My dad is finally getting his wish this year: We’re cutting our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. But my mom still draws the line somewhere, and we won’t decorate it until much closer to Christmas Day. For you see, it’s Advent, and this incredible time of preparation is deeply important to us.
Our advent rituals and traditions have certainly evolved and crystallized over the years, but one definite mainstay has always been books. Since I still have young siblings (though let’s be honest, I use the following system in my own home now), my mom incorporates the 120-plus picture books gathered from various libraries and our own bookshelves into the daily Advent calendar tradition. It works something like this: First, we collect all the Christmas and Advent books. Then, we figure out how many days are in that year’s Advent (27, if you count Christmas Eve, in 2021) and separate the books equally into that many piles. Books for various feast days, such as Tomie dePaola’s Our Lady of Guadalupe, will be added to the pile designated for that particular day. Finally, Mom wraps each pile in brown paper, ties it with twine, and labels it with the correct opening date. Time-intensive? Yes. But undeniably worth it to get excited as old friends are anticipated, unwrapped, and read throughout the whole season. I’d like to introduce you to some of these dear friends and have grouped my selections into four categories.
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