Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
It's not Christmas without books.
When our daughter was but a little tyke, I stumbled across an idea in a parenting magazine about how to extend the magic and anticipation of the Christmas season with a month-long countdown of books.
I collected children’s books long before I ever imagined I would have an actual child in the house. That collection exponentially expanded when our own little reader was born.
Using Christmas paper, we individually wrapped 24 books (mostly off our shelves but including a few new ones) and put them in a basket by the fireplace.
Each day, starting on the first of December, she chose a package, opened it, and we read it aloud.
We did this, if memory serves me, for three or four years.
It was a tradition with three wonderful elements: the thrill of tearing off paper, the surprise of seeing what book was hiding inside, and the nothing-else-like-it joy of snuggling together to share the story out loud.
That bright-eyed toddler of ours is in graduate school on the east coast this year, but that didn’t stop me from pulling out my boxes of Christmas books this week.
They spend most of the year in a closet, so it is a reunion with old friends when I open the boxes each year after Thanksgiving.
There is a stained, battered, and beloved 1950 copy of “The Animals’ Merry Christmas,” with stories by Kathryn Jackson and illustrations by Richard Scarry. The spine is held together with multiple layers of brittle masking tape, and the pages are dog-eared from being turned by generations of tiny hands.
That book and a 1957 copy of Dr. Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” raised some of my cousins before they raised my brothers and me, and before they enchanted my daughter.
Newer books became favorites when our daughter was small, like “Too Many Tamales” by Gary Soto and “The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey” by Susan Wojciechowski. I still read both every year, whether or not I have a small person in the house with whom to share.
A few grown-up books have earned a place in the lineup, including John Grisham’s “Skipping Christmas,” and Connie Willis’ “Miracle and Other Christmas Stories.”
Two of my December must-reads are in books that live on my shelves year-round.
I own two thick copies of “The Complete Works of O. Henry” (because I’m a sentimental fool). His enchanting story, “The Gift of the Magi,” begins on page seven in both. Even after at least a hundred readings, it’s still a favorite.
And finally, is it even Christmas if you don’t read Charles Dickens’ 1843 classic, “A Christmas Carol?” I would argue it is not.
I would also contend there is an extra layer of magic when it is read from “The Elson Readers Book Eight,” a school textbook used by my father and his three siblings nearly a century ago.
I feel an extra portion of gratitude this year for the comfort and companionship of good books and timeless stories.
‘Tis the month before Christmas. Merry reading to all.
Betty Williamson is considering a tree made of books. Reach her at:
