Happy First Sunday of Advent!
I apologize for taking so long to get this year's Advent labels created and uploaded to share! Our college kids were able to make the trip home for Thanksgiving and I didn't want to spend time blogging while they were here... The visit flew by, but at least they'll be home again in 3 1/2 weeks for Christmas break! If you could please pray for their safe travels today. Thankfully the weather is much better than it was last Tuesday and hopefully the Save-a-Deer Whistles Sean added to the front of the minivan will keep the deer (and elk, moose, etc) from jumping out into the road too... I'll be praying to their guardian angels all day!
Anyway... back to Advent!
The length of Advent always varies from 22-28 days, beginning with the Sunday nearest to the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle (November 30th) and embracing four Sundays. The first day of Advent can fall as early as November 27th or as late as December 3rd. This year Advent begins on Sunday, November 28th.
Every Advent our family counts down the days until Christmas with picture books, Advent Calendars, and the Jesse Tree. Years ago, when we didn't have enough Christmas themed picture books to wrap one for each day of Advent, I would check some Christmas books out from the library just before Advent began, using Christmas Mosaic as a guide. We have added many books to our home library since then, giving one Christmas themed book to each of our children on the feast of St. Nicholas, and our collection has definitely grown. (You can find this year's St. Nick books here!)
The length of Advent always varies from 22-28 days, beginning with the Sunday nearest to the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle (November 30th) and embracing four Sundays. The first day of Advent can fall as early as November 27th or as late as December 3rd. This year Advent begins on Sunday, November 28th.
I currently keep all of our Christmas picture books on the bottom two shelves of a corner bookshelf upstairs in our school room... In the past I have filled our Advent basket with Christmas Mosaic titles and our children's 35 Favorite Christmas Picture Books. One year I picked twenty-six of MY favorites (although I still find new favorites to add to my list each year!) and one year I left the choosing up to my husband and our oldest daughter. We've had great lists the last few years too: 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.
I'm running behind this year so I had some of our children help pick out this year's books, with their youngest siblings in mind. Now I need to go and get them all wrapped while the babies nap!
Here's what's getting wrapped up for this year:
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Advent Book Basket
November 28 - 1st Sunday of Advent: Saved by the Lamb - set up Advent Calendars and Jesse Tree
November 29 - A Child's Christmas ABC
November 30 - Feast of St. Andrew: The Tree That's Meant to Be
December 1: A Wish to Be a Christmas Tree
December 2: My Wonderful Christmas Tree
December 3 - First Friday: Cobweb Christmas: The Tradition of Tinsel
December 4 - First Saturday: Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree
December 5 - 2nd Sunday of Advent: Santa Mouse - write letters to Christ Child/Saint Nicholas, bake Speculaas or St. Nicholas Cookies, and decorate St. Nicholas Chocolate Coins to give to others
December 6 - Feast of St. Nicholas: Saint Nicholas - The Real Story of Christmas Legend - St. Nicholas Brunch
December 7 - Feast of St. Ambrose: Santa Claus and the Three Bears - Bake a Honeycomb Cake
December 8 - Immaculate Conception: The Miracle of St. Nicholas - Decorate Christ Candle
December 9 - Feast of St. Juan Diego: How the Grinch Stole Christmas
December 10: A Small Miracle
December 11: Our Lady's Wardrobe - Holy Mass at Dawn, Our Lady of Guadalupe Brunch
December 12 - 3rd Sunday of Advent/Gaudete Sunday: Bambinelli Sunday
December 13 - Feast of St. Lucy: Hanna's Christmas
December 14: The Grumpy Old Ox
December 15 - Ember Wednesday: The Little Match Girl
December 16: Mary Engelbreit's Nutcracker
December 17 - O Sapientia and Ember Friday: Mortimer's Christmas Manger
December 18 - O Adonai and Ember Saturday: Who is Coming to Our House?
December 19 - 4th Sunday of Advent - O Radix Jesse: Gingerbread Pirates (The birthday boy has asked for a "pirate" theme this year... I'm going to order this book to wrap and slip in to the basket, unless anyone has a better suggestion?)
December 20 - O Clavis David: The Little Bell That Wouldn't Ring: A Christmas Story
December 21 - O Oriens and Winter Solstice: Winter is the Warmest Season
December 22 - O Rex Gentium: The Christmas Cookie Sprinkle Snitcher
December 23 - O Emmanuel: Home for Christmas (College kids finally fly home!)
December 24 - Vigil of Christmas: A Child's Christmas Counting Book (New for this year!)
As always, we'll unwrap and read one book each night during Advent, following our family rosary. The rest of our book collection will be placed in additional baskets to read during the seasons of Advent and Christmas.
If you'd like to use my little labels too, you can download my Advent Book Basket Labels for 2021 over at Dropbox.
.: ADVENT BOOK BASKET GIVEAWAY :.
Two BRAND NEW books from Sophia Press!
Enter the giveaway using the Rafflecopter box below:
For additional Christmas book suggestions you can find some of our lists in the archives:
You can find the rest of our booklists here.
P.S. There is still time to enter the St. Nicholas Giveaway