What I’ll be doing for Advent this year with the Kids (Truth in the Tinsel Remix)

I wondered if this year would be the year that we re-did all of the ornaments, but wisely decided that a craft everyday (or most days) may not work well for us this year.  Instead, we’re going to be doing the paper ornaments, but in a different kind of way.

I scoured the internet and my public library system for Christmas books that focused on the birth of Christ and were sure to be enjoyed by our wide range of attention spans. I requested most of them through the public library, and picked up a few of them at a used book sale last weekend. I wrapped them all and will be putting them under the tree once we put it up next weekend (yay!). Each morning (or evening?) the kids will find the book for the day, open it, and together we’ll read it.

To mark which books are which, we decided to use the Truth in the Tinsel paper ornaments. I printed them out on card stock, and was sure to include 3 ornaments for each day (one for each kid who can color :)). Each day we’ll start out by talking about the ornament, reading some Scripture, and then reading the Christmas book for the day. As I’m reading, they can choose to listen or to start working on their ornament. Most days we’ll probably end up coloring them with markers or crayons, but Amanda put up some fun ideas of other ways to do the paper ornaments that look really fun! We’ll be sure to do some of these when I’m feeling particularly energetic (i.e. the baby is sleeping well at night) :).

The hardest part of this was wrapping all the books :). Of course, I decided to catch up on Call the Midwife while I was wrapping, so perhaps that is why it took me so long!

In case this sounds like something you might want to do too, I’ll include the list of books that we are using. You will most likely find these books at your public library (or they will be able to help you request them if they don’t have them), so you don’t have to spend very much money on this at all. We had about 5 of these books that were given to us or that we bought at a used book sale last weekend.

The List:


1. Waiting for Christmas by Kathleen Long Bastrom
2. Room for a Little One by Martin Waddell
3. The Stars Came Out on Christmas by William Boniface
4. The Berenstain Bears and the Joy of Giving by Jan and Mike Berenstain
5. The Pine Tree Parable by Liz Curtis Higgs
6. A Christmas Goodnight by Nola Buck
7. The Legend of the Christmas Tree by Rick Osborne
8. The Something Wonderful by Karen Hill
9. The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg
10. The Small One, A Good Samaritan by Katherine Brown
11. The Gift of the Christmas Cookie by Dandi Daley Mackall
12. Song of the Stars by Sally Lloyd Jones
13. The Story of the Three Wise Kings by Tomie DePaola
14. On This Special Night by Claire Freedman
15. Tonight you are my Baby by Jeannine Q. Norris
16. Humphrey’s First Christmas by Carol Heyer
17. We Believe in Christmas by Karen Kingsbury
18. The Berenstain Bears Get Ready for Christmas by Jan and Mike Berenstain
19. God Gave us Christmas by Lisa Tawn Bergun
20. Cricket at the Manger by Edith Hope Fine
21. Christmas in the Barn by Margaret Wise Brown
22. The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado
23. The Very First Christmas by Paul L. Maler
24. The First Night by B.G. Hennessy

I hope this is a helpful list to you! Even if you don’t want to do one every day and do the whole wrapping thing, this is a list of Christ-centered Christmas books to help your child stay focused on the true celebration of Christmas.

**contains affiliate links**