Bookish & Craftastic Advent Ideas

The countdown to Christmas is about to begin, so here are some of my all-time favorite book-related and crafty ideas for a fun and meaningful Advent!

Book Advent~Every year I put away all of our Christmas and winter-themed books and then pull them out on the 1st of December to make a Picturebook Christmas Tree. We read one each evening for a bedtime book Advent tradition that my little bookworms look forward to year after year.

Another idea (from Detail Gal Blog) is to wrap books and put them under the tree so that as you read them and the space under the tree empties, excitement for Christmas morning builds!

Wrapping just the covers of picturebooks and lining them up on a mantle or bookshelf like a colorful little Christmas tree forest is another awesome Advent idea from Reading Confetti!

Here are some Christmas and winter-themed book suggestions:

Source: holyspiritledhomeschooling.net via Melissa Taylor, ImaginationSoup.net on Pinterest

And these free, printable Advent activity cards…

Source: addapinch.com via Melissa Taylor, ImaginationSoup.net on Pinterest

or these service-themed Advent cards…

Source: aliedwards.com via Melissa Taylor, ImaginationSoup.net on Pinterest

would be awesome with these vintage-looking library book pockets.

Source: notonthehighstreet.com via L.R. on Pinterest

This year we are making an ornament a day to give as gifts to family and friends in what I hope will become another fun and creative Advent tradition for our family. If you want to give it a try, too, you can find some cute ornament craft ideas here.

And for more ideas about how to make the holiday season fun-filled and meaningful, as well as keeping the joy and wonder of childhood alive for your little ones year round:

In a twist on the Advent theme, here is A Very Toddler Christmas~24 Tips for a Safe, Stress-Free & Jolly Holiday

The Spirit of Christmas… The Great Santa Claus Debate

Making gratitude and generosity a standard of life… 7 Tips and Traditions to Make Giving a Standard of Living

The Reason for the Season… Celebrating Jesus with a Santa Claus Christmas

A happy childhood sends a child into adulthood with a baggage of confidence and kindness instead of disillusionment and anger. 200 Ways to Bless Your Children with a Happy Childhood

The human brain needs time to process, categorize, prioritize, analyze, and otherwise make sense of all of the trillions of bits of information that it receives each day. Non-structured playtime for children functions much like sleep does for adults, giving their brains the time and space they need to move short-term memory to long-term learning. 25 Reasons NOT to Keep Children Busy

In the world of a child wonders are as simple as sticks and sheets, leaves and books, boxes and giggles, and the promise in a rainy day. The Seven Wonders of the World of Childhood

Children who love to read…READ! Engaging children’s hearts in the wonder of reading instead of just training their minds in its mechanics. Raising Bookworms

From hitting to defiance to tantrums to testing the boundaries and more, here are gentle parenting tools, tips, and techniques…Practical Gentle Discipline

Award-winnning author, L.R.Knost, is the founder and director of the children's rights advocacy and family consulting group, Little Hearts/Gentle Parenting Resources, and Editor-in-Chief of Holistic Parenting Magazine. Books by L.R.Knost include Whispers Through Time: Communication Through the Ages and Stages of Childhood ; Two Thousand Kisses a Day: Gentle Parenting Through the Ages and Stages ; The Gentle Parent: Positive, Practical, Effective Discipline ; and Jesus, the Gentle Parent: Gentle Christian Parenting the first four books in the Little Hearts Handbook gentle parenting series, and children’s picture books Petey’s Listening Ears and the soon-to-be-released Grumpykins series.