Booksgiving: Our Family Holiday!

If you have been to my house, it will come as no shock to you that I am a book lover. Right as you step through the front door into the dining room you will see two very large bookcases, shelves brimming with books. My husband Nick, who built those bookshelves, also has a love for books that equals (or surpasses) my own.

A very old and blurry photo of Nick and his pride and joy...our bookshelves he built!

As you can imagine, when two book lovers get married, you end up with a house full of books. We actually both grew up dreaming of having a library in our home someday. While we don’t have an entire room dedicated to books, we have books in nearly every room so that is close enough!

Other than books, Nick and I both love holidays and traditions that mark different seasons. After we got married, we always dreamed up different family traditions we could create with our kids someday. The one we both got the most excited about, however, was one that combined both our love for books with our love for holidays: Booksgiving.

Jolabokaflod...a seemingly nonsense word with a fun meaning

The idea of Booksgiving first developed when we heard about an Icelandic tradition called Jolabokaflod, which means “Yule Book Flood.” On Christmas Eve, people exchange books with friends and family and then they spend the evening reading. Basically, it sounds like my personal dream come true.

Originally we thought of following the Icelanders cue and keeping this tradition at Christmas, but later abandoned that idea when we decided that Christmas was already exciting enough on its own. Seeing as Autumn is the best season there is, we settled on the first weekend of October.

Since we changed the season of the celebration, we also changed the name. We decided “Booksgiving” had a nice ring to it.

Instead of waiting until we had kids to start this tradition, we decided to start it with our friends. The first Booksgiving was in October of 2016, the first year we lived back in the U.S. after our time abroad.

The First Booksgiving

The first annual #booksgiving happened tonight with James and Amy. We read read poetry, drank hot chocolate, talked about why we enjoy reading, and exchanged book presents. Thankful for books and friends! #booklovers

We actually celebrated the first Booksgiving with our two close friends, James and Amy while visiting them in Michigan. We piled in the car together and headed to the nearest book store where we snuck around trying to pick out a book for our spouse without them seeing what we bought. This happened more out of a lack of planning than out of a desire to make this part of the tradition, but now I view it as one of the most fun parts of the holiday!

Once we got back to James and Amy’s little apartment, we hunkered down on couches under soft blankets with hot drinks in hand. Being my usual nerdy self, I insisted that poetry readings were an integral part of Booksgiving. I read some of my favorite poems to the group, while everyone sipped their coffee, tea, or hot chocolate.

After I completed my poetry readings, Nick suggested we all share about the best book we read in the last year. It was fun to hear what books our friends had been reading and what they enjoyed about them. Not only was it a way to get to know each other even better, but also a great way to get new book recommendations!

Next, it was finally time for the main event...giving books to each other! To be honest, I already knew which book Nick was getting me because I made it pretty clear that I wanted the new illustrated Harry Potter book. Sure, it wasn’t much of a surprise, but that didn’t make it any less fun!

For those who did not know exactly what book they were getting, their spouse explained why they chose that specific book for them. It was really fun because we all ended up getting books we really enjoyed.

Even my friend Amy, who always says she does not really enjoy reading, got through her book really quickly. After that she started reading a lot more, so I like to credit Booksgiving with inspiring her love of books. In reality, her new enjoyment of reading probably had more to do with the fact that she was no longer in pharmacy school reading gigantic chemistry textbooks each night, but I’ll still give the credit to Booksgiving ;)

Booksgiving 2019

I am more than a little excited right now because Booksgiving is just around the corner! (By the time this post is live we will already have our brand new books!) While the tradition started with James and Amy, we have been able to share this celebration with a few other friends as well over the past couple of years.

This year, James and Amy will be joining us again as well as my best friend, Sarah. Our "Dominican daughter" Darina and a few of her friends from college may tag along as well! Check back next Monday because I will share all about how Booksgiving went and what books we each received!

-Katie