Dixie, reading through your book list gave me a little thrill of memories...All our kids are grown out of those books now, and I find myself missing that phase of childhood (mind you, my 16-year old just reread Paddington out of pure fun early yesterday morning and proclaimed what a superb book it was!). My daughter also greatly enjoyed The Saturdays, and The Light Princess was a her favorite book in Tessa Carman's Intro to English Literature class. My kids were also great Magic Treehouse fans and for one Christmas I actually created a boardgame filled with Trivia questions about all the books. I am sure your son will be delighted to receive the Redwall Cookbook! Thanks for sharing such festive book fun:)
I love this tradition! I might see if my family can squeeze this in. My girls are 16, 14, 12, and 2, and we always give them a book among their Christmas presents. Easter is another book-giving holiday for us as well.
For my teens, we've been really into books published by Enclave Publishing. They specialize in speculative fiction by Christian authors; my girls have loved all of the series that I've given them.
During the Advent season, we always do a read-aloud of the Jotham's Journey series, by Arnold Ytreeide. Each book is about a child(for instance, a lost shepherd boy) making his way to Bethlehem just in time for Jesus' birth, encountering adventures along the way. It's designed to be read one short chapter per day, along with a short devotional/discussion question, culminating in the discovery of baby Jesus on Christmas Day. The main character gets chased all around by bad guys, so it may be a little scary/intense for very small children. There are four books in the series, each of which follows a different child and their story, so you can read a new one each year.
The key is to keep the St. Nick's shoes thing simple/limited! Then it doesn't add to the glut but does add something to the celebrations in Advent that is really appropriate, rather than just too much early Christmas. We also have our children stick their wish lists into their shoes the night before for St. Nick to take.
I have read one of those Jotham's Journey books! Our favorite Adventy read-through is The Yule Tomte and the Little Rabbits, which is not religious (except for St. Lucy!) but is very fun. It's divided into short chapters to read day-by-day in December. We also often re-read Nancy & Plum aloud and I personally re-read Elizabeth Goudge's The Dean's Watch. I was lucky enough to rope a couple of friends into reading it with me this year, so we can have a little book discussion at Christmas!
Kind of fun that Advent actually lines up with Dec. 1-24 this year, isn't it? The "Advent" calendars actually match the liturgical season!
The Advent dates lining up with the December calendar is really special about this year! I'm an Advent calendar junkie, so this makes me extra excited 😆
It definitely makes things extra fun! I try to avoid the chocolate/food ones (which is so lame, I realize, but we try to be a little hesitant about daily treats during Advent) but I still secretly really like them. And there are so many other fun kinds, too!
We always get a cute candy calendar prepared by my mother-in-law, which we enjoy during our evening reading time. I also got a tea calendar for my husband and myself, because we usually have a cup of tea before bed anyway. And every year I get together with a few of my friends, and we each bring pre-wrapped goodies to divide among each of us for a custom friend-made Advent calendar! Usually, it's some kind of special cheese that we divide into snack sized portions and rewrap in wax paper. And we always include a cheat sheet with who brought what, so we can comment with each other. It's so fun!
My favorite non-food Advent calendars are the Jotham's Journey series, the Exit brand escape room game calendar, and Imagined Landscapes gnome mystery knit-along. I look forward to these every year!
Dixie I JUST bought my St. Nick's books yesterday, otherwise I could have used some of these suggestions! I need to buy Christmas books too though, so all is not lost ;-)
I didn't grow up doing St. Nicholas Day but we do it with our kids and in order to keep it manageable we do three things 1) nothing is wrapped 2) only three small items, one of which is a book and one is a small bag of chocolate coins and 3) the third item is often shoes, slippers, or socks that they likely already need. Oh, and on St. Nicholas Day we always read The Miracle of St. Nicholas by Gloria Whelan and The Legend of St. Nicholas by Demi, two beautiful picture books.
Finally, congratulations on submitting your book manuscript!! Such a huge milestone!
This post and the comments are lovely, Dixie! Thank you for the conversation. We enjoy many of the ones you listed. For board books and picture books of Christian nature, we really enjoy Kloria Publishing and Catechesis Books.
One simple treasure of seasonal artwork is A Promise Kept, published by Memoria Press. It tells the Nativity story simply with KJV Bible text alongside art classics.
PS - Currently raising a “chapter-book-per-night” daughter, may or may not be taking parenting notes when I read your work 😂
It is so hard to keep a kid like that in books! But it is certainly a good problem to have. My friend Monica (13) is like this (as is my own eldest daughter, as you may have gleaned) and her mom pays her in books for babysitting her younger siblings. I love that!
I love this idea to make St. Nicholas book focused. One year we did literary themed tea mugs and they’ve been a huge hit (also very practical bc each kid has their own cup) but you can only do that once (from a little shop called A Fine Quotation which you all would love, I’m sure).
But a new book is a very sustainable tradition and also might be a way to keep building our Christmas book library 🤔
Also, if you have a princess obsessed daughter have you read, The Twelve Dancing Princesses yet? I bet she’d love it. Apparently according to the Amazon reviews the main objection is that the hero has a mullet, which is actually true, ha! But I was just enamored with all the pretty dresses and shoes.
I remember reading that when my elder daughter was little, but I had forgotten! Thanks for the recommendation.
We have had years where we're done something different than books, before we made the book thing a fixed tradition. One year we gave them all watches in their shoes, I remember. It can be fun to switch it up! The mugs sounds great.
Aw, thanks! That particular story is one that has really worked its way into our family language. Just today Chris and I were riffing on "It is altogether a good thing to be light-footed...but it is altogether a bad thing to be light-minded."
Why post on substack, then have the booklist on Current who won't let me access without a paid subscription? Seriously? Was this just an oversight, I hope?
Rosey, I use my substack partly for original essays which I post on substack itself, but also as a newsletter or e-mail list through which I share my essays at other journals and magazines. Some of these, of course, do have paywalls; Current is one such place. However, Current does allow three free articles per month (I believe), so usually people are able to access my pieces without subscribing unless they have already used up those three opportunities.
I'm not the only person to use substack this way. It is relatively common for writers to share their work elsewhere via substack, along with writing essays that are only published on their 'stacks. I hope that by sharing my pieces at other places, the Hollow's readers will also get to know some of the other wonderful writing at these websites -- Current, Public Discourse, Hearth & Field, Front Porch Republic, and others!
Dixie, reading through your book list gave me a little thrill of memories...All our kids are grown out of those books now, and I find myself missing that phase of childhood (mind you, my 16-year old just reread Paddington out of pure fun early yesterday morning and proclaimed what a superb book it was!). My daughter also greatly enjoyed The Saturdays, and The Light Princess was a her favorite book in Tessa Carman's Intro to English Literature class. My kids were also great Magic Treehouse fans and for one Christmas I actually created a boardgame filled with Trivia questions about all the books. I am sure your son will be delighted to receive the Redwall Cookbook! Thanks for sharing such festive book fun:)
That sounds like a very fun game!
George MacDonald's stories are such treasures. They have that other-worldly quality.
I love this tradition! I might see if my family can squeeze this in. My girls are 16, 14, 12, and 2, and we always give them a book among their Christmas presents. Easter is another book-giving holiday for us as well.
For my teens, we've been really into books published by Enclave Publishing. They specialize in speculative fiction by Christian authors; my girls have loved all of the series that I've given them.
During the Advent season, we always do a read-aloud of the Jotham's Journey series, by Arnold Ytreeide. Each book is about a child(for instance, a lost shepherd boy) making his way to Bethlehem just in time for Jesus' birth, encountering adventures along the way. It's designed to be read one short chapter per day, along with a short devotional/discussion question, culminating in the discovery of baby Jesus on Christmas Day. The main character gets chased all around by bad guys, so it may be a little scary/intense for very small children. There are four books in the series, each of which follows a different child and their story, so you can read a new one each year.
The key is to keep the St. Nick's shoes thing simple/limited! Then it doesn't add to the glut but does add something to the celebrations in Advent that is really appropriate, rather than just too much early Christmas. We also have our children stick their wish lists into their shoes the night before for St. Nick to take.
I have read one of those Jotham's Journey books! Our favorite Adventy read-through is The Yule Tomte and the Little Rabbits, which is not religious (except for St. Lucy!) but is very fun. It's divided into short chapters to read day-by-day in December. We also often re-read Nancy & Plum aloud and I personally re-read Elizabeth Goudge's The Dean's Watch. I was lucky enough to rope a couple of friends into reading it with me this year, so we can have a little book discussion at Christmas!
Kind of fun that Advent actually lines up with Dec. 1-24 this year, isn't it? The "Advent" calendars actually match the liturgical season!
The Advent dates lining up with the December calendar is really special about this year! I'm an Advent calendar junkie, so this makes me extra excited 😆
It definitely makes things extra fun! I try to avoid the chocolate/food ones (which is so lame, I realize, but we try to be a little hesitant about daily treats during Advent) but I still secretly really like them. And there are so many other fun kinds, too!
We always get a cute candy calendar prepared by my mother-in-law, which we enjoy during our evening reading time. I also got a tea calendar for my husband and myself, because we usually have a cup of tea before bed anyway. And every year I get together with a few of my friends, and we each bring pre-wrapped goodies to divide among each of us for a custom friend-made Advent calendar! Usually, it's some kind of special cheese that we divide into snack sized portions and rewrap in wax paper. And we always include a cheat sheet with who brought what, so we can comment with each other. It's so fun!
My favorite non-food Advent calendars are the Jotham's Journey series, the Exit brand escape room game calendar, and Imagined Landscapes gnome mystery knit-along. I look forward to these every year!
Whoa..the friend-made one is a brilliant idea. What a great tradition! Wow!
Dixie I JUST bought my St. Nick's books yesterday, otherwise I could have used some of these suggestions! I need to buy Christmas books too though, so all is not lost ;-)
I didn't grow up doing St. Nicholas Day but we do it with our kids and in order to keep it manageable we do three things 1) nothing is wrapped 2) only three small items, one of which is a book and one is a small bag of chocolate coins and 3) the third item is often shoes, slippers, or socks that they likely already need. Oh, and on St. Nicholas Day we always read The Miracle of St. Nicholas by Gloria Whelan and The Legend of St. Nicholas by Demi, two beautiful picture books.
Finally, congratulations on submitting your book manuscript!! Such a huge milestone!
Thanks, Amy! I definitely am still in recovery from submitting the manuscript...whoof.
Sounds like you have a great St. Nick's tradition. We must be kindred spirits! I'm curious -- which books did you buy for this year's shoes?
This post and the comments are lovely, Dixie! Thank you for the conversation. We enjoy many of the ones you listed. For board books and picture books of Christian nature, we really enjoy Kloria Publishing and Catechesis Books.
One simple treasure of seasonal artwork is A Promise Kept, published by Memoria Press. It tells the Nativity story simply with KJV Bible text alongside art classics.
PS - Currently raising a “chapter-book-per-night” daughter, may or may not be taking parenting notes when I read your work 😂
It is so hard to keep a kid like that in books! But it is certainly a good problem to have. My friend Monica (13) is like this (as is my own eldest daughter, as you may have gleaned) and her mom pays her in books for babysitting her younger siblings. I love that!
A Promise Kept sounds lovely.
This version of Collodo’s Pinocchio is beautifully illustrated in the HC, and we agree, the story is so much richer than Disney!
The Adventures of Pinocchio... https://www.amazon.com/dp/1568461909?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
Wow, that edition looks gorgeous! I would definitely choose that one over the text-only one to which I had linked. Thanks!
I love this idea to make St. Nicholas book focused. One year we did literary themed tea mugs and they’ve been a huge hit (also very practical bc each kid has their own cup) but you can only do that once (from a little shop called A Fine Quotation which you all would love, I’m sure).
But a new book is a very sustainable tradition and also might be a way to keep building our Christmas book library 🤔
Also, if you have a princess obsessed daughter have you read, The Twelve Dancing Princesses yet? I bet she’d love it. Apparently according to the Amazon reviews the main objection is that the hero has a mullet, which is actually true, ha! But I was just enamored with all the pretty dresses and shoes.
https://www.amazon.com/Twelve-Dancing-Princesses-Ruth-Sanderson/dp/1566568641/ref=asc_df_1566568641?tag=bingshoppinga-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=80470617359217&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=m&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4584070149369969&psc=1
I remember reading that when my elder daughter was little, but I had forgotten! Thanks for the recommendation.
We have had years where we're done something different than books, before we made the book thing a fixed tradition. One year we gave them all watches in their shoes, I remember. It can be fun to switch it up! The mugs sounds great.
You always have the best recs! I'm so excited to buy that version of the Light Princess, I think it would be PERFECT for Christmas break.
Aw, thanks! That particular story is one that has really worked its way into our family language. Just today Chris and I were riffing on "It is altogether a good thing to be light-footed...but it is altogether a bad thing to be light-minded."
Why post on substack, then have the booklist on Current who won't let me access without a paid subscription? Seriously? Was this just an oversight, I hope?
Rosey, I use my substack partly for original essays which I post on substack itself, but also as a newsletter or e-mail list through which I share my essays at other journals and magazines. Some of these, of course, do have paywalls; Current is one such place. However, Current does allow three free articles per month (I believe), so usually people are able to access my pieces without subscribing unless they have already used up those three opportunities.
I'm not the only person to use substack this way. It is relatively common for writers to share their work elsewhere via substack, along with writing essays that are only published on their 'stacks. I hope that by sharing my pieces at other places, the Hollow's readers will also get to know some of the other wonderful writing at these websites -- Current, Public Discourse, Hearth & Field, Front Porch Republic, and others!
Have a good evening!