The 24 Books of Christmas: A Santa Mouse Tradition

The last Christmas we spent in our S&B (sticks and bricks) home was in 2013 and that was also the first year we started some solid traditions. My favorite of our traditions is a special little guy we call “Santa Mouse”. Now, Santa Mouse is completely invisible and can be different for each family. For some, he sneaks into the home each night and leaves a wrapped book laying on one of the beds waiting to be found sometime in the late evening. For others, he leaves all of the books wrapped up under the tree where the children can select a new book each night! Originally, our books were wrapped with one left on a bed each night but now that we are in the camper they are left unwrapped in a random location. It is up to the kids to find out where Santa Mouse left their book for the evening!

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We chose to change it up some because of a few things:

• Who in their right mind wants to wrap 24 books every.single.Christmas.? Just getting the gifts done and stored without tearing is considered a success in this camper!
• That is a lot of paper waste.
• We like to know which book is going to be opened so we can plan our December Activities accordingly. Want to see our activities list from last year? You can find that >here<!

I like to write Christmas and the year purchased on the back cover of each book. This lets us keep it a little special as we add a few books each year and build a full roatatable collection. We now have ones from 2013, 2014, and soon, 2015! I plan to give 24 Christmas books to each child the first year they celebrate Christmas with their own first child and am in love with the idea of them knowing when we bought them as well as when they were handed down. I hope they keep the tradition going by handing down their own collections to their own grandchildren for generations to come. Looking to start your own Santa Mouse tradition? Below, you can see the 24 books we will be reading together this year!

1. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (Illustrated by Brett Helquist)
2. A Christmas Prayer by Amy Parker
3. Berenstain Bears and the Joy of Giving by Jan Berenstain and Mike Berenstain
4. Chrismtas in the Manger by Felicia Bond and Nola Buck
5. Crazy About Mistletoe by Mark Gilroy
6. God Gave Us Chistmas by Lisa Tawn Bergren
7. Happy Birthday Jesus by Michelle Medlock Adams
8. How Santa Got His Job by Stephen Krensky
9. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
10. Jolly Christmas Postman by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
11. Merry Christmas Mouse by Laura Numeroff
12. Room For a Little One by Jason Cockcroft and Martin Waddell
13. Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner
14. The 12 Days of Christmas by Helen Haidle
15. The Biggest Christmas Tree Ever by Steven Kroll
16. The Biggest Snowman Ever by Steven Kroll
17. The Christmas Owl by Angela Muse
18. The Gingerbread Man Loose at Christmas by Laura Murray
19. The Littlest Elf by Brandi Dougherty
20. The Mitten by Jan Brett
21. The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore
22. The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
23. The Sweet Smell of Christmas by Patricia Scarry
24. There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell by Lucille Colandro