At the end of November, I posted about a Holiday Reading Challenge with the goals of getting into the festive spirt.  Others joined in and there were some great suggestions on the Goodreads CanadianContent group .

Here are my results of the challenge and some options for holiday reading if you have some quiet moments over the next few days.  It has been a fun challenge but I am ready to get back to some CanLit!

Read a holiday book that you have never read before:

1. Pretty Paper (Willie Nelson) – based on his holiday song written in 1962 about a man with no legs selling papers in front of a busy department store.
2. Christmas with Anne (L.M. Montgomery) – includes a couple of “Anne” excerpts as well as a collection of other short stories with a theme of giving to others.

Read a Christmas Classic:

1. A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens) – I am still finishing my re-read of this Christmas Classic and was happy to find a leather bound copy of this story during black Friday sales.

Read aloud a holiday story to others:

1. The Care and Feeding of a Grinch (by Max the Dog) – I did not count this one of Moore’s into my reading total for the year since they are children’s picture books. This was a cute read that my son chose.
2. Twas the Night Before Christmas (Clement Clarke Moore) – I will be reading this one later today.

Read a story about a holiday that you may not celebrate yourself:

1. The Book of (Holiday) Awesome (Neil Pasricha) – although it is not exclusively about holidays that I might not celebrate, it has sections on Hanukaah and Kwanzaa.

Read a holiday story from the library:

1. The Immortal Nicholas (Glen Beck) – written by the author with a goal of having his children refocus on the meaning of Christmas.
2. The Gift (Cecelia Ahern) – this one was a bit cheesy and I struggled with the ending.
3. Winter Storms (Elin Hilderbrand) – the final book in the trilogy about the challenges of a Nantucket family set over 3 Christmas seasons.

Listen to a holiday audiobook:

1. The Best Worst Christmas Pageant Ever (Barbara Robinson) – an easy listen if you are looking for a chuckle about the time when the dreaded Herdman family participates in the Christmas pageant.