There are many wonderful things I love about the Christmas season starting with nearly every single thing about it. I love the baking and decorating and wrapping and celebrating and eating and movie watching and even the cold doesn't bother me so much at Christmas. Last year, despite the pandemic, or maybe because of it and the greatly reduced gatherings, we had a fantastic Christmas season. I was very pleased with how all my decorating came out (since I had more time at home to do it) and we did all of our normal things for the 4 of us. That includes reading A LOT of Christmas themed picture books.
Christmas picture book season is a whole being into itself for me (and maybe one of my sisters). I take it VERY seriously and get such joy out of reading many (nearing 200) of the same picture books to my boys every year. I am not about to buy and store 200 picture books that we only look at about 6 weeks of the year. Which means we VERY HEAVILY use the library for this, even though our Christmas picture book collection grows by at least a few every year.
In news that should surprise exactly no one, I have a spreadsheet to track our library checkouts. Which is how I can tell you that from about mid-November until Christmas we checked out 282 items on the boys' and Matt's library card. The majority of those were Christmas picture books. At least 225 of them I would say. And it is not easy to find 200+ Christmas books to read and get them all from the library in a 5-6 week period without a little bit of planning and strategy. So here's mine, in case you are also interested in filling your house with Christmas picture books (it really is so delightful).
1) Source my (initial) list
Get a list. My starting point is my Seasonal-Christmas shelf on Goodreads where I go through everything I've rated 4-5 stars (I know when I'm rating books that I will only seek it out to read again if I've rated it 4 or 5 stars and thus rate accordingly.)
I've posted Christmas book lists here: The Nativity Story, Santa Stories, Animals Celebrating, Christmas Trees, {25} Christmas Picture Books.
Additionally, Everyday Reading is a FANTASTIC picture book resource (here's her 25 All-Time Favorite Christmas Picture Books list). I follow book.nerd.mommy on IG and she's always posting great suggestions too.
I learned last year that through our local library app, you can scan the ISBN barcodes on books and look them up in their catalog. I did that with all the Christmas books we read last year, saving them to a Christmas 2021 list, and thus saved myself a TON of time by having to type in all the 4-5 star reads from my Goodreads list. That library list currently stands at 166 books.
I will add to that 166, as I learn about new Christmas picture books. I LOVE reading some new books each year, always hoping to find some new favorites!
2) Try to anticipate what might hard to get
Once I have my list, in early November I start strategizing how I will get them. I do an initial scan to look for any that jump out as being hard to get last year or that I know I had to get on the list early to get (these are often the books I end up buying, the ones we really like that the library, inexplicitly only had 1-2 copies of). Those "hard to get" books will be among my first priority. I don't always guess this right but I try!
3) Sort what is available from my branch
Next I go through to list to pull out what is available at our local branch. I will get as many there as I can since I am there at least once a week. I don't want to waste precious holds on books I can pull myself.
4) Mid-November - go to the downtown library
About now I am looking at my calendar to figure out when I should go to the downtown library to pull as many as I can from their shelves. I rarely get anything there that's also on the shelf at my local branch but try to get 50ish of what is on the shelf at the main branch. A stroller is required for this, mainly for hauling books (at least with a 3 year old I can still pretend it's for him). I want my checkout period to go through Thanksgiving weekend.
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| After my initial 2020 Christmas picture book pulls, the huge stack on the right are all Christmas books. |
5) Mid-November - pull what I can from my branch
After I've done my big downtown pull I gradually start pulling from our local branch. Last year our library system shut down indoors (just curbside pickup) at close of Black Friday and I was there a few times that week loading up as many books as I could.
6) LOAD UP THOSE HOLDS before Thanksgiving
The books I can't pull from downtown or our local branch I'll start putting on hold. I know from my initial list run through which books this will be (in my planning I will have already separated out lists for the Christmas books to pull from our branch and the books I plan to get from downtown). We currently have 10 holds per card, I use my holds for my own books. Matt lets me use 4-8 of his holds (I need extras at the holidays) and then 20 between the boys. I will go twice a week to pickup books and place more on hold (if books are on the shelf at a branch I can usually get 2 sets a week) so somewhere around 16-20 picture book holds will come in twice a week, don't check my math, last year this all worked out for me!.
Besides the books that might be hard to get, I prioritize St. Nick stories (since that's early December) and Christmas tree books, since those are fun to read around the time we get our tree Thanksgiving weekend.
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| The day before Thanksgiving 2020, at max Christmas picture books, gearing up to start them the day after Thanksgiving! |
7) Read and Return
Our favorite Christmas books we own. Those are the ones that get read the most. Generally, the library books only get read once and then return. I'd say 60% of them are a one-time read and return. Maybe 20% of them get read twice and 20% stick around for a long time. Until I buy them and then we don't need to keep the library checkouts forever.
8) Renew all Christmas books every Friday
Finally, once we get into December I will try to renew ALL our Christmas books every single Friday so I know which books have holds on them (we have enough renewals that I will still get through the Christmas season as long as there are no holds). Those books we will try to read and get returned more quickly because I KNOW how annoying it is when you are trying to get many books in a small window of time and people are slow to pick up holds and then keep the entire checkout period. I KNOW, they are allowed but I also feel it's very courteous to help others out. There are definitely books we keep our whole 3 week period even when we've waited on hold for awhile but I try not to do that at Christmas since it's such a short time frame. Again, if it's one we really like I will probably end up buying it.
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And that's it! I now put about the same level of planning and execution into my Christmas picture book acquiring as I do into my Christmas baking (I really don't know if I spend more time baking Christmas cookies or reading Christmas books to my boys, IT'S CLOSE). I LOVE the Christmas season and cozying up with my boys and enjoying a big stack of books multiple times a week (and smaller stacks a few more times a week), in front of the Christmas tree, under blankets is just so wonderful and soothing for us all. It makes us slow down and connect over something positive and cheerful instead of fights over homework and chores and screentime. Christmas picture books rank right up there as some of my favorite parts of the season.
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