December 1st Box tradition, when our elves bring the December 1st Box, they also bring a box of 24 wrapped and numbered Christmas books for us to read as a family every night leading up until Christmas Eve. It’s part of how we try to make the month of December feel very festive right from from the beginning. I wrap all the book in the same paper that I do not use for any presents for anything else to not ruin the magic of them coming straight from the North Pole library. Once a book has been opened my kids are free to look at it at any time throughout the month, but because they are “borrowed” from the elves they must be gathered up in good condition by Christmas Eve for the elves to return to the library.

You Don’t Need to Buy 24 New Christmas Books

We don’t even buy 1 new book every single year, we just add a book here and there as our kids age to keep them fun and age appropriate. But even to start this tradition you do not have to go out and buy 24 new books. I started this tradition with 12 books and we read one every other day. The thrift store is a great resource for inexpensive Christmas books where you can get a big chunk of your 24 books for inexpensive, or you could even ask friends or people in your community if they have any they no longer need.

How to Chose Your Books

Our book collection is a mix of classic Christmas books as well sentimental and funny books. For me this tradition is about continuing to foster my kids love for reading as well keeping every one in the Christmas spirit so mixing books that your kids love with books that touch on the important things that Christmas is about is a nice balance. I also love to find books from series’ that my kids love year round that also have Christmas editions. It helps them get even more excited about unwrapping a book every day when they are anticipating which day they might unwrap the Little Blue Truck Christmas book.

Our Families Favourite Books

It can be a little overwhelming to choose a few books to start a new collection with so many options out there, so I thought I would include a list of some of our families tried and trues. These are the books that my kids look forward to reading together every year:

• The Little Blue Truck’s Christmas: We all love The Little Blue Truck books in this house, but this one is a particular favourite especially with the twinkling lights on the last page.
• How to Catch a Snowman: This series is so much fun and we have several of them now for various occasions.
• Gary: The Farting Gingerbread Man: I love including some funny books in our rotation and with kids, stories about farts never miss.
• How The Grinch Stole Christmas: This book is both a classic and a favourite in our house.
• The Night Before Christmas: of course we can’t forget this classic. This book is always book number 24 and we read it together in Christmas pajamas before going to bed on Christmas Eve.
• Bear Stays Up For Christmas: This is a really sweet story about friends helping each other that even I look forward to reading each year.
• The Berenstain Bears and the The Joy of Giving: the Berenstain Bears are a classic in our reading year round, and this is a great story to start the discussion about the joy and importance of giving to others at Christmas time.
• Construction Site on Christmas Night: If you have a little boy you may know all about the obsession with machines, he loves anything to do with them so of course we have to a book with machines in our Christmas collection.
• Moo Baa Fa la la la la: while my son is starting to outgrow Sandra Boynton books, my daughter will still enjoy them for a few years so this will stay in the collection for now. If you have toddlers and babies this is a GREAT book to consider.
• Christmas Parade: another great Sandra Boynton book for younger kids! This one is so fun.
• The Snowy Day: this story isn’t necessarily “Christmas” but we include it anyways as it’s a sweet seasonal story
• That’s Not My Snowman: this is a super cute touch and feel board book for younger kids and babies!

What if You Don’t Have 24 Books?

You truly don’t need to have 24 different Christmas books to start this tradition. If you only have a few you could start the tradition closer to Christmas, if you have 5 books start with the 5 days leading up to Christmas instead. You could also make it a weekend tradition, or every other day like I did the first couple of years. Modify it however you need to fit your family and the amount of books you DO have. You could even borrow the books from your local library to avoid having to buy any books at all!

Make the Tradition Your Own

Don’t be afraid to take this tradition and change it in whichever way you need to fit your family, I use numbered advent stickers on my books, but maybe you would like to leave them unnumbered and have the selection be random so it’s a surprise every day even for you! I use one collection of books that my family all reads together, but if your kids have a wide age gap maybe you would want to do separate collections and have each age group open a book on alternating days to keep it affordable. The ways you can adapt this tradition for your family are endless, and if you find that something isn’t working one year, go ahead and change it. After all, it’s your tradition.

Why We Keep Doing It Every Year

It’s so important to me that I do everything I can to try to keep my kids loving reading so I will take any opportunity I can to get them excited about it. I also really love this tradition because it helps to add to the magic of the Christmas of the season and easily carves out some intentional time for us to spend together every day. I hope that even when they know all the words to The Night Before Christmas by heart, that they will still look forward every year to getting into out matching pajamas, and snuggling up on the couch beside the Christmas to read it together year after year the way I remember reading it as a child with my own mom.

The 24 Books of Christmas has become one of those traditions that feels like such a big part of December in our house, even though it’s incredibly simple. There’s no elaborate activity to plan every night and no expectation that every book has to be new or special. We unwrap a book, curl up together, and read.

If you want to start your own Christmas book tradition, start with what you have. Wrap five books, borrow them from the library. Read the same favourites every year. Add a book or two to your collection when you find one you love. Over time those familiar stories become part of your family’s Christmas all on their own.

Years from now, my kids probably won’t remember every gift they opened, but I hope they’ll remember digging through the pile to choose that night’s book, wondering which story was hiding under the paper, and reading together while we counted down the days until Christmas.

Sometimes the traditions that become the most meaningful are the simplest ones we just keep doing.