A few years ago before I had grandkids I saw this….
My immediate response was, “Ugh, that would be expensive but I LOVE the idea.”
Then I saw that my cousin Deb had done it for her grandson one year.
About August or so I thought about what I’d like to do for the Grandkids. We like to make up our mind and follow that through. For example, I bought Lucy a Bitty Baby from American Girl when she was born. For the next few Christmas’, I plan to buy her a new outfit for her doll….I’ll do that for all of the girl grandkids.
I decided to do the book idea only I decided I would do one set for Kalissa’s family and one for Buck’s family.  I knew I couldn’t afford to do it if I bought all new books so instead I started searching garage sales and thrift stores finding good quality books in very good shape with no writing inside.
I have good thrift stores and I allotted an appropriate amount of time. A couple times I found very good books that were $2 each but the majority of the books were 25 cents for a soft cover and 50 cents for a hard cover.
About November I realized I had quite a few board books that’s when I decided to make a set for Kelli too. That meant I had to get a few more books but that was all okay.
I found wrapping paper at the thrift store and started dreading the day I’d start wrapping. So the weekend before Thanksgiving Kelli was home. We were visiting with Karl at the table so I thought…why not make good use of our time. So Kelli and I wrapped while we chatted. We only wrapped Buck’s and Kalissa’s. It was so cute…she thought it was such a good, fun idea. Little did she know, I’d wrap a set later myself for her!
Here she is wrapping…..
I would guess I ended up spending around $50 for all of the books and the wrapping paper.
Speaking of children’s books, I just pulled out the kids’ Christmas books. They have loved them having some of them back. Here’s a few of our favorites.
Not a Christmas but a must have for a little girl
Little Mommy
I believe books are always a great gift.
When the grandkids were all home for Thanksgiving I sent their wrapped box of books home with them. Kelli was SHOCKED to see a bag for her. It was fun. She didn’t expect it at all.
If the kids end up liking it I’ll likely do it again in a couple years when they’ve outgrown some of the books.
We aren’t big gift givers buying fancy things but the collection and wrapping of the 25 books, was a lot of fun. I hope the grandkids enjoy it as much as I did.
I always get my daughter and her husband small surprise gifts. This year they have a new baby so we are giving each of the three a couple of books.
What a wonderful gift for the grands!! The best Nativity calendar as parents and children spend time every day together reading!! Plus it is something they can use all year long. When I was taking care of my granddaughters while both parents were deployed, my favorite time of day was bedtime…rocking the 17 month old to sleep and reading to the 7 year old just before she went to sleep. Wonderful memories for me.
*Advent Calendar…the name of it just came to me!
Always remember to check your local library. Most get donations during the year and are happy to send gently use books to a loving home for a small price. They also go thru their collections and discard into their used book sale. This is a nice idea but could also be shortened to fewer books easily. Each Sunday in Advent for example. And a mixed grouping would also be nice, not just Christmas.
What a wonderful idea! If I had grandkids I would want to do that too! Reading to children turns them into readers so what a great gift to give to a child….the gift of reading!
We’ve done something similar with the kids since they were born. All of our books were Christmas books and we just started 12 days before Christmas. We are all avid readers and before long had a collection of 24 Christmas books – enough for 2 books per night.
I did this same thing for my six year old granddaughter this Christmas! I was able to purchase a bag full of books for $1 our our library book sale this Fall. What fun it will be for her family and your children’s families.
I had not seen this before – what a great idea – but for next year! ;-)
I did this for my one and only four year old grandson this year. Our library had a book sale a few weeks ago. They advertised hardbacks for 50 cents and paperbacks for 25 cents. But when I went to check out they only charged me $3 total!!! Surprise!!!! You could fill a bag or box of any size for just $3!!!! I also purchased some special books online I wanted to give him. I wrote a little gift tag for each that included a hint about the book. My daughter is going to attach the gift tags to the inside front of each book. Thinking back, I should have written the notes in the books themselves.
That is a brilliant idea! My local grandson turns one in January. This is for sure happening next year.
Receiving the Anne of Green Gables books from my aunt in my pre-teens made a huge change in my vision of myself as a learner. BOOKS are always a great gift, but sometimes, hard to pick out for teen aged boys. :)
I don’t do the 25 books, but have always given my 6 Grands books at anytime I can! I see my two youngest ones regularly as we live in the same town, so get to read anytime I want to. Little Blue Truck is an absolute favorite of theirs and we have several of them in that series. Enjoy doing this as they are little only so long! Hugs to you & your family, Janine Baker
What a great idea! Its so hard to shop for gifts nowadays and things are so expensive.