Make some new Christmas Eve family traditions this year! Last year I read about Iceland’s Christmas Book Flood, and I knew that had to be a part of my family’s new Christmas traditions. (It is so popular in Iceland that this event actually dictates their publishing schedules!) Families gift each other books on December 24 and then spend all night reading their new books.
As lovers of books, we have adopted this into our own tradition, too. Each year my husband and I star a book on our Christmas lists and the other gets it and wraps it for Christmas Eve. We pick out a book that we think our daughters will enjoy reading before bed, too.
On Christmas Eve, instead of unwrapping the typical pajama gift, we unwrap books and sit by our fireplace drinking hot cocoa (or wine). We have a quiet evening reading our books before the hectic Christmas Day schedule begins the following morning.
Here is our list of great books for kids of all ages!
What Christmas Eve Traditions do you have? Tell us about them in the comments below.
Did you know?
The tradition of a Christmas Eve celebration derives from the fact that December 24th marks the culmination of the Advent period before Christmas that starts on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Eve. That’s why today many churches celebrate the end of Advent with a midnight church service. During modern times, this mass is celebrated on the night before Christmas Day.
