A book lover's advent calendar: how cool would that be?!

OK, so I was thinking about children's books (I've been doing a lot of that lately) and I started to get all nostalgic about the fabulous wintery and Christmas-y stories the urchins and I have read over the years.

So I thought I'd make a kind of Advent calendar here -- over there on the sidebar to the left. Let's see if I can come up with twenty-four books that we have all loved here at Christmas time.

On the first day of December, I offer a beautiful story that really shows that Christmas can be filled with love and celebration, even in difficult times. A New Coat for Anna is set in Europe, in the days immediately following World War II. Based on a true story, it lovingly shows how hard Anna's mother works to make sure she can have a new winter coat.

Ooh! What will be behind the door I open tomorrow?!