I had so much fun making my daughter a Christmas Bedtime Story Advent Calendar. Each day during December she will open a door and find a picture of a Christmas story. Most of the stories are picture books but I have also chosen Christmas stories from Teddy Robinson, My Naughty Little Sister and The Moomins.
To make our Christmas Bedtime Story Advent Calendar I downloaded a free template from Twinkl. I chose the Christmas books that I wanted to include then printed out pictures of the covers and stuck them onto the plain card template. (I took photos of the illustrations from the longer stories and I’m going to see if my daughter will guess which books they come from).
The stories that I chose come from our own collection and from the library:
- A Christmas Story by Brian Wildsmith
- The Jolly Christmas Postman by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
- Teddy Robinson Meets Father Christmas (from More About Teddy Robinson)
- Aliens Love Panta Claus by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort
- Mr Willowby’s Christmas Tree by Robert Barry
- Is It Christmas Yet? by Jane Chapman
- Socks for Santa by Adam and Charlotte Guillain and Lee Wildish
- The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
- Jingle Bells by Nick Butterworth
- The Fir Tree by Tove Jansson (from Tales from Moominvalley)
- Little Grey Rabbit’s Christmas by Alison Uttley and Margaret Tempest
- The Nutcracker by Susan Chandler and Kate Leake
- The Twelve Days of Christmas illustrated by Britta Teckentrup
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
- Lucy and Tom’s Christmas by Shirley Hughes
- The Fairytale Hairdresser and Father Christmas by Abie Longstaff and Lauren Beard
- The Naughtiest Story of All by Dorothy Edwards and Shirley Hughes (from My Naughty Little Sister)
- When It Snows by Richard Collingridge
- The Snowman by Raymond Briggs
- Stick Man by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler
- Mog’s Christmas by Judith Kerr
- Katie’s London Christmas by James Mayhew
- Refuge by Anne Booth and Sam Usher
- The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore and Mark Marshall
And here’s the finished Advent Calendar. I thought about asking my daughter to colour the cover but then decided to make her Christmas Bedtime Story Advent Calendar as a surprise!
Last year I wrapped twenty four books for our book tree advent calendar. I borrowed lots of new Christmas stories from the library and wrapped a mix of English and German books. Every day my daughter opened a parcel and we read the story at bedtime.
Christmas and Snowy (the two little men sitting on our book tree) brought books every day in 2013 and 2014. Not only did they bring books but they created a scene to go with each book. Some of my favourites include Stick Man ( with a stick family made from pipe cleaners), Mr Willowby’s Christmas Tree, The Night Before Christmas (they hung their socks up!) and Weihnachtskuchen für Allee (which led to a very messy baking session!).
I very much enjoyed putting together last year’s Advent Calendar on Story Snug. twenty four authors, illustrators and book bloggers told us which books they enjoyed reading at Christmas as well as telling us which book(s) they would like to find under their Christmas Tree. Their wintery choices, many unfamiliar to me, are pinned on our Pinterest board.
This year’s Story Snug Advent Calendar will be different again but you’ll have to wait until the end of November before I tell you more!
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