One of our favorite family traditions is The Christmas Book Basket. It’s a super simple tradition and yet it continues to be a favorite. Here’s how it came about. It started out with an advent twist – I used to wrap each book and put a cute number on it and then we’d open and read one every night from December 1-24. This was fun and sweet but it took a while to wrap them which is fine BUT the kids would be looking for specific books during the month and they were wrapped. One year I just ran out of time and put the books in our library book basket. The kids LOVED it and so it’s just stayed The Christmas Book Basket. I keep all of the Christmas, winter, and holiday books in a storage bin in the basement with the rest of the Christmas decorations and every year it’s the very first box that comes upstairs. The kids go through the books while we haul the rest of the decorations up. Then all month long the kids read the books, bring them to their rooms, and snuggle up under the tree and read the books next to the glow of the Christmas tree.

Want to put together a little Christmas Book Basket? Look for a basket that you can use (I linked up some affiliate links of what I use at the bottom of the post) and put it under your tree. Gather up all the books you have and put them in the basket. Each year I add a book or two to the basket and the kids inevitably get a holiday book or two for gifts. I linked up some of our favorites below if you’d like to see what we keep in our basket. The books are sorted by type of book – all are favorites and highly recommended!

Board Books

Who is Coming to Our House?

Christmas in the Manger

Llama Llama Jingle Bells

Dream Snow

The Mitten

Gingerbread Baby

Fa La La

The Three Snow Bears

Picture Books

Sugar Snow

Christmas In the Big Woods

Bear Stays Up for Christmas

The Christmas Wish

The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree : An Appalachian Story

An Orange for Frankie

Song of the Stars : A Christmas Story

Room for a Little One : A Christmas Tale

Mortimer’s Christmas Manger

Little Blue Truck’s Christmas

God Gave Us Christmas

The Animals’ Christmas Eve

The Night Before Christmas

The Jolly Christmas Postman

Snowmen at Christmas

Gingerbread Mouse

The Legend of the Poinsettia 

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Christmas is Here

A Pirate’s Night Before Christmas

Chapter Books

A Little House Christmas Treasury: Festive Holiday Stories

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

The True Gift

The Family Under the Bridge

Nancy and Plum

Winterfrost

The Box of Delights (New York Review Children’s Collection)

Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas

Stories Behind the Great Traditions of Christmas

The True Gift