I love this time of year. Everyone seems more community minded, people smile more and are most likely to sing silly songs. Don’t get me started on homemade cookies and ten thousand Christmas lights. More please!
A wonderful Icelandic tradition, Jólabókaflóðið has become one in my house as well. I read about it a few years ago, the title above translates to "Book Flood." It's one of the coolest things I’d ever heard about how to celebrate the season on Christmas Eve.
1. Basically you find a book or a few, as I do for each person who will be sleeping over at the house on Christmas Eve.
This year we have books on the list and it's growing quickly. I tend to find them on Abe or Thrift books and do a gigantic order after I find a coupon to help with the cost. This year because we are all concerned about the supply chain an e-reader and digital books may be the best way to handle things. I love my Kindle paper white. It is splash resistant and has a night reading mode for the car and bright light mode for reading in the hammock.
If you have Indie writers you wish to support, by all means please, you wonderful human... do that.
Checkout my Goodreads challenge for this year I have a few more books to go to make my one hundred, or just ask me! I am always excited to recommend books. It means a lot when people encourage writers to keep going. I asked on Twitter for suggestions for my husband, but no one replied with a link or even a cover. I was surprised; I was worried that I would be inundated. So I decided on a few classics I feel that everyone should read at least once.
2. Choose a book, a really good one that each person has never read or you think would keep them interested.
3. Wrap it up with an individual chocolate bar (my current fave is Rittersport dark chocolate with whole hazelnuts or my friends at the Four Lunas) for each reader. You can take this a little further and buy them new, “reading jammies,” fuzzy socks to wear inside the house, or a clip on reading light for their new book. Just have fun with it.
After the neighborhood party, gala, church service or whatever you do to celebrate, everyone goes to bed with a bar of chocolate and a new book. Ours tends to happen on Christmas Day, but it’s the thought, not the timing that counts.
It’s not complicated or even that groundbreaking, but what it does is a few things: It promotes literacy in your house, you can do “book swaps” with each other when you’re finished and of course how could you go wrong with a warm bed, a good book and chocolate?
Am I in Heaven? If this is something you’re thinking about doing you better get cracking as I usually put my book orders in by the tenth of December to be sure that I have them in time.
I hope you give this one a try. I just made my huge book order and am so excited to write a little note inside and wrap the books up for my family. If you are tapped out on money, go to your neighborhood charity shop and buy used books to upcycle. I know it sounds strange, but I use a paper towel and a spritz of furniture polish to clean the covers.
It’s about the joy of reading! Not the money.
Are you in dire need of a new cookie or chocolate candy recipe? A collaboration of writers got together and made a holiday recipe book. It’s so beautiful and nostalgic. My heart is happy for the love that was put into this project by everyone involved.
“Sensational Writers + Holiday Recipes” is $.99 on Amazon, free most everywhere else and at cost in blazing color in paperback and hardcover. Stop for some baking supplies to make a homemade treat to go with those new books. Reviews are always appreciated.
Sending lots of holiday joy to you and yours. Thanks for reading and subscribing.
Merry Christmas. Until next time, find your Peace, Love, Hustle, then Read or Write.
Xox Bibiana
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bibiana Krall is a small-town girl from the Midwest who left home at an early age and traveled the world. Eventually settling in historic Savannah, Georgia. She made a nest, created a family and built a dynamic career with a passion for culture, travel and private aviation. She recently returned to higher education, earning an M.A. in Fiction Writing and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Wilkes University CW. She has twenty-seven titles on Amazon and counting. She writes novels, short stories, produces writing podcasts and book trailers. Bibiana interned at The Ossabaw Writers' Retreat in Savannah, Georgia.
She is a Deep Center Writing Fellow and continues to mentor some of her students from the non-profit, literacy and social justice program, The Young Author Project.
Enjoy evergreen blogposts about writing and the creative life, new releases and occasional recipes that tie directly into her stories. Please visit Bibiana's website and subscribe to her free newsletter. Thank you for stopping by! https://www.bibianakrall.com