'Twas Two Weeks Before Christmas

   

     Our Christmas book collection is still slim. There are few remnants of toddler and baby birthday party goody-bag books featuring Elmo and the Yo Gabba Gabba crew, and a couple of classics that my daughter is just on the brink of being able to enjoy - The Polar Express (more on this one in a later post) and my favorite, 'Twas The Night Before Christmas (click here for my ode to this beautiful poem). Like last year, I could use a few more recommendations of Christmas picture books, but what I'm also interested in learning about is how you present these books this time of year.

     Last year, I heard from an old college friend, Katie Agron of Inspired Design, about how she stored away her Christmas books each season. Katie wrote, "I keep our holiday books tucked away and bring them out once a year. This makes the stories special and feel new each time we read them!"

   This seems simple enough, but not in our house. All holiday books - including those about Easter and Halloween ended up in the same bin, and I put the bin on a shelf that was too accessible to kids. So we didn't end up having that special experience of rediscovering the stories at this time of year, but oh well, you live and learn I guess, right?
    I have a lot to learn about design. In fact, Katie posted a a few more pics of how she displays books around her house (see below). This will be another one of my many New Year's resolutions - to rearrange the kids' books so that I can showcase the relevant few that they're interested in, or that reflect what's going on in their lives. What happens in our house is that books end up in piles all over the house. I restock the shelves when I can, but there is no system or order. One could argue we don't need a system for this, but I am just starting to feel like I'm continually adding to this massive collection of books, and I'm pretty sure they'll receive a few more at Christmas. So how do I ensure that we don't forget about meaningful books or stop reading those that we can still learn so much from just because they never reach the top of the pile? I think I need to weed out a few more before the holiday and be wary of over-consumption.

In the meantime, I am playing around with ways for my kids to "stumble upon" the Christmas books without making it too obvious. They are clustered together with a few other Christmas decorations - patiently waiting to be discovered, opened, and consumed sweetly by the tree. Instead, the reality is that I am shoving The Polar Express in their faces, urging: "don't you want mommy to read this to you? It's about a little boy who travels to the North Pole by train on Christmas Eve. You'll love it." The response is usually something like, "Is Christmas Eve tomorrow? When is Christmas?" which just goes to show that I think the demographic of this house is still a bit premature of truly grasping what this season is all about. It will only get better, I tell myself...