This time of year, I crave slowing down, getting cozy, gentle light. It’s what prompted my no tech November nights1. There is so much bustle as we move into the holidays and I crave pausing even more.
It’s November 30, and for the first time in more than a decade, I will not be pulling the boxes and bags of holiday picture books to fill our book advent calendar. 2
For years, we’d open a numbered bag each day and sit, often right then, still in pajamas, before starting the day. On rushed days, we might wait until after school or bedtime to read the book, but we’d have point of slowing down and snuggles together every day in December.
December 2014
22 . . . 19 . . . 18 . . .12 . . .9 . . . 11 . . . 8 . . . 6
“Six!”
Even before the book is out of the cloth bag, jolly with gingerbread men, they start exclaiming, the little one peering over the big one’s shoulder.
“Oh, I LOVE that book!”
“Me too! I luv it”
And then “Can we read it now?”
I sit on the couch and snuggle in on either side of me, a red head resting on one side, the a blond one on the other. I melt into that middle.
“On Christmas eve, many years ago3,” I begin.
My big girl half shivers next to me, anticipating the rest of the story, and leans in a little closer. I smile and keep reading.
When I’m done reading, we sit for a minute in the warmth and light and quiet before, I prompt them, “Time to get ready.”
The sky, and with it the room, has brightened. The bus will be here soon. In the bright kitchen, I stir oatmeal and call out to the girls to get dressed, but throughout the day there is that moment of peace and warm light and maybe a little magic.
If you have little ones, I highly recommend this tradition. If you don’t but need a quiet daily moment in this season, I recommend it too.
Tomorrow we won’t find the first book, snuggle together on the couch and read it. I’ll miss that.
It’s hard to let go of a tradition you love, but I know it’s time. The past few years it’s been hard time-wise, interest-wise to sit and read the way we used to, but my kids did it, perhaps to humor me.
I’m thinking I might pull a 12 Days of Christmas mini version, pulling 12 of my favorites, taking a moment to read one each day. Maybe somebody will come sit with me, reading over my shoulder. Maybe I’ll read alone, with memories of Decembers past curled up beside me.
I first learned learned about Jolabokaflod on Facebook, sucked in by images of books wrapped in brown paper with bits of pine and candy canes tied on, mugs of hot cocoa in the soft background. I had no idea if it was a real thing, but I craved the idea of cozy and simple and slowing down. I mean books and chocolate on Christmas Eve in a season that did not stop?
“I’m in,” I thought every time I saw it, but we always had plans on Christmas Eve — church pageant and family or a neighbor’s open house. And then we didn’t. In 2020, we had no where to go, no one to see, so I suggested we do this, and because I have readers (and chocolate lovers), they agreed.
That year, our amazing local indie book store opened for private shopping hours. That year we had not browsed books in the library or a store for almost nine months. That year going in and looking at books was extra magical. And it’s how we started choosing our Christmas Eve books.
At some point in December, my kids and I go to a bookstore together, and outing I love even as it gets hard to find a time around practice and weekend activities. They make stacks of books they want to read, and I shoo them out of the store to choose one for each of them for Christmas Eve.
Last year, for the first time, they choose for me. I handed my daughter a stack of books I was considering and told her to pick one. At home, I handed her the wrapping paper, and I waited with anticipation to see what I would get. She chose well (and read the book after me.)
We sit by the fire in Christmas pjs, read, pass around and compare different flavors of chocolate4. It’s a delightful way to spend an evening.5
In 2020, we sat reading our books by the fire, A Charlie Brown Christmas CD playing in the background. After about half an hour, my youngest said, “Can we pause and say something about our books?” I glowed.
The next year, I asked my kids if they wanted to do it again, and it’s been an enthusiastic yes since. So even as the book Advent calendar fades, we have a bookish tradition for this season to look forward to, a time to slow down, get cozy, and read together.
Questions for you
What is your favorite holiday book?
What book would you recommend for a winter’s night read6?
It’s a busy time of year. The reading and letter writing and crafting I wanted was paired with sports awards and induction ceremonies and college panels, but I felt the intentionality in my evenings.
I loved this monthly intention — and we do a lot on our devices. I’d like to continue with no tech nights this winter (and beyond?), but I need a night or two a week where I don’t shut down, where I can fill out forms and order gifts and work on creative projects that include the computer. I’m going to try scheduling those so that I don’t just default into being on my lap top in front of the fire
Our book advent calendar consists of books we already own, doled out daily through the holiday season. I could have put the books in willy-nilly, but I enjoyed the puzzle of choosing the order.
The last day is always The Night Before Christmas and for years, since my sister passed it on to us, the night before that was The Night Before Dogmas.
Dear Rebecca Winter Is Here and A Winter’s Night Revel landed on or around solstice. (Later I added The Shortest Day.) Patricia Polacco’s Trees of the Dancing Goats was placed during Hanukkah.
My girls both have birthdays during the month, so I try to pick a book they love for their day. My son, Henry, died in December, so I put some thought into that anniversary as well. One year, I picked a long book that makes me cry and realized it was not a good ideas. Some years I pick Henry the Christmas Cat on that day; some years the lightest, shortest book to make it easier to get through.
Polar Express on the day we went to see Santa and the trains … The Biggest Christmas Tree Ever or one of the other tree books for the day we’d put up the tree … the favorites early in the month so they were available for rereads … Short books on the busiest days … The Christmas Book Flood, a picture book I bought in 2022 even though we are long past picture books and we are in fact flooded with books, on the day we did our book shopping outing.
In case you don’t recognize it, this is the opening to Polar Express. The copy I’ve read to my daughters is one my mom gave me years ago hoping I would always find the magic of Christmas and hear the bell.
If this feels almost too idyllic, please know that we read for about 40 minutes last year before somehow we ended up trying to deadlift each other, which had as laughing and sweating, fleece Christmas jammies abandoned for shorts. It was a very different vibe and energy, but also one forged by being together with phones and computers set aside for a bit.
Katherine May has some guidelines for picking books for gifting for Jolabokaflod. I have my own weird personal criteria. I like to pick a book for Christmas Eve that isn’t a sequel to something I’ve read or the latest release by an author I love. Despite a long list of books I want to read, it’s often a book not on my list. It’s always fiction and often has some magical realism or slight supernatural to it.
No posts
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.