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As you all know, I am addicted to Target’s after Christmas clearance.  I buy up lots of goodies on the cheap during those sales and share all my finds.  And I know you all wonder what I do with it all.  I know you do.

I’ve been snatching up every Christmas book I could find on clearance for two seasons now and I finally had enough to do a Christmas Advent Book Calendar.  Each night the boys (okay, just L) will open a book and we will read the story before bed.  I stole this idea off Pinterest (home of all good ideas) a few years back.  I have always wanted to do an Advent calendar, but didn’t want to do one filled with trinkets or candy or anything else.  I mean, let’s be honest, who needs more little crappy toys in their house?  So I used books.  And once we read them all this season, I plan to put them away and do this all over again in a few years!  Next year I think I am going to do an activity Advent calendar.  Like one day we’ll bake cookies, one day we will go on a Twinkle Tour (whether L likes it or not), etc.

And since I am linking with this week with I Love You More Than Carrots for “Hey, that’s Pin-tastic”, I should probably follow the rules and actually explain what I did.

1. Get 24 Books.   I went into the basement, got 24 books from my clearance hoard and that was that.  I bought all my books when they were between 50% and 90% off.  I would NOT recommend going out and buying 24 books full price.  The books I used probably would have cost $175 if I paid full price.  Umm, I think NOT.  If you are dying to do this this year, I’d suggest using books you already have any picking up a few new ones.

2. Wrap Books.  I picked up some brown craft paper (2 rolls) and wrapped all the books last night.  So ignore my crappy pictures.  I do all my best work when it’s dark out that’s not good picture taking time.

3. Label: I briefly considered buying some fancy pants labels from Etsy and quickly wised up.  I roamed around Target last night and came up with a super cute pack of labels for $0.99.  And guess how many labels were in the package?  Yep, 24.  It was clearly meant to be.  And I just numbered them with a Sharpie.  Nothing fancy.  Oh, I set aside “Twas the Night Before Christmas” and wrapped it last so that I could make sure that it was book #24 ;).  The rest I just wrapped and then slapped labels on later.

4. Find a Container: You’ll need to put your books somewhere.  I used a red beverage tub that, guess what, I got for 90% off.  See people, you never know what you are going to need.  So now the books are all done and neatly organized ;).

I think L is going to LOVE this and I cannot wait to start.  He loves reading bedtime stories and I think getting to open a new one every night is going to make going to bed so much fun.  Oh, and I also think this is going to help us with our Christmas countdown.  Now he’ll he able to see how many days are left till Christmas by looking at the books.  Do you do an advent calendar for the holidays?  Tell me about it!  And do you think your kids would be into a book one?