DYI A Literary Advent Calender

While I am not a practicing Christian anymore, I still find myself enjoying the practice of counting down to Christmas that Advent brings. I think that is one thing that the Christian tradition of Advent does well is understanding that there is a value in taking time aside each day to center yourself by reading.   I enjoy small meditative rituals that an advent calendar provides.

As a bookworm what I really want for Christmas is to have more time to read...what better way to spice up my reading life than to make it a little more festive???

I know that Once Upon A Book Club sells a literary advent calendar for the 12 days of Christmas that sounds fun but I not only find the price point on that to be a little high, I also find the horror themed box Night Worms has more of the kinds of books that I dive into right away. The scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long ago are more of my style than a cheesy Hallmark movie. There are many great Christmas Ghost Stories out there if I decide to make that my focus!

I had read online about people buying children's books from thrift shops and then wrapping them up with numbers on them. I love this idea and know that when I have my own children that this is something that I will likely want to practice. I realize that if I really wanted to I could wrap some of my own thrift shop finds up for a different book each day but that seems more like an ecological disaster to me as an adult who can afford to buy used books.

I also know that there are a lot of very affordable advent calendars with candy in them that I could pair with a reading experience. However I am newly diagnosed as diabetic and need to lay off the sweets this year.  Fortunately I do love tea and I know that there are different tea themed calendars out there. I have a huge weakness for a good loose leaf tea and decided that my splurge would be the
Plum Deluxe advent calendar and that I would pair it with Christmas themed short stories.

I started off the advent season by reading the delightful Christmas themed  Hark the Herald Angels Scream and I found some classic Christmas ghost stories that are cute small paperbacks issued by Biblioasis  that I can pick up with the new tea that I have each day.  I am enjoying chronicling the journey that I have in my reading journal as I am literally deliciously scared by good tea and good ghost stories.

I realize not every book lover may share my passion for horror, however, I do see that you could pair up each day with things like poetry, romance novels, children's books or whatever your favorite genre might be. This may be the perfect time to read a collection of short stories in your favorite genre or to delve for a few pages wach day into something you find inspirational. It doesn't need to be a religious text if religion is not your thing. It can be a memoir or nature poetry or whatever nurtures your spirit.

 I am a huge fan of getting books from thrift shops but they can even come from the library. You don't need to own books if your space or budget doesn't allow for it. You do not even need to pair it up with another calendar if your budget or diet does not allow for that.  You just need some kind of cozy ritual that makes you get in the Christmas spirit such as having a tea or hot chocolate that you get at a grocery store and a few minutes to do the reading that you anticipated each day. Nothing cultivates the childlike wonder of Christmas than finding a few minutes each day to give into the sense of wonder or imagination like taking a few minutes for reading!