Every year I read the kids A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens in December, leading up to Christmas. This was a tradition we had in my house when I was a kid and I've so enjoyed continuing it. I'm not a huge re-reader of books generally, but I love both the well trodden lines I remember and expect of A Christmas Carol and the lines that resonate with me newly in any given year. I love reading it aloud, feeling the delicious words on my tongue and the energy of the characters on my breath.
And we've added on our own reading tradition. We also unwrap a holiday picture book each night in December until Christmas. When my kids were small, my mother gave me the entire holiday picture book collection from my childhood. I started wrapping up 24 of the books before putting everything away at the end of the season, so we would be surprised the next year as we unwrapped them. I do some planning. One of the Yes, Virginia books is always on Virginia's birthday. And the 24th is always T'was the Night Before Christmas. (I number the wrapped books.) Our collection of holiday books grew and then our family and tradition grew when my nephew was born. Now my sister and I wrap books for each other each year and we really don't know exactly what we're getting when we unwrap them! We're able to share our childhood books this way, as well as the books we intentionally add so that we don't have to put too many weird ones in the mix to get 48 wrapped books.
When I'm reading to the kids at night during the rest of the year, we mostly read novels now, with the occasional picture book when we're between novels. I think I've got several more years of reading A Christmas Carol left, but I'm not sure how much longer they'll want to unwrap picture books in December. Maybe awhile yet, for the sake of the tradition, and the many cute and fun picture books we have. But maybe not. Virginia starts middle school next year. I'm enjoying this season while it lasts. It is sweet.
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