Every year we have books on our Christmas gift lists. The whole family have their own tastes but there is always something to read in my gift stash. So, I thought I’d share some of our reading enjoyment with you to see if I can inspire more reading material for Christmas.

Magazines

I love my magazine subscriptions. Yes, it may be a little old fashioned when you can get so much information online, but it still doesn’t stop the excitement of getting a magazine through the door. My favourites are crochet and cooking magazines, but there are so many to choose from, they would suit any interest. I’ve so many Christmas crafts and cooking to be getting on with. And it’s not just for Christmas it would be the gift that keeps giving throughout the year. 

Advent Books

We love our Christmas Books but we haven’t done an advent calendar with books for a while because it does work better with picture books. You buy the books before Christmas and wrap them to be opened and read each day before Christmas Eve. It’s nice to buy Christmas themed books and it helps build up the excitement to the big day itself. But as you will be reading  one book a day, it’s easier with younger readers.

There are some more books that can be shared with older children on a daily basis on the run up to Christmas. I have read ‘The Christmas Mystery’ By Jostein Gaarder to my kids in the past, one chapter a day starting from December 1st. 

Manga

My kids love Manga and we always have some on gift lists. If you’ve not heard of Manga before, they are Japanese graphic books which can read like a regular graphic book but are often read the Japanese way from back to front. You can buy them for all ages, don’t think they are just for kids and do check the age range for reading them. Some of them may contain adult content not suitable for younger readers.

Christmas Reading.

Why not join in with a Christmas reading challenge like the one that Tea And Cake for the Soul is doing. You’ll have a bit of catching up to do because she actually started it in October, but you could just up your reading time for Christmas and instead of indulging in those Christmas movies, you could pick up a book instead. The books don’t need to be Christmas themed but there are a lot of books out there. You can read my review of The Gift, By Cecelia Ahern, a lovely, if a little strange, story leading up to Christmas time. 

How many books do you think you could fit in between now and Christmas, just think of them as a way of chilling out from all the Christmas preparation stress.

Christmas Classics.

Everybody knows a Christmas Story. My Little Man still loves a good Christmas themed picture book even though he’s getting a bit old for them. But honestly, whoever gets too old for Christmas stories. A few years ago I took the girls to a Christmas Carol Sing-a-long at the Birmingham Symphony Hall and Brian Blessed read ‘The Night Before Christmas’ to us all. I think we have about six different copies of that book.

This year I’m taking my girls to see The Nutcracker ballet. (I can barely contain my excitement) but I’ve yet to read the story. On Sunday morning I watched a film I’d not heard of before called The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. It starred Helen Mirran, Keira Knightly and Morgan Freeman. I guess I can understand why it wasn’t such a big hit as you would expect, but I enjoyed it all the same. The Nutcracker and The Mouse King is a novel written in 1816 by the German author E.T.A. Hoffmann.

Do you gift books or magazine subscriptions for Christmas? Do you read more at Christmas time?