Creating an Advent Calendar, Picture-Book Style

I’m so excited to participate in this year’s Advent Tour (hosted by the lovely Kelly and Marg), since I have the perfect topic! In November, I came across a neat idea for a book advent calendar on Apartment Therapy. I immediately decided I wanted to do something similar for my five-year-old niece this year, so I sprang into action and ended up quite happy with the result. Here’s how to make your own picture book advent calendar in three easy steps.

Additional Materials

Wrapping Paper

Ribbon

Animal Sidekick (optional)

Step One: Get the books.

I spent a couple hours researching winter and Christmas-themed picture books (my niece has never been to church, as my sister is not religious, so I wasn’t particularly concerned about a Jesus-focus, but I also didn’t limit my list to secular-only topics). As regular readers know, there’s nothing I love more than putting together a themed reading list, so I had a ton of fun! Because I’m committed to diversity and feminism, it took a bit longer to ferret out books featuring non-mainstream characters (aka, most of the books I first read about centered on WASP American boys), but in the end I was happy with my list. Then came the challenging part: since I’m not independently wealthy, I was relying on the library for the books. Since we have three week checkout periods, and two renewals per book as long as they weren’t on hold, I wasn’t too worried about books being overdue before being unwrapped, but I did have to time my hold requests so as to be early enough to beat out other parents/guardians/etc. interested in Christmas books but late enough that I could pick them up just before December to make them due as late as possible. In the end, I managed, and on November 29th I went to pick up the loot.

Step Two: Transform them into a calendar.

Meanwhile, I’d also bought two rolls of pretty holiday-themed wrapping paper, a roll of plain brown packaging paper, and big spools of red ribbon and natural twine (I like the rustic look). Once I had all of my books, I became a wrapping machine! I’m not going to lie, this took several hours, so make sure you have some good DVDs/audiobooks/etc. lined up as entertainment. Once I finally had all of them wrapped, I added ribbon or twine in simple bows according to this video because my niece hates it when she can’t get the things untied! Next, I numbered them, using little cut-out circles on the decorate paper. Finally, I lined them up in a pretty wicker basket my mom usually uses for magazines and added some more ribbon/twine to it

Step Three: Enjoy!

Once I’d finally finished, I admired the effect in a haze of self-congratulation. ;) My niece loves it, although now that we’re about halfway through, she’s chastised me for not having all animal-themed books (unfortunately, being an aunt does not grant you psychic powers as to which books will be your niece’s favourite). Her absolute favourite so far is Anne Mueke and Nathan Hale’s The Dinosaur’s Night Before Christmas, which includes a hilarious appendix of dinosaur-themed rewritings of classic Christmas carols. We’ve been singing them every night!

All in all, I’d definitely recommend this if you have a few hours to spare in November and want to delight a child in your life! Since I used my (incredible) public library, the only expense was for the paper and ribbon: it ended up coming in at $15. I’m sure I’ll be doing another version next year, probably with more animal books! ;) In case you’re curious, I’ve added a full list of the books I used at the bottom of this post; while they were all listed as being in a five-year-old appropriate age bracket, we’ve found some of them are actually a bit old for her. But this is a good launching off place at least! Also, I’ve just copied and pasted the books from my library’s site, so sorry about the titles that don’t have illustrator acknowledgements. And yes, there’s more than twenty-four titles: I decided to go up through Christmas day since my niece doesn’t like that advent calendars end on the 24th, I wrapped up one for her to undo on November 30th since I was out of town the first week of December, and then I ended up with one ‘bonus’ that I just marked with a star instead of a number.

Advent Picture Books 2011

• Mim’s Christmas Jam by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Brian Pinkney.
• The Christmas Witch, story and pictures by Steven Kellogg.
• Federico and the Magi’s gift : a Latin American Christmas story by Beatriz Vidal
• The All-I’ll-Ever-Want Christmas Doll, written by Patricia C. McKissack, illustrated by Jerry Pinkn
• Grandma’s Gift by Eric Velasquez.
• Baboushka and the Three Kings by Ruth Robbins, illustrated by Nicolas Sidjokov
• Snowbear’s Christmas Countdown by Theresa Smythe
• La Noche Buena : a Christmas Story by Antonio Sacré, illustrated by Angela Domínguez
• The Dinosaurs’ Night Before Christmas by Anne Muecke, illustrated by Nathan Hale
• The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree : an Appalachian Story by Gloria Houston
• Christmas Magic by Michael Garland
• Tree of Cranes, written and illustrated by Allen Say
• The Best Christmas Ever by Chih-Yuan Chen
• Erik and the Christmas Horse by Hans Peterson, translated from the Swedish by Christine Hyatt
• I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas, words and music by John Rox, illustrated by Bruce Whatley
• The Snow Angel by Christine Leeson, illustrated by Jane Chapman
• Auntie Claus by Elise Primavera
• Santa Claus : the World’s Number One Toy Expert by Marla Frazee
• Jingle Bells, written and illustrated by Iza Trapani
• In the Snow, written and illustrated by Huy Voun Lee
• Willow and the Snow Day Dance by Denise Brennan-Nelson ; illustrated by Cyd Moore
• Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett
• An Amish Christmas by Richard Ammon, illustrated by Pamela Patrick
• The Mitten : a Ukrainian Folktale, adapted and illustrated by Jan Brett
• The Polar Express, written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg
• Jeannette Claus Saves Christmas by Douglas Rees, illustrated by Olivier Latyk
• The Miracle of the First Poinsettia : a Mexican Christmas Story written by Joanne Oppenheim