Advent: Celebrating the Season with Stories
A Guest Post
Last December, my family and I tried something new. I wrapped about 15 books and placed them on our table. Some were longer chapter books meant to be begun early, and some were books we could enjoy as a short read-aloud. It was a lovely and gentle way to celebrate the time leading up to Christmas. My children enjoyed choosing a new one every few days, and in between, we would read a chapter a day from a longer book or a short story from an anthology.
I am an avid home library builder, but it was my mother who started my love of Christmas books. As far back as I can remember, she would put a special stack of books out each year.
How excited I would be to see the books come out of our attic and take their place on our coffee table! Some were beautiful older picture books, but one was a collection, and each year I would gleefully open it to reread Christmas Every Day by William Dean Howells. I remembered this story well and told it to my own children each year. I was thrilled to come across a copy at a book sale a few months ago.
I also help run a small private lending library, and I knew from my own experiences as a mother that the demands on your time during the holiday season can feel overwhelming when they should feel joyous. With that in mind, I have been planning for this Christmas season all year. We have over one hundred Christmas and holiday books, and in early November, I began sorting and wrapping them.
I bought large rolls of paper in four colors, assigning each category a color: Christian, Secular, Collection, and Hard to Categorize. Color coding was so helpful, especially because I had to work wrapping books around my other responsibilities. There’s no way I would have remembered what was what without the different colors of paper! I also made a brief note for the books to hint at what might be inside while still allowing the book to be a surprise.
I already owned the Christmas with Anne collection (a gift from my Christmas book-loving mother) and this year added The L. M. Montgomery Christmas Collection. Since the two are similar but not identical, they are labeled “Christmas with puffed sleeves.” For cases where I have different versions of a classic, like ’Twas The Night Before Christmas and A Christmas Carol, I added the illustrator’s name so people could choose their favorite.
For my own family, I chose some books we had not read before and some favorites, which I labeled with our initials to set aside before any library members came to select books. Since we are usually the beta testers, this approach allows us to review the books for next year.
This year, we will be reading and reviewing The Christmas Reindeer by Thornton Burgess, Old Christmas by Washington Irving, and a new Christmas collection from Living Book Press.
A quiet and reflective Advent is rejuvenating, and we will unwrap new memories with each book over this coming season. “And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us!”
-Families United Lending Library
