Book Exchange Christmas Eve

Christmas eve book exchange.

Book exchange christmas eve. Then on christmas eve families exchange books and spend the evening reading and drinking hot chocolate or a festive ale called jólabland. The book shopping begins and continues until christmas eve when families gather to exchange their books. On christmas eve you ll find most icelanders snuggled in with a cup of something warm all doing the same thing.

Family christmas book exchange. So i read earlier about an old tradition in iceland where they exchange a book on christmas eve and my so and i decided to take on this tradition as one for our own. Gift a new book to someone you love.

The premise is simple. It is common to give books to one s children though parents are not the only ones doing the giving. People use this catalogue to order books to give to their friends and family on christmas eve the main gift giving day in iceland.

This custom is so deeply ingrained in the culture that it is the reason. No need to pick out some fancy biscuits you can just pick up a book hand it over on christmas eve explain the tradition and give them the gift of some cosy hours curled up with a great novel. Ever since 1944 the icelandic book trade has sent out a book bulletin to each household in the middle of november when the reykjavik book fair happens.

Books are a big part of not just christmas at our house but the whole year. Icelanders have a beautiful tradition of giving books to each other on christmas eve and then spending the night reading. As with all traditions every family does it a little differently.

They spend the rest of the night reading presumably with plenty of coffee and yule. This book gifting tradition dates back to world war ii when paper was one of the few items you could actually find in abundance. In recent years the meme has spread on social media and bookworms around the world are cottoning on to the idea.