Our 2025 Christmas Countdown with Children's Books!

I love Christmas and am so excited that it is coming up! One of my favorite things to do this time of year is plan our family's annual countdown to Christmas. Each day between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I have our kids open a holiday-themed children's book. We read it together and do an activity (I like to have the activities and book correspond as often as possible).

I have spent years building up our library of Christmas books. Thriftbooks has been one of my favorite websites to do this with, and while we were working on our own stash of books, I often utilized our library's selection for this tradition.

While I start as soon as Thanksgiving is over (that has always been when Christmas "starts" for me, even growing up), it would also be very fun to do this tradition starting on December 1st.

If you want to try a similar tradition with your kids, I've made a few free printables to help, including a book list of the Christmas books we are using this year, a list of Christmas activity ideas, and a page to fill out what book and activity you want to do each day, whether you want to start right after Thanksgiving or on December 1. *The page to fill out link will let you make a copy to edit right on your computer, the other links are for printing off.

Here are some other printables (a blank printable calendar and printable chart rather than Google docs) to help you get organized:

December 2025 Calendar.pdf

Download PDF • 61KB

Christmas Countdown Chart .pdf

Download PDF • 127KB

Here is my plan for the Christmas season 2025:

Friday, November 28

Book to Unwrap: C is for Christmas by Tonya Skousen Arenaz

Activity: Holly Days

C is for Christmas is a poetic Christmas book with the most beautiful illustrations. I always read it on the first day of our countdown because it covers so much of Christmas. It is the perfect read as we're anticipating the Christmas season.

Each year, our community has a big event the day after Thanksgiving called Holly Days. They have activities going all day, including free bounce houses, popcorn, hot chocolate, hayrides, and train rides. I love to take the kids for a few hours in the afternoon (when it's warmest) before going home for movie night. If there aren't any local activities in your area the day after Thanksgiving, this is a good day to go window shopping and see all the store's decorations that are up or have pie for breakfast (we often do both of these as well!).

Saturday, November 29

Book to Unwrap: The Mismatched Nativity by Merrilee Boyack

Activity: Make a Paper Christmas Countdown Chain

The Mismatched Nativity is a cute book about a boy who moves to a new place where he doesn't have friends. A church teacher helps the class befriend the new boy by sharing different pieces of their nativities with him, until he has a full nativity. I love reading this book as we bring out our own nativity and other decorations.

I love having a visual countdown for the kids. I think it really helps them understand how long until the big day. I usually cut the paper strips in advance (we use red, green, and white paper). Then the kids get to pick what pattern they want with the colors and put their own chain together. We enjoy making the paper chain and then we hang them by our back door as a sort of decoration.

Sunday, November 30

Book to Unwrap: The Last Straw by Paula Palangi McDonald

Activity: Draw Service Names

The Last Straw is a book about a family who brings the Christmas spirit to their home by doing secret acts of service for each other, and when they do an act of service, they get to add a piece of hay to the manger for Christmas Eve. There's a twist at the end that makes me tear up every time I read it.

A few years ago, my father-in-law helped me make a wooden manger for our own secret service tradition. Before that, we used a cardboard box. For "hay", we actually use felt cut into strips while our kids are young. It was my husband's idea and every year I'm grateful for it as it is so easy to clean up every time the toddler empties it out.

For our tradition, each family member picks a name out of the hat and does secret acts of service for that person during the week, putting a piece of "straw" in the manger for each act. At the end of the week, we draw new names. My oldest daughter loves this activity every year and is in charge of helping us pick new names each Sunday. The kids love trying to make the manger as full as possible for baby Jesus (who gets laid in the manger on Christmas Eve).

Monday, December 1

Book to Unwrap: Little Blue Truck's Christmas by Alice Shertle

Activity: Decorate Kids' Tree

We are big Little Blue Truck fans at our house and my kids love the Christmas one! In the book, Little Blue Truck is delivering Christmas trees to his friends, and it finishes with light up Christmas lights.

I love having a tree for kids in their room. It's mini and cute and they are allowed to move the ornaments around all they want. We pull out a few "kid" ornaments we don't want on our tree downstairs for and then spend the morning making paper ornaments to put on their tree.

Tuesday, December 2

Book to Unwrap: Corduroy's Christmas Surprise by Lisa McMue

Activity: Write Letters to Santa

I have to admit that Corduroy's Christmas Surprise is not my favorite picture book, but the kids enjoy it and we've read it every year since my oldest was a toddler.

I love to pair the book with writing to Santa because throughout the story, Corduroy writes many different letters to Santa. I like to try to get letters to Santa in nice and early, so there aren't any surprises right before Christmas (which has happened to us before!). This year, I'm going to use one of these letters to Santa templates. Then I'll put them in an envelope that has their name on it to keep in my folders to look at in the future. On this day, we can also do some Santa themed activities together.

Wednesday, December 3

Book to Unwrap: The Christmas Wish by Lori Evert

Activity: Visit Santa

The Christmas Wish is such a fun book! The story follows a little girl who wants to be Santa's helper, so she is trying to find him. As she looks, she has a lot of animal friends help her along the way. The illustrations are photographs and really bring the book alive.

Our kids always love to visit Santa. This is one of the activities where we have to be flexible for when Santa visits are available (I think this is the day our church will have them, but if not, we'll find somewhere else). We also have some Santa-themed activities that we can do, and my kids often like to make a little present or note to take to Santa. My two oldest understand about Santa (it happened a lot earlier than I had wanted) and they still love visiting Santa.

Thursday, December 4

Book to Unwrap: Maple and Willow's Christmas Tree by Lori Nichols

Activity: Decorate the Christmas Tree

Maple and Willow's Christmas Tree is a new book we got last year that I love (I also love the original Maple and Willow books)! Maple and Willow are sisters who are so excited to get a real Christmas tree, but one of them might allergic! I love the way the book portrays sibling relationships and the way they work things out together. It's also the perfect book to read when decorating our tree.

With so many kids, decorating the tree is never a calm activity, but we do try to keep it simple. We turn on Christmas music and let the kids cover the tree with our ornaments while I try to turn off my perfectionism. (Of course, I do change things after the kids are in bed to even out the decorations).

Friday, December 5

Book to Unwrap: The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg

Activity: Polar Express Party

The Polar Express is a classic that we love reading every year! We purposely do this activity on a Friday so that we can watch the movie for movie night. We invite cousins, wear pajamas, and I prepare our own "train tickets" (I actually have them laminated, so we don't punch them, but I've seen many people who do punch their tickets at parties like this). Then we have a spread of treats and hot chocolate while we watch the movie. The kids look forward to this party all year and it's a pretty simple event to put together.

Saturday, December 6

Book to Unwrap: The Broken Ornament by Tony Diterlizzi

Activity: Make Ornaments as a Family

The Broken Ornament is a story about a boy who wants Christmas to be as big as possible, but in the process, he accidentally breaks his mother's special ornament. To make things right, he has to learn the true meaning of Christmas (there is "magic" in the book with a Christmas Elf appearing to the boy after he breaks the ornament). I love to pair this one with our tradition of making a new ornament every year.

When I was growing up, my mom bought us all an ornament each year. When Ben and I were newlyweds, we hardly had money for a gift for each other, much less buying things like ornaments. We decided to make an ornament together. My mom gave us the ornaments her grandmothers had made years ago and our tree became covered in beautiful, homemade ornaments. We've continued making new ornaments each year with our own children instead of buying ornaments and we've made such fun memories together doing so (though I also love other people's tradition of buying ornaments that have special meaning!).

Sunday December 7

Book to Unwrap: Mortimer's Christmas Manger by Jane Chapman

Activity: Decorate Gingerbread Houses

Mortimer's Christmas Manger is a cute book about a mouse looking for a place to belong. With a focus on the nativity scene, a gingerbread house plays a big part, making it the perfect book for our gingerbread house activity!

We have tried many ways of making gingerbread houses from making our own gingerbread to using premade kits to cutting up graham crackers. For us, graham crackers are by far the easiest method. Ben cuts the same pattern out of the graham cracker each year for me. Then I cut a base from a cardboard box, wrap it in tinfoil, and use my great grandma's frosting recipe (which makes the houses practically indestructible when it dries) to put the houses together before the kids come. Then we dump candy into bowls, get out store frosting for them to decorate with, and let them at it.

We also like to include an upside-down ice cream cone in the "yard" of each house and green (food-colored) frosting to make Christmas trees as well.

I also love these paper gingerbread houses for the kids to make or this paper activity and this writing activity I like to do these types of activities my kids the next day during school.

Monday, December 8

Book to Unwrap: Mouse's Christmas Gift by Mindy Baker

Activity: Make Cookies for Neighbor Gifts

Mouse's Christmas Gift is a sweet story about a mouse who brings a community together for Christmas. He's just a small mouse and does just a small act, but his actions have big ripples. I love the community aspect of this story and love to pair it with our neighbor gifts activity.

I love making Christmas cookies and I love doing neighbor gifts, so I make Christmas cookies to gift to neighbors every year. I take the whole day (and usually mix up some cookie dough the day before to chill overnight) and make several batches of several kinds of cookies and then distribute them to gift bags. I like to get out coloring pages for the kids and watch some Christmas movies while I bake. The next day, the kids help me deliver cookies up and down the street.

I usually make green cookies with Christmas M&M's (I use my chocolate chip cookie recipe and just replace the chips with M&M's), red chocolate chip cookies with white chocolate chips, snickerdoodles, peanut butter kiss cookies (rolled in sprinkles), and homemade Oreos with red and green frosting. I make big batches of all of them so I can do about 50 bags to deliver.

Tuesday, December 9

Book to Unwrap: A Christmas Dress for Ellen by Thomas S. Monson

Activity: Ninja Elves

If I had to pick one favorite Christmas book, A Christmas Dress for Ellen would be it. I can't make it through the book without crying several times. The story is about a destitute family and service that is given to bring them a Christmas miracle. I love reading this book as an introduction to talking to my kids about the way we give to a family in need.

One year, my husband's family decided that we didn't want to exchange gifts and wanted to instead use the money to help a local family in need. After I read the book with the kids, we talk about the specifics of the situation of the family we chose to help and the way they were helping them (in giving up extra gifts they didn't need to give that money to someone who really needed it). Every year, the kids have wanted to add money from their own piggy banks as well, and my heart loves to see the generosity of children. Once we've gathered the money from everyone who wants to participate, we let the kids be "ninja elves" and doorbell ditch it to the family. It's one of my very favorite traditions.

Wednesday, December 10

Book to Unwrap: The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg

Activity: Candy Cane Hunt

The Legend of the Candy Cane is a cute little story that ends with teaching how the candy cane symbolizes Christ. I love the story and the message of the book.

We always do a "candy cane" activity when we read this book. We start with a candy cane hunt--I hide candy canes around the house and then the kids search for them. Then they can eat one of the candy canes while I read the book to them. Sometimes we add in other activities. We've done some science experiments, measured candy canes, made paper candy canes, or made butter cookies into the shape of candy canes. This year, I want to be "candy cane bombers", where we leave a nice note with a candy cane on people's windshields.

Thursday, December 11

Book to Unwrap: The Gingerbread Doll by Susan Tews

Activity: Make Gingerbread Cookies

The Gingerbread Doll is a darling book we ran across at the library one year. It is set in the great depression, when a little girl's mom can't afford the doll she wants, so instead she makes one from gingerbread. It's a cute little story and perfect for when we make cookies.

We are big gingerbread fans at our house (I actually make it year round in the shape of dog bones as "Scooby snacks") and nothing says Christmas like the smell of gingerbread cookies. We make and decorate them every year. I use my great-grandmother's recipe and buy special decorating things like icing bags, Christmas M&M's for buttons, and sprinkles that look like eyes. We are not professional cookie decorators by any means, but we have fun with it.

Friday, December 12

Book to Unwrap: Christmas from Heaven by Tom Brokaw

Activity: Deliver Cards to Mailman, Policemen, etc.

Christmas from Heaven is a book about a pilot in the US Army Air Corps who notices German children in Berlin and decides to "candy bomb" them. The act grows into something bigger. The book is a beautiful story about service to others and includes real photos from the events described.

Each year, the kids love to make cards for local police officers and fire fighters as well as the mailman. We then deliver the cards and a bag of gingerbread cookies (that we made the day before) to them. I thought this book, talking about public service and workers who give so much to their community, would be appropriate for starting a conversation with the kids about why we do this act of service.

Saturday, December 13

Book to Unwrap: All the Colors of Christmas by Matthew Paul Turner

Activity: The Kids' Christmas Concert

All the Colors of Christmas explores Christmas through colors and poetry. I love the scope and feel of the book, from the illustrations to the rhythm while reading it to the Christmas themes shared. The feel of the book felt appropriate for this activity.

My kids are involved with a local theater class that has a Christmas concert each year. It's a big deal in our schedule because there are two dress rehearsals that weekend as well as the performance. Every year, I have planned another activity to do after the performance and every year, it's a struggle to get to it (or we just give up and don't get to it). Often, I end up doubling up on an activity later to get it in or simply count the concert as our activity, so this year, I am starting off by counting the concert as the activity. To make it special, we can go get ice cream or some sort of treat as a family afterwards.

Sunday, December 14

Book to Unwrap: The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry

Activity: Make Sibling Gifts

The Gift of the Magi is such a traditional story and I love it. The one we own has beautiful illustrations and uses the original text, so the old-fashioned language can be a little hard for my kids to follow. I help though, and they always light up when the twist at the end comes. Because of the focus on giving, it feels like the perfect book to pair with making gifts.

Having my kids make gifts, rather than buy them, for each other is a tradition I got from my aunt, and I love it. With four kids (we won't have the baby involved quite yet), we now have them draw names and make a gift for just one sibling. They love making the gift and get really excited about it, and usually the gifts are the kinds of things that we don't need to keep forever.

Monday, December 15

Book to Unwrap: How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss

Activity: Grinch Day

We read How the Grinch Stole Christmas every year and doing a "Grinch Day" with it has become a tradition over the last few years. We have some themed activities and food, read the book, and watch both the cartoon and the animated Grinch movie (I am not a fan of the live action, so we never watch that one, but we love both the others).

One activity we do is Grow the Grinch's Heart science. You put a red heart on a green balloon, put baking soda in the balloon, and then put the balloon over a water bottle with vinegar in it; when it reacts, the balloon fills up and the heart "grows". We also make grinch pancakes for breakfast and write letters to family members telling them something we love about them (and connect it to the heart growing three sizes). We learn how to draw the Grinch and later in the day, we have Grinch Rice Krispie Treats.

Tuesday, December 16

Book to Unwrap: A Birthday Party for Jesus by Susan Jones

Activity: Birthday Party for Jesus

A Birthday Party for Jesus follows a little rabbit who doesn't know what to give Jesus as a gift while all the animals prepare to celebrate his birthday. Along the way, he learns what is truly important to give.

A birthday party for Jesus is a tradition I've brought from my own childhood, and I love the chance to focus on Christ. We always have a treat, like cupcakes or pie, to put a candle in while we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. Then we each decide on a gift (something we want to change or a way we want to be better) and write them down. I found a present craft, with Jesus in the middle, that I really like and a poem. We end the night with watching The Christ Child on YouTube.

Wednesday, December 17

Book to Unwrap: Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl S. Buck

Activity: Make Gifts for Extended Family

I remember hearing this story when I was a child and loving it. It's a sweet story of a boy who learns how to serve and truly show love to his father at Christmas time. I like reading a story about giving and serving on the day that the kids are making gifts for family.

When my oldest was four or five, she wanted to make a gift for a lot of her extended family members. The next year, she and her younger sister wanted to, and it's become a tradition for all the kids since then. They always have an extensive list of people they want to give to, so I try to make it easy. I help the kids each write a short story, illustrate it, and then photocopy it for everyone on their list. Then I help them wrap and address each present. It's still a big job, but having one gift they can give everyone really helps make it manageable.

Thursday, December 18

Book to Unwrap: Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner

Activity: Snow Day

I love Snowmen at Christmas (and the original, Snowmen at Night). They are such cute stories imagining what snowmen might be doing while their makers are sleeping. The Christmas one has such a fun festive feel to it. I also like to read Harold at the North Pole on our snow day, because of the focus on snow.

Because I can't control the snow and I like to plan ahead (and some years, it doesn't snow where I live until Christmas Eve/Day), our snow day involves indoor activities like making paper snowflakes and playing with fake snow. My favorite thing is to make each person's name into a snowflake. When we're done with the snowflakes, we hang them on the ceiling of the kids' rooms. Some years, it lines up and we have real snow to play in as well!

Friday, December 19

Book to Unwrap: A Chrsitmas Carol by Jennifer Adams

Activity: Christmas Movie Party

These Babylit books are some of my favorites! A Christmas Carol is a short and sweet way to introduce the story to young kids. We also have a picture book of the Christmas Carol that tells the story for older kids that we'll read this day as well.

Having a Christmas Movie Party is a new tradition I'm trying out this year, though we have family movie night on Fridays throughout the whole year. I thought we could make this movie night a special one with special food (we always do breakfast for dinner, so I can make snowman pancakes or some sort of Christmas themed food) and wearing our Christmas pajamas for it. I can pop popcorn after dinner. I picked A Christmas Carol because I want to watch a version of the story for movie night this year.

Saturday, December 20

Book to Unwrap: Chicka Chicka Ho Ho Ho by William Bonoface

Activity: Look at Christmas Lights

We love the Chicka Chicka books at our house (the Halloween one is my favorite!) so when they came out with a Christmas one last year, I got it right away! It's a cute story about the letters getting to be decorations on the tree.

Driving around looking at Christmas lights is a tradition my kids all look forward to. I try to look up beforehand some neighborhoods that go all out or houses that have dancing lights. We often will pair it with stopping for a treat somewhere. The book and the activity today are only vaguely related because I wasn't sure what book matched up with this activity really well.

Sunday, December 21

Book to Unwrap: A World of Cookies for Santa by M. E. Furman

Activity: Make Cookies from Somewhere in the World

A World of Cookies is one of my favorite Christmas books. I love the idea of the book, with Santa visiting many different places around the world and tasting their Christmas treats. It's such a fun way to learn about traditions in different cultures.

In past years, I tried to take a day to set up different traditions from around the world for the kids to experience, but it's always proved too much for me. What we do instead is choose a recipe from the back of this book and try out some new cookies from around the world. Baking is something I love to do with the kids and it feels much simpler and more manageable. Plus, we all love trying the new cookies!

Monday, December 22

Book to Unwrap: Merry Christmas, Little Pookie by Sandra Boynton

Activity: Caroling

Sandra Boynton is one of my top children's books authors and we love all the Pookie books (again, the Halloween one is my favorite!). Merry Christmas, Little Pookie follows Pookie as he and his mother invite friends over for Christmas, ending with all of them caroling together.

My kids love to go caroling, so my husband and I rally ourselves to help them experience that. We invite cousins and whatever family the kids can talk into joining us and visit our nearest neighbors (we limit the number of houses to just a few). We pick a couple songs the kids all know, like Jingle Bells and We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and try to just have fun with it.

Tuesday, December 23

Book to Unwrap: Christmas Cookie Day by Tara Knudson

Activity: Make Sugar Cookies for Santa

Christmas Cookie Day is a cute but simple book about a Mama Bear and her son who make sugar cookies together. We always save this book for when we make sugar cookies.

Every year, we leave sugar cookies for Santa, and I like to make them the day before Christmas Eve so we can spend Christmas Eve morning relaxing. The kids take turns rolling out and using the cookie cutters and then I finish up after every child has had a turn (taking turns helps me keep my sanity while also allowing them to help). Then I let them decorate their own plate of cookies with store frosting and sprinkles and decorate the rest myself.

Wednesday, December 24

Book to Unwrap: The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore

Activity: Christmas Eve Traditions

This book is my favorite version of this traditional story. I love the illustrations in it, and it follows the traditional poem. For the rest of our countdown, we open each book in the morning, but we always save this book for right before bed on Christmas Eve.

Our Christmas Eve traditions start in the morning. We play games, especially video games like Mario Kart or Mario Party, after breakfast. We love to have the morning relaxing since our evening is busier.

In the afternoon, we go to our in-laws house for an early dinner. Some years we have done a fancy dinner and other years, we'll do the fancy dinner the Sunday before Christmas and do something like soup for dinner on Christmas Eve. After dinner, we act out the Nativity scene, one of my very favorite Christmas traditions.

Then it's usually time to go home. At home, we open one present. Right now, our tradition is to each get a new blanket (we get our Christmas pajamas after Thanksgiving so that we can wear them all season long). After getting on pajamas and snuggling in our blankies, we read The Night Before Christmas. Then we set out cookies for Santa and get the kids in bed.

Other Christmas Books We Love:

Our Christmas traditions are something that I love and look forward to every year. This sort of countdown is something that my personality as a mom thrives on. I would love to hear some of the traditions you as a mom thrive on and love! Let me know in the comments below!