Book Advent Calendar

I've seen this idea floating around the Pinteresphere, and just knew I had to do this with my kiddos this year.  I loved the few years where we had an advent calendar as a kid.  Usually, it was just one of the simple little cardboard ones with little chocolates inside for each day, but there was something so exciting about opening up that little door to see what tiny treat and picture lay inside.  I've thought about  how to make some kind of advent calendar for my own children, and this one seemed just perfect.

The idea is simple (and only slightly time-consuming, especially if you don't like wrapping presents):  Wrap up 25 books and place them in a pile.  Open up one "present" from the stack each day, and choose a special place to read it together.  They don't need to be new books, although they obviously can be.  I've decided to wrap 25 of our favorite Christmas and winter stories that we already have here in the house, along with a few that we recently got out of the library.  (I'm just making sure that the library books are some of the earlier ones we open.)   I am also including a few books that aren't seasonal in any way that I got at our last library book sale for $.25 a piece.  I figured I'd put a few of these in the pile, too, just to mix it up and so that we have a few new stories to open up and read.  I'm putting our favorite seasonal books towards the beginning of the calendar, and some I can't wrap up at all because my kids already insist on reading them daily.  (I've read the Grinch to my daughter at naptime and bedtime every day for almost a week now!)  There are so many ways this could be done, but since we're getting our tree today, I'm hoping to start our tradition by opening up a new book each night before bed and reading it snuggled up by the tree.  Here is a picture of our finished "calendar", along with some of the titles that we will be opening together over the next 25 days:

The Mitten by Jan Brett
Merry Christmas, Big Hungry Bear! by Don and Audrey Wood
Henry and Mudge and the Sparkle Days by Cynthia Rylant
The Night Before Christmas Lift-the-Flap Storybook based on the tale by Clement C. Moore
Spot's First Christmas by Eric Hill
Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton
If You Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numeroff
The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett
The Polar Bear Son by Lydia Dabcovich
Winter's Gift by Jane Monroe Donovan
Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson
Merry Christmas, Curious George by H.A. Rey
Toot & Puddle Let It Snow by Hollie Hobbie
Toot & Puddle I'll Be Home for Christmas by Hollie Hobbie
The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett
Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
Christmas in the Country by Cynthia Rylant
Santa Mouse by Michael Brown
How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss