Monday, December 6, 2010

Santa Books!

one of my favorite traditions….Santa Books!!

Over the years i have bought almost 100 Christmas books…consignment stores, tag sales, after Christmas sales and i store them in a box all year….starting Dec.1st i pick 2 books and place them under the tree every night until Christmas…usually while the kiddos are taking a bath or brushing their teeth…when they are all ready for bed they can get their books!

we save The Night Before Christmas for Christmas Eve of course!

traditionssantabooks

elf on the shelf arrives every year….and every year my kids are scared of him for the first couple of nights….

tradtions   

the thought of this guy flying around at night doesn’t settle well with them. the first night cooper slept with his head under the covers and Caroline wrote “do not enter” signs for her door. Why do we torture our kids do you ask????  because by the 3rd night they think he is so magical….i catch them staring at him and waving ….now they love writing notes to him….they just needed a few boundaries set!!

traditionself 

2 ways we count down the days are with Mr. Santa…they move the candy cane up every day.

countingdownsanta and this year i found this cute printable here.

countingdown

8 comments:

Kerri said...

Special family memories and traditions your kids will always remember! I think it's funny the kids are afraid of the elf for a few days and wrote him notes! I can't believe how many people do the little elf guy...so fun!

Angie said...

It's so crazy- I've NEVER heard of the Elf guy until this year. It seems that everyone has done it. Such a cute tradition (along with the books) I wish I'd known about it before. ;)

sloan said...

I love that countdown santa with the candy cane that moves up! and i'm especially glad to hear that your kids aren't as freaked out by your elf anymore, things sounded pretty bleak when you commented last week after my "toddy" post - so glad they're hanging in there!!

Jenny said...

We have the Elf too, my kids are obsessed with getting up first to find his new location. It stinks if the Elf doesn't move ;) We also hide our Christmas books until December. Great minds think alike!

Jen said...

Love your looonnng Santa.
We have made the bearded Santa before too.
The book idea is my favorite. I can just picture them all clean and in PJ's coming down to find their books!
So sweet!!!!

Gabe said...

I love that book idea, we have so many Christmas book, too and we tend to just read the few favs of each kids. . .what a great way to get to read more of them!

Nicolle said...

Wow, you have a ton of Christmas books! I am going to start watching for them throughout the year too. I didn't think to do that. We have 7 books, so our collection is just starting! I had to chuckle about the kids being scared of the elf, and the note your daughter wrote! I'm glad they get used to him after a few days. :)

{cindy} said...

Oh we just love Christmas books too!
One of our favorites is Bear Wakes Up for Christmas!!
Enjoy the night