12 Days up to Christmas Reading

My oldest just started school this year and we are trying to get her to read as much as possible. With Christmas not too far away, I thought it would be a good idea to read a book each night leading up to Christmas Eve. Now, I had thought about doing 24 books but half way through wrapping, I decided to just stick with a simple 12 and do a "12 Days up to Christmas" reading each night with the kids. Trinity can help read the book to Daddy and her brothers, get practice and I can incorporate books on the "true meaning of Christmas." Granted, all of our books are not all on this and some are not even Christmas related but I wanted to use what I had on hand and not have to purchase any more books. I look forward to doing this with the kids in the years to come and starting many other traditions that they maybe they will do with their kids one day too. 

Here are the books I used:

I decided to get rid of all my Christmas wrapping paper to save space (I can't stand clutter) and wrap with craft paper. I love it because it is inexpensive ($2.5 @ Hobby Lobby) and I can just use ribbon, stamps, cutouts with my cricut or even let my kids color/paint on it. Here's what I did with the books:

I used the same idea with our Christmas presents this year too. I stamped the recipients name on the present, added some ribbon and let the kids do a Christmas craft on the back to be festive. That way it looks nice and neat (that's the OCD in me) under the tree and there is a little surprise on the back when the person goes to open it. Here is an example of one: 

It isn't the cutest out of the bunch but one of the first ones we did. I will do a post on those tomorrow.