Let the snow fall and the baking begin!
*Note: this post contains Amazon Affiliate links. Any purchases made via the links provided go to support our literacy efforts.
Winter starts off with a month of baking and cooking for Christmas and Hanukkah! December is the National Egg Nog and Fruit Cake month, along with many National Day‘s for various baked goods (Pie Day, Cookie Day, Brownie Day, Pastry Day and others.) My First Baking Book by Rena Coyle and the DK cookbook, Mommy & Me Bake, are great beginner baking books. And don‘t forget to share all of your own favorite holiday recipes! Consider sharing these baking themed stories: The Baker‘s Dozen: A Saint Nicholas Tale by Aaron Shepard, Hanukkah Cookies with Sprinkles by David A. Adler, or one of Jan Brett‘s Gingerbread stories (Gingerbread Baby, Gingerbread Friends, Gingerbread Christmas). So, get busy in the kitchen and bake some goodies to share. Bring a plate of delectable treats to your neighbors and those who can’t bake for themselves or live alone. Teach your children to pay it forward by spreading the kindness of the season and then snuggle up and read together!
Looking for more children's cookbooks? Find our favorites at the bottom of our book list:
Baking, Cooking, Gardening & Food Related Books
December
National Eggnog and Fruitcake Month
1st: National Pie Day
4th: National Cookie Day
7th: National Cotton Candy Day
8th: National Brownie Day
9th: National Pastry Day
10th: Hanukkah Begins
12th: National Gingerbread House Day
Don't forget about Jan Brett's Gingerbread series as well (see above)!
13th: National Cocoa Day
15th: National Cupcake Day
16th: National Chocolate Covered Anything Day
17th: National Maple Syrup Day
25th: Christmas Day
For a more complete list of Christmas titles, look at our Holiday Books list.
26th: National Candy Cane Day
28th: National Chocolate Day
This year of focusing our blogs on our Bookworm Bakers division, where we blend baking, cooking and gardening with literacy, has come to an end. We hope that you will embark on filling your children’s growing years and beyond with memories of baking, cooking and gardening. These offer the best way to learn math and reading naturally through real world, hands-on experiences, building life skills and creating lasting memories that will hopefully be cherished and passed down to future generations. That is why we encourage you to write down family recipes and your own memories of childhood, for all too soon they will be forgotten and disappear forever. I think about the stories my mother has shared about my grandmother and her cooking and the get-togethers with other families who came to this country with her. I never had the chance to meet my grandmother, but I do have my mother’s memories and photos, and my grandmother’s own cookbook and handwritten recipes, so I do feel a sense of connection to my past. If we don’t document our life, past and present for our children, a bit more of our heritage will be lost and we will be unable to reclaim it in the future.
Happy holidays from our family to yours!
-Kate @ BTBL Author
We are three generations that seek a way to get back to basics. It’s not that we eschew technology, but sometimes simpler is better, especially in raising our children. Mom was a reading teacher, Amanda is an early childhood educator and Kate a children’s literature specialist and former school librarian along with the latest additions, a daughter (now 5) for Kate, and two sons (now 2 and 1) for Amanda. We advocate reading aloud, the simple toys that use imagination and encourage creativity and learning in the kitchen, which can be a fun mess but also teaches life skills. Join us in raising healthy, happy, inquisitive and intelligent children.
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*Note: this post contains Amazon Affiliate links. Any purchases made via the links provided go to support our literacy efforts.
The winter season begins with the last month of the year and the celebration of several holidays, depending upon culture. This is the time of year when families gather from far and wide around the table to celebrate the season and the joy of the holidays. It is also when time honored family recipes emerge to once again take center stage. This is not the time to relegate the children to the play room but to include them in the preparation of the family meal. Cooking is a wonderful way to engage all of the senses, producing memories that resurface with the scent of certain foods and is also a wonderful way to boost reading and math skills in children without them even knowing it. Cooking also builds self-esteem, confidence and teaches life skills. Planning menus, choosing and reading through recipes and writing out a grocery list all involve reading and as a meal is prepared, math and science skills are engaged (to further enhance these skills, double or cut a recipe in half).
Cooking, especially during the holidays, is a cross-cultural experience that helps us explore our own heritage as well as other cultures and allows for an opportunity to learn where our food comes from and the people involved. To support this idea consider including the following books along with your traditional holiday favorites:
For additional baking/cooking and holiday related stories, take a look at our book lists.
What's happening in December?
1st: Author Jan Brett’s Birthday - Brett has numerous books that lend themselves well to the winter season. Her beautiful illustrations offer detailed depictions of animals and people from various locales and cultures. Consider The Mitten, Annie and the Wild Animals and Home for Christmas as well as the classics The Twelve Days of Christmas and The Night Before Christmas.
5th: Walt Disney’s Birthday - Need we say more? Disney is an industry unto itself. Read about the man himself in the Who Was? series Who Was Walt Disney? by Whitney Stewart or another Disney biography. You can then further explore the wonderful world of Disney through the many Disney characters we all know and love.
7th: Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day - Take this opportunity to search online, visit your local library or bookstore for age appropriate books to learn about this day in American history.
10th: Poet Emily Dickinson’s Birthday - Share Dickinson’s poems with your child. Consider Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson by Frances Schoonmaker Bolin or Poetry for Kids: Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson and edited by Susan Snively. Also, look out for Jane Yolen's picture book biography Emily Writes: Emily Dickinson and Her Poetic Beginnings coming out in February 2020.
Melvil Dewey’s Birthday - A great time to teach children about the Dewey Decimal System and visit your local library to see it in action. Consider Do You Know Dewey? by Brian P. Cleary and The Great Dewey Hunt by Toni Buzzeo.
11th: Author William Joyce’s Birthday - Think Rolie Polie Olie and The Guardians of Childhood. Consider our personal favorite The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore and look for the short film on YouTube.
30th: Author Mercer Mayer’s Birthday - Known for his Little Critter and Little Monster series. With hundreds of books to choose from it shouldn’t be difficult to find one or more to read to your child.
31st: New Year's Eve - Celebrate the ending of the old year and the beginning of the new with Natasha Wing's The Night Before New Year's.
Remember to take this time at the end of the year to build fond memories with your children as you celebrate family traditions of old as well as introduce new traditions. Try to always include a book at the end of the day or at the beginning of a meal or even while waiting for those cookies to come out of the oven.
“Most of our childhood is stored not in photos, but in certain biscuits,
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As avid bibliophiles, we will always enjoy giving the gift of reading. We love looking for a book that will bring joy or inspiration to the reader, a special bookmark to mark a pause, key chains or jewelry that announces one’s love of books or creating a gift basket of sorts by pairing books with complementary gifts. Any gift that showcases books and reading is a gift worth giving and receiving for it is a gift that will endure. So, share your passion for books with the ones you love this holiday season.
Happy holidays and reading! |
To the bookshelf, let’s all look… Falalalala…la lalala.
Don we now our reading glasses… Falala… lalala… la la la.
Browse before the old year passes… Falalalala… la lalala.
Is there anything better than cuddling up with your loved ones before a warm fire and sharing a story?
No, there really isn't. And it is that much better when you can combine that special bonding time with the magic and excitement of the holiday season. It is time to start a new holiday tradition:
a Christmas book Advent calendar!

- Monster Needs a Christmas Tree by Paul Czajak
- Llama Llama Holiday Drama and Llama Llama Jingle Bells by Anna Dewdney
- A Bad Kitty Christmas by Nick Bruel
- Click, Clack, Ho! Ho! Ho! by Doreen Cronin
- Merry Christmas, Mom and Dad! by Mercer Mayer
- A Wish to be a Christmas Tree by Colleen Monroe
- Reindeer Christmas by Mark Kimball Moulton
- Little Blue Truck’s Christmas by Alice Schertle
- Memoirs of an Elf by Devin Scillian
- Here Comes Santa Cat by Deborah Underwood
- The Not Very Merry Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
- A Pirate’s Twelve Days of Christmas by Philip Yates
- Madeline’s Christmas by Ludwig Bemelmans
- Santa Rex by Molly Idle
- The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg*
- Santa Knows by Cynthia & Greg Leitich Smith
- Jingle Bugs by David A. Carter
- Bear Stays Up for Christmas by Karma Wilson
- S is for Santa: A Christmas Alphabet by Greg Paprocki
- Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree by Robert Barry
- How to Catch an Elf by Adam Wallace
- The Night Before the Night Before Christmas by Natasha Wing
- The Night Before Christmas (any version your family likes)
- Christmas is Here: Adapted from the King James Bible, illustrated by Lauren Castillo
For more title ideas take a look at our Holiday Book List.
Happy holidays and happy reading!
-Kate from BTBL
Author
We are mom Sandra and daughters Amanda and Kate, all with backgrounds in literacy and education, who want to share our philosophy of taking the basics of life; books, simple toys that encourage play, imagination and creativity, and using cooking and baking to teach math and real life skills to raise happy, inquisitive children. Join us in exploring the old and the new and sifting through the myriad of research to consider what is best for our children.
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