Thursday, July 16, 2009

Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett (and a giveaway!)

I love the book Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett. I love everything Jan Brett does. She is an amazing author and an even more outstanding illustrator. Such talent! We already own this book so it was perfect for our Christmas book activity list for Advent. As I mentioned in this post, I am planning to read several Christmas books with the boys during Advent. After reading each book, we will make a special ornament related to the book and hang the ornaments on a special tree set aside for just that purpose.



I have several ideas for ornaments to make to go with this book. Of course making a gingerbread man is an obvious option. You can find great directions here for making a cute gingerbread man out of felt. And this is a cute idea for making a gingerbread man out of sandpaper and using cinnamon to make him smell good. Another great option is making the cinnamon/applesauce baked gingerbread ornaments. My friend, Beth, made some of these for me over 10 years ago and I still hang them on my tree every Christmas and think of her. I also found a very cute gumdrop ornament that I would love to make. I'm not sure if it would be a stretch to make thse for the Gingerbread Baby book. I tried to find another Christmas picture book that featured candy or gumdrops but didn't come up with much. If you have an idea for a title, let me know!!

And now for the giveaway.............I found an extra hardcover copy of Gingerbread Baby when I was going through my Christmas book tub. I think I had bought myself a copy and then my mom bought one for us. So............I thought I'd do a giveaway for my extra copy to kick off my Christmas Book activity project. If you are interested in winning the extra copy, leave me a comment and tell the title of your favorite children's Christmas book. You have until Sunday night (July 19th) at 9:00 p.m. (CST) to leave your comment. I'll randomly choose a winner later on Sunday night.

9 comments:

Four Little Penguins said...

Our favorite Christmas book is "The Christmas Story" by Patricia Pingry.

Jocelyn Christensen said...

The Littlest Angel (by Charles Tazewell and Sergio Leone) is the story we read Christmas Eve after the bible story of Christ's birth. My father is usually the first one to cry and once he cries...we ALL do too! Apparently, my parents bought this book early in their marriage and we've been reading it as a family ever since...lots of memories tied up in this one! I'm looking forward to your book list and ornament ideas! Thanks for sharing!

Melissa said...

I LOVE your idea to do an activity along with each of your advent books. O opens a book each day, and we incorporate your idea of having activities to go along with the books this year :) I have so many favorite children's Christmas books...we really enjoyed Cookie Count by Robert Sabuda this past year. O especially liked the gingerbread house at the end. I think we'll read this book on the day we make our gingerbread house this year. Thanks again for such a wonderful idea!

Anonymous said...

Great ideas, Laura. I love all the Christmas books, but I think my favourite is Who is Coming to Our House (can't remember the author, got it from Scholastic, but it is at school). It is a good book for advent because the animals prepare the stable for their guest, so it is great to introduce the idea of preparation.

Amy from Occupation: Mommy said...

I just love reading Christmas books with my girls. It is so hard to pick a favorite! Last year, I read "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" with my older two and they loved it. But I definitely am partial to the beautiful picture books. I love The Polar Express and so many others! I will definitely be coming back to your list in December. Will you link up to it to remind us all?

Anonymous said...

Hi! We LOVED Christmas is here by Wendy Brawer and Chi Chung. It is a board book with flaps to open on each page, and on the last page is a calender with a flap you open for each day. (Like an advent Calendar.) We also Liked Gigi God's Little Princess the Perfect Christmas Gift by Sheila Walsh, but I am not sure your boys would enjoy making a princess ornament. Perhaps a King ornament??

Lessons from the Boys said...

Hi-
I am loving this idea. Our favorite Christmas book is the night before Christmas. My father reads it to my boy (this year boys) every Christmas eve.
Love the idea of planning ahead. And I am so excited to see your Montessori ideas for the new school year!

Kevhemi said...

Our favorite book is This is the Stable. It's very fun to make a stable afterwards with painted brown popsicle sticks. I am so glad you are doing this series of posts. I love the idea.

RootsAndWingsCo said...

I do my own variation on this every year. I have amassed a collection of Christmas Short stories and poems so that we have a different one to read every night in December, up through Christmas. It would be great to add a new one into the mix! By the way, I love your site. You have such great ideas, that most people can easily do as well.

Thank you,
Rebecca