Let’s talk more about thrifting for gifting! It’s Frugal Friday! You have less than a week left for Christmas shopping. If you still have some shopping to do, I encourage you to check out your local thrift stores. You can find things still new with their tags, or in like new condition, which are totally OK for giving, even if you pay thrift store prices.
I’m so excited about giving my gifts for Christmas! Many of those gifts include ones I found at thrift stores. Mostly books! Today I wrapped a lot of the books plus other items. I wrapped these fun guys and one girl Duplo figures plus non Duplo guys shown above for my grandsons. I found them in a bag for $3.60 at Savers. We have a big Duplo collection that we’ve gathered through the years for Christmas that the grandchildren now play with. They also have a lot of Duplos at their home. So I was thrilled to find these Duplo guys with some non Duplo guys. Definitely a Magical Thrifting Moment (MTM)! I wasn’t even looking for them, they just fell into my lap. Someone had placed the bag of them on a shelf with board games and puzzles. I saw them, and eagerly scooped them up. Brand new Duplos are expensive, so to find a bag of six official Duplo figures for less than $4 with my coupon was such a deal. I love that they are knights and one lady to inspire chivalric fantasy play in my grandsons. This is just spectacular! I felt my Thrifting Angels watching over me for sure!
I’m combining them with the book above and two books below which I found in the same aisle, right across from the games. I’m making a boys’ adventure-themed basket or box for my two grandsons who are brothers. Then I’m adding to the basket or box a new kit I found on amazon that is for cutting up and joining cardboard together to build play structures and objects. I thought it would be fun to build little houses for these guys or a castle and big structures too for the boys to use as homes or forts. I’ll put these action figures and the books all in a big basket I find in a thrift store this coming week, with some coupons that say “Good for Two Hours of Building and Playing Adventures With Grandma.” I’m excited to play with them with these fun toys, and read to them the books below. Hopefully the books will inspire some playful adventure.
The book above was $4. It looks like it was never used! I have had my own copy for years for my sons and the companion book for girls to inspire my daughters. Actually the girls book is my older daughter’s. She never took it with her when she left home for college, so it’s still here on a bookshelf here in this room while I blog. Maybe she’ll let me keep it until she has a daughter. I like seeing it sit next to the boy one, as sibling volumes.
So far she has three little boys and no girls yet. I love these books because they teach all the old-fashioned skills like tying knots, recognizing constellations, carving wood, rowing in a canoe, playing yard games etc. All fun things to do away from screens. It also has tons of lists for trivia lovers, like the 50 US States and Capitals.
My grandsons are a little young for it, at ages 4 and 7, but they will grow into it and hopefully use it their whole lives. In the meantime they will definitely benefit from The Little Book for Boys, which is for ages under 8. They can fight over them all when they move out, LOL, or leave them with their mom for the grandchildren. I also got this fun Marvel character storybook below for them to add to the adventure box/basket. So I’ve got a mix of old school fun with comic book superheroes and medieval times. It’s just so amazing that the Duplo guys, the book for big boys, and the book for little boys and the Marvel book were all on the same aisle. The books were all $4 or less each! I didn’t have to hunt for them, there were just there!
Here’s what the companion book to the Dangerous Boy book, the girls book, looks like.
My daughter’s copy is very worn and well-loved. As you can see below :-). It looks like she took it camping and on many other adventures! I think I’ll wrap it up and re-gift to to my daughter to open after the boys open theirs.
You can see other stuff I got for Christmas gifts over here, and items I gifted my mom for her birthday here.
Watch these videos in YouTube over here and below for more thrifting for gifting inspiration!! It’s not too late to find cool stuff for Christmas gift-giving. Merry Thriftmas!
Want even more thrifting inspiration? Go here to see all my posts about it.
One of my favorite things about Christmas is the music! It is just the sublimest of all. So today I’m sharing my favorite resources for Christmas music, which includes old and new songs.
Let’s start with the basics. First is the book of Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It has the basic traditional Christmas carols of “Silent Night,” “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem,” etc. I prefer the spiral-bound edition so it stays open on the rack above a piano keyboard.
Second is the songbook above. I got this from the BYU Bookstore (now known as the BYU Store) for my 16th birthday. I eagerly took to playing as many songs from it on the piano as I could. It is out of print but you can find used copies from booksellers online. Check ebay first then if you can’t find it there use addall.com to find the cheapest copy. (You might have to search by the ISBN number of 978-0895771056 in addall instead of the title.)
This image below shows one of the later editions. I love both covers! So vintage looking!
It has come in so handy through the years to take to our extended family gatherings so I could accompany the family singing, as well as for our nuclear family singing on Christmas Eve and Day. It has almost every “old” Christmas song I can think of: all the traditional carols, plus songs like Jingle Bells, plus the Christmas songs that have been written in the 1900s like “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” “White Christmas,” “Rudolph,” “Up on the Housetop,” “Frosty,” “Mele Kalikimaka,” “We Need a Little Christmas,” etc. The ones it doesn’t include are: “Silver Bells” and the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah. It has different editions. Maybe the later editions have some of those songs. Fortunately, I have found those songs in the book below.
OK, now we are moving into lesser-known Christmas songs. The new collection of hymns from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, called Hymns– for Home and Church has a few songs that aren’t in either of the books above or the old hymnbook. The Christmas and Easter songs start at #1201.
Maren Ord Bushman wrote “Born to be a King.” This is probably my absolute favorite Christmas song. You can watch Maren sing it and play it above. I love, love, love playing this song on the piano. When I do, I feel like I am bouncing on jingling bells and playing chimes all at the same time. It is is just so fun to play! You can get the sheet music here. I have a little story to go with this song, a little Christmas miracle, which you can read about here. Maren’s website is here. She is an amazing musician! Then the official music video is below. I am so grateful to Maren for writing this song. It just makes me happy! It’s a great way to start the day, when I play this on the piano as a call for our morning family prayer.
Then there’s Christmas music here by Shawna Belt Edwards. Her latest Christmas song is below.
Then the video below shows many of her Christmas songs. You can get the sheet music here.
Just like Shawna, Sally Deford has written so many beautiful Christmas songs! One of them is shown in the video below. You can get her music here, and it’s all free for noncommercial use.
Then there is music published in the magazines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, from 1971 on. These magazines are The Friend, The New Era, later renamed For the Strength of Youth, and The Ensign, later renamed The Liahona.
I have curated the music from 1971 to 2020. My Celestial Family Devotionals Ebook has this music linked to the internet under the December section. You can get the ebook for free here. You can print all this music for free by clicking on the links and then printing them. I have a binder to keep all this music together with a beautiful Nativity scene on the cover that I got from on the LDS Church magazines.
This month of December 2025 the Friend, which is for children, has this song here by Janice Kapp Perry called “Somewhere a Baby Sleeps.” Hooray, a new-to-me children’s song by Sister Perry!
Speaking of Janice Kapp Perry, her Christmas music is over here. You can only get hard copy CDs or songbooks, no digital downloads. That link also includes music from her daughter Lynne Perry Christofferson.
I hope you enjoy all this music!!! May it bring the spirit of Christ, of love, light, life, liberty, and joy into your home and heart!
It’s late, after 9 PM on a Friday, but I don’t want to let Friday pass without sharing again about thrifting for gifting with a #frugalfriday tag. I don’t have many days left to share about thrifting gifts for Christmas, with the big day less than two weeks away. Here are more ideas of thrifting for gifting! Part 1 is over here, where I talked about making themed-book baskets for the book lovers in your life. I gave my mom the basket above, with the theme of her interests, for her birthday yesterday. I had so much fun putting this together. The photo below shows the books I picked. Now that I’m posting this photo I realize the bow’s loops aren’t even but oh well, just look at the books and not the bow.
I found all these books at thrift stores, as well as the basket. I know my mom loves near death experience stories (NDE) or stories about people who die and come back to life so when I saw the book in the upper left corner months ago I got it for her. Sorry about the glare in the photo above, here it is below.
The book in the bottom left corner is a book by Susan Branch, a tiny gift book about Christmas. If you want to know more about Susan Branch books, go here and here. I love finding her books when thrifting, it feels like finding thrifting gold! They aren’t gold in terms of being able to resell and make a huge profit, but they are gold in terms of bringing much pleasure to me. Sometimes I find them in the children’s book section even though they aren’t children’s books. They are cookbooks and homemaking books. Ms. Branch does all the text by hand-lettering and illustrates all the books with ink and watercolor. They are just so charming with all the fun illustrations, ideas, and anecdotes. I knew my mom would love reading this since she is an artist as well. This was only $1!
I remember my mom telling me a few year ago that she likes Sarah Palin so when I found a book about Christmas by Sarah Palin with her conservative views I knew my mom would love it. It was $1.50.
Then I found a book that still had the retail sticker price on it, about Mary, the mother of Jesus, by Camille Fronk Olson. It was $2. It has so many different lovely artist renditions of Mary, along with Ms. Olson’s scholarship on Mary. Again, since my mom is an artist I knew she would love seeing all these different paintings of Mary. My favorite painting in the book is the one by Elspeth Young, and my second favorite is the one showing Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem by Joseph Brickey, below. I just love his use of light and shadow. It is so amazing!
I took the basket to my mom yesterday on her birthday. We enjoyed looking at all the paintings in the book together and talking about them. The image on the cover is also by Elspeth Young. I just love beautiful artwork and love to look at art with my mom.
Then I found the cute mug below back in November, on Black Friday. It’s hard to tell in the photo below, but it has a cut-out-heart shape that goes all the way through the mug. I knew my mom would get a kick out of it and she did, as evidenced by her laugh when she saw it. Then I got the potholders new at the Dollar Tree and the tea at a grocery store. The herbal tea bags are what is inside the mug.
I also added a candle, never used, as the wick was not burnt, that I found at the Provo DI for $1, plus a bag of mixed nuts and sugar-free chocolate chips since she is allergic to sugar. She loved it all. When I walked into her home and showed her the basket, she said, “Oh, do I get to pick one of the presents from your basket?” I told her “Oh, they are all for you!” She was so surprised! It really made my day, as she said I had made her day. Then on this Sunday we are having a family dinner birthday party for her with everyone, and I’m going to give her another gift, the gray cardigan sweater I thrifted on my trip to Maine to visit my sister Emily last October. It was NWT but only $10, at a Goodwill in South Portland, ME. It’s in the photo below. It’s a large so I don’t know if it will fit since she’s a small, but if she decides it doesn’t fit, she can give it back to me :-). (There’s something about my camera lens that makes the sweater look wavy, when it really doesn’t have wavy lines.)
Then I also have some Christmas gifts that I got for her and my dad that are all thrifted. I’m giving my mom these two books below:
My mom and I are descended from John Howland, “The Boy Who Fell off the Mayflower” and my dad and I are descended from William Bradford, so I think she will enjoy this book because, hey, it’s family history! Then I got this board game below, brand-new, with the seal intact at Savers’ earlier this year, which I think she’ll love because she’s an artist. I was gong to keep this myself to replace the same game I got thrifting years ago but needs new markers but now I’d rather give the new one to her. I’ve played it once before and enjoyed it. I gave her another Bob Ross board game for Christmas a while ago so this will complete the collection.
Then I got this puzzle for my dad, below, at Savers for $4, since he served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Winnipeg Canada as a single young man before he met my mom. He has a bunch of Eric Dowdle puzzles but I’m pretty sure not this one. We often put these puzzles together as a family when we stay at my parents’ cabin.
My dad has gotten into poetry lately, especially since he retired after 45 years as a college professor. I’m hoping he loves this book I just found at the Provo DI for $2. It’s over $45 on amazon right now so what a deal!
Below are some fun videos I’ve enjoyed lately that can show many more ideas for thrifting for Christmas gifts. It really is amazing what you can find at thrift stores! You can give thoughtful gifts that really make the people feel loved for a fraction of the cost of new items.
I haven’t blogged about what’s in my Morning Basket in a while. Morning Basket time is when I share what is good, true and beautiful with my son who is the last one left in my homeschooling nest. The Advent season makes it extra exciting. So many, many wonderful, beautifully illustrated books abound about Christmas for us to enjoy!
Here’s what we are doing for Morning Basket time this month.
Year, round we always start out with this book above to see what happened on this day. It has a few interesting historical facts for each of the 365 days of the whole year. On Monday we go over Monday and Sunday, and on Friday we read the Friday and the Saturday entries. I have a similar book way at the bottom below to bookend with this.
OK, now on to Christmas-themed material!
Then we read aloud an article or story from one of the December magazines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I just love all of these! I’ve been reading all of them since I was about 10 or 11. When I couldn’t sleep at those ages, I would go into the hallway where my mom had a stack of old issues in a box, and I would read them until I was sleepy and go back to bed. I have a bunch of Christmas stories curated from these magazines over here in my FREE family devotionals ebook.
I’m focusing on the For the Strength of Youth, which is for teenagers, then/if we finish all of those stories, we’ll do the stories in the Liahona, which is for adults, and then the Friend.
I heard about this book above from veteran homeschooler Carole Joy Seid’s podcast down below and knew I had to get it. I’m looking forward to finding out what is really inside the huge box that this little family receives on Christmas Eve. They are told it’s a lion, but we shall see. We do 5-6 pages a day.
Then this one below I found when thrifting sometime in the past year or two. I have never read this one either. Some years I’ve read aloud books to the younger children that I already read to the older children. So I already know what happens. Such is not the case this year. It’s about a family that moves from Utah to Arizona after losing a bunch of money and having to start over. They end up having a rich, yet grumpy landlord/neighbor. Just with the title’s name I can tell what will happen already and you probably can too. I’m counting on it being heartwarming!
I just love picking up what look like promising Christmas chapter books and picture books from thrift stores throughout the year and saving them for Christmas. Then when I get them out with the Christmas decorations right after Thanksgiving it’s a little surprise because I’ve forgotten what I bought. A little foretaste of being surprised on December 25th.
We started this one below last year, maybe the year before, and never finished it. I found it at a thrift store. It’s a novel about Mary the mother of Jesus, and Joseph, especially their journey to Bethlehem. It’s for adults and every wordy so we just do 2-4 pages a day. It’s fun to read about one person’s idea of what they were like and what their journey must have been like.
Then we are doing one or two Christmas picture books a day. Picture books are not just for children! Teens and adults can learn from them too. I love reading the ones that either make me laugh, give me that cozy Christmas vibe, or help me learn about the first Christmas story or Christmas history, cutlure, and lore. Go here to see my HUGE list.
Then we do a chapter a day from this book above. We’ll do A Christmas Carol the week of Christmas. We did the one below last year. It’s just fun to experience different versions of this beloved classic.
I have so many Christmas picture books and the above chapter books are long enough and our Morning Basket time is so short that we’ll be spilling over all this material into January. Which is totally OK for me. I love reading Christmas stories in January. No Christmas police are coming to get me.
We end by reading what happened for the day in the world of children’s literature from the book above. It has fun and interesting tidbits about authors and illustrators with great suggestions of titles.
When MB time is done, it’s on to math for my son. While he does it, I sit by him and have my drawing time. Then throughout the day I’ll be continuing with my Merry Mother’s Christmas Curriculum, which I detail over here.
I’d love to hear what you are reading or learning about in your December/Christmas Morning Basket. Merry Christmas!
I didn’t do much thrifting in October. Just on my trip to Maine which I shared last month. I made up for it in November though!
Above is my first haul for the month. I got to go with my married daughter to the Provo DI, which we haven’t been to in awhile together. We were also with my mom who offered to pay for my haul since it was my birthday. A birthday thrifting spree! I was thrilled to find a brand-new candle still in the wrapper, with a Pyrex dish to hold it. The teal blue frame now holds a photo of my missionary son. I was super excited to find the Venn board game, I had actually checked it out from the library. It’s a great logic game that teaches how Venn diagrams work. It involves word association. I love these types of games! Then the Metagame, which is 4 games in one. I might give that one away as a Christmas gift to a family member.
Here’s more of what I found, above and below. Ok if you are any of my children please stop reading. Some of these photos show Christmas gifts for you. I don’t want you to have your surprises ruined!
I love the lime green trench coat. It’s XXL so it will fit on me when I have on a bulky sweater underneath. Plus a Mickey Mouse T-shirt to put in my 16 yo’s stocking, and navy top with stars to wear next Independence Day! The yellow cardigan looks so pretty but I took it back for an exchange. It was 100% polyester and felt yucky on my bare arms when I finally tried it on at home. I just love the tablecloth with the harvest theme. I went looking with the intention of finding a Thanksgiving tablecloth and I found one!
Then I went back a week later and found the following, below. I had just dropped my son off for his percussion sectional class and felt this inkling of a magnetic pull to go to the Provo DI, even though that wasn’t my original plan for the morning.
A Hanna Andersson sweater for my oldest grandchild! Only $4! I texted my daughter (his mom) right away about it. I’ve been wanting to find something Hanna Andersson at DI ever since she said she found Hanna Andersson PJs there last year, which created downright thrift envy in me. So now I can say I’ve had a Magical Hanna Andersson Thrifting Moment (MAHTM), lol. She said she wanted it for his December 1st box, and that she had been wanting to find a sweater for him. So this was a major score, and the reason, I suppose, why I was pulled towards the store on that particular morning. (A December 1st box must be a Millennial Mom thing. We had no such things when I was a young mom. So much for her being a minimalist!) Then a sparkly Christmas sweater for me to wear with my poinsettia shirt I got in Maine when thrifting in October, an adorable chunky ivory sweater that looks handmade (there was no tag inside), which looks so hygge, a fun floral top, a new candle to give to my mom for her birthday to go in a gift basket with NWT gray sweater I found in Maine last October when I went thrifting with my sister, a NWT Disney shirt for me to be a pajama top, and two books! The American patriot book is also for my mom, for either her birthday or Christmas, and the DK New England book is for me! I just love DK books and I love New England so I’m super excited about reading that book. It’s something to look forward to reading in January since I don’t have time for it in December!
Then on Black Friday I got the stuff above, at the Orem Savers, and the stuff below, at the American Fork DI. The two books for boys and the Duplo people and the little house front will go in a Christmas gift basket for my two oldest grandsons, along with the Marvel book below. I’m making them a boy’s adventure-themed basket. A Pioneer Woman toaster for only $5 to add to my Pioneer Woman kitchen! I got the Disney songbook for my guitar-playing son. I had that same book in my family home growing up, and I’m not sure where it went. I’ve looked for it here at my home and can’t find it, but it may be buried in my voluminous piano sheet music collection. Maybe it’s at a sister’s home? In any case, for $2 I definitely got it, whether it’s for me or for my son! It’s out of print and has songs from shows that he grew up with like Disney’s Johnny Appleseed and Disney’s Robin Hood. I now have a Disney piano songbook similar to it that my parents gave to me for Christmas when I was a young mom as a nod to the book we had in our family home, but the newer one doesn’t have those oldies songs. So this was a major find! I got the Mayflower book for my mom for her birthday since she and my dad each have at least one Mayflower ancestor. Also the mug. The fertility book will go to my married daughter since she has asked me about natural family planning. I read that book when I was a young mom and found it to be an invaluable resource. I’m giving the poetry book to my dad for Christmas since he has really gotten into poetry in his old age. The quote game will be for my dad as well, and the the Orson Scott Card books are for two of my children’s stockings. The Anne of Green Gables graphic novel is for my married daughter’s stocking. My sister Emily has been raving about this version of the story for years. Then the two C.S. Lewis books are for my son-in-law’s stocking. (We have huge stockings.) The Mom Trivia card deck will go in my stocking. It matches the Dad Trivia card deck for my husband’s stocking that I found at a DI a few months ago! The Wizard Always Wins will go to my married daughter and son-in-law with two other games, since last year at Christmas time she said she wanted to play more board games more often. The white book on the left is a Terryl and Fiona Givens book that I got for a friend, along with the John Grisham book. I put those in a gift basket I blogged about here.
The CM scrapbook pages were only $1 a set for two sets. I do need more of those to finish the scrapbooks I started decades ago. (Gulp, is anyone else severely in a scrapbook delayed condition like I am? I’ve gone digital for some but also feel a pull to finish the old school versions.) Then a little photo album (for my old school hard copy photos that need preserving some way), a pretty silver frame that says “Sisters” to frame a photo of my sisters and me, and more books for family members. Plus some black pants! It was a very good day at two thrift stores! So many great treasures to give to many loved ones, and a few things for myself, for around $60 total!
‘Tis the season for gift planning and shopping! Christmas is three weeks from today! Have you ever thought of giving Christmas gifts from things you find at a thrift store? If not, I’m here to tell you to do it! Contrary to some people’s opinion, not all thrift store merchandise is junk. You can find beautiful, useful and valued items perfect for gift giving at thrift stores.
These items can be new with tag or like new without tag, still looking never used or gently used. They are perfectly suitable to give as gifts. For example, you can often find books that look brand new. It’s fun to get a basket from the thrift store (they abound) in like new condition and fill it with like new items that you know your recipient is interested in, to make themed book baskets. Of course you can add new stuff too. To make it easy on the budget add not-cheap looking stuff from the dollar store. Recently I decided I wanted to assemble a gift basket for a friend. I knew she loves books by John Grisham as well as Harry Potter books. She’s also a member of my church so we share the same faith. She also lives in a cold climate so I figured she would enjoy a new cheery Christmas mug with some herbal tea. So for this basket, the theme was my friend and her interests and the fact that’s she’s headed into winter.
This is what I came up with.
First some books for her to enjoy reading this winter with a candle from the Dollar Store. I also threw in a Christmas DVD still in the shrink wrap that I somehow acquired through the years. I found all the books at thrift stores.
One of my sons had Terryl Givens as an instructor for a religion class last year and he said he was fabulous. So I was super excited to find a book that Brother Givens had authored with his wife, Fiona Givens, at Savers last week. I figured she’d enjoyed reading about “rethinking sin, salvation, and everything in between.” Sounds fascinating right?! I want to read it! I will be definitely finding a copy for myself.
Then I added an assortment of herbal tea packets that I already had on hand. I’m hoping she’s not a tea snob like the mom of the main character in the book Under the Egg, who has a penchant for gourment, expensive tea. These are just run-of-the mill herbal teas you can find at a regular grocery store. Plus a mug and some potholders I got at the Dollar Store. I also threw in some brand new gloves from amazon that came in a collection I bought that aren’t in any of these photos. The fingertips of the gloves are designed to work with touch-screen phones so I hope she finds that super useful.
Here’s what the finished basket gift looks like. I used a basket that I had found thrifting and tied it up with one of my many Christmas ribbons that I like to recycle.
I gave it to her early, last week, before she left on a long road trip. I won’t be seeing her until the spring. She was thrilled! So go thrifting for baskets and goodies to fill them up. You don’t even have to do any baking!
To encourage you more, here are some photos of ideas from YouTube thrifters, as well as the related videos.
Above, we see an example basket from the video below by Katie Scott of Salvaged by Katie YouTube channel. It’s for someone who loves to cook. Ms. Scott found a cookbook and paired it with some beautiful wooden bowls and salad servers, along with some decorative nutcrackers and a pretty plaid dish towel. She got them all at thrift stores! So festive!
Here’s a gift basket for a bird lover. This thrifter found a bird watcher book and added a decorative birdhouse, some birdseed and other bird stuff. When I find the video I got this screenshot from I’ll include it below.
Then Monica Bazemore over in YouTube shows her thrifting trips to make three book-themed baskets, shown above: Polar Express, Narnia, and a cookbook for Christmas. So, so fun! She added some pretty scarves to some of the baskets and non-thrifted edible items like spices, candy, and tea.
I love that she found a toy stuffed lion and a Narnia picture book, then bought some Turkish Delight to add to the Narnia basket! My married daughter was enamored by Turkish Delight when she was about 12. She found a recipe and made some. I know she would love this basket!
I’ve always wondered what real Turkish Delight looks like ever since my daughter attempted making it.
Watch her two videos below where she finds the items and then assembles the baskets.
Then here is another video to inspire you. Not all the baskets below involve books. You can do themed baskets of anything! The sky’s the limit! It’s so much fun to assemble these.
I’m finally joining the crunchy mom bandwagon/party and learning about natural light. As well as all about toxic light that stresses the body and disrupts circadian rhythms. I know I could really benefit from implementing everything in the video down below.
The video shows Thaddeus Owens, a presenter from the 2025 Weston A Price Foundation Conference that was in Utah back in October. While I did go to the conference I didn’t go to this presentation so I’m super happy that the good folks at the WAPF shared this one for free in YouTube. So thank you Weston Price people! This is super important information for everyone to act on and be more hale and hearty.
My favorite part of it is when Mr. Owens shares the success story of one of his clients. This client struggled and struggled to lose his last 45 lbs. Finally he focused on changing his light diet. He didn’t change his food diet. The only two things he did differently was go outside at sunrise and wear blue blocking glasses at night. In 6 weeks he lost 45 lbs.
Mr. Owens also shares the study of two groups of mice. They had the same diet and exercise. One group had light 24/7. The other group had 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark. The darkness deprived mice became obese and the group that got darkness stayed at a normal weight.
Screenshot
With all the extra stimulation going on during the Christmas season, following this light/dark protocol is a great way to protect ourselves from holiday stresses and emerge feeling nourished and not depleted. I’m excited to test it all out! Wintertime is the best time to honor darkness and see just how nourishing it can be!
It’s December! For me that means taking a break from my regularly scheduled everyday fare of books, audiobooks and podcasts (I’m currently listening to Travels With George and The Mayflower, both by Nathaniel Philbrick and Salt Sugar Fat by Michael Moss) to binge on all the good, beautiful and true things Christmas! I’ve been doing this for years. I didn’t really have a name for it, but I just found a name for what I do. Today I discovered this video below to describe what I’ve been doing every year: a Merry Mother’s Christmas curriculum. I love it! If you homeschool, you probably have heard about Christmas school. This is Christmas-themed homeschooling curriculum. What about having a personalized Christmas-themed curriculum for the homeschooling mom? That’s what this is! You don’t even have to be a homeschooler to do this. This is what veteran homeschooling mother Karen Andreola calls Mother Culture. (Her book about it is below.) It’s what Ramona Zabriskie in Wife for Life calls drops, delights, and dazzles of the heart. But for December it’s Christmas-themed! These are little and big things to fill your heart so you easily feel willing, happy, and able to serve others. With so many demands on you, mom, as chief merry maker of the family, it’s more important than ever to have an especially joyful December Mother Culture/Merry Christmas Mom Curriculum, to nourish your soul!
(As an Amazon associate, any purchases of books made through the links on this post earn me a small commission. The cost is the same to you.)
Watch below to see homeschooling mom America describe her Merry Christmas Mother Curriculum.
OK, so here’s my Merry Christmas Mother’s Curriculum. Some of it overlaps with family reading/Immanuel Wreath discussion at dinner time and December Morning Basket time for homeschooling, as well as family movie time.
First, I’ll be reading from these two advent books above and below. We do the Our Family Christmas as a family at dinnertime, after we do the name of Christ for the day/lighting the Immanuel Advent Wreath. (Go here to read about the Immanuel Wreath.)
Photo Credit: desertbook.com
Our Family Christmas is basically an Advent book from an LDS Christian perspective. I found this thrifting for only $3! One of my favorite ever thrift store finds! Definitely a Magical Thrifting Moment. Each day has a question that can be used as a journal prompt or discussion starter. Like for Dec. 1, the question is “What are you looking forward to the most this Christmas season?” and for Dec. 2 the question is “What is your favorite Christmas tree ornament?” There’s always a story, an activity, and a song for each day in this Advent book. We always do the question, never the activity, and sometimes we look up the history of the song in YouTube and watch that video. What I do on my own is sometimes read the whole story. Then I often retell it because the story is often long and people are done eating before I’m done with the story if I don’t condense it.
Then this Advent book above is from a different Christian perspective. I’ve seen it mentioned it by a lot of homeschool Christian moms vloggers. I found it in the children’s book section at Savers and joyfully snatched it up for $5 a few years ago. I just love, love the pretty cover. I’ll pick it up and read from it occasionally with no systematic study plan which is totally OK. Even though I don’t agree with all of it doctrinally I do enjoy it.
Then we have magazines from my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I absolutely love reading the Christmas stories in these. I have this month’s print copies that I’ll share with my son for our homeschool Morning Basket, and then I also love reading stories from previous years in the LDS Gospel Library App. (You can find a collection of stories I curated from Gospel Library in my Family Devotionals Ebook in the December section. Go here to get it.)
Usually I listen to one General Conference talk a day after I listen to the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ. For December, I’ll be listening to at least one talk a day from the First Presidency Christmas Devotionals.
I started listening to this book above last year after seeing it in the BYU Store. I never finished it and now I’m starting over. It’s in Everand and I just unlocked the title yesterday. So far I’m loving it. It has a familiar ring to it since it’s historical fiction based on Charles Dickens and his writing of A Christmas Carol. So it sounds like The Man Who Invented Christmas. Deja vu! I’m curious to see if it turns out the same way as TMWIC. Which one came first and which is better? We shall see!
I heard about this Christmas romance from a homeschool vlogger and it sounded fun and clean so I also got it in Everand. So far I’m enjoying it.
Then there are Christmas podcasts. I love listening to Focus on the Family Christmas Stories podcast. Also the BYU Radio Constant Wonder Advent. I learned about the Constant Wonder Advent last year, when I providentially met the producer, Tennery Norton, at a women’s party for my church. I listen to one episode a day. I am getting so educated as to different people, cultures and places around the world and how they celebrate Christmas. I just love it! Go here to read more about the podcast and how to listen.
I’m also enjoying The Christmas Jars podcast. The Christmas Jars book is fiction, but it has inspired many real, true stories of people receiving Christmas Jars anonymously. These stories are so heartwarming! Just what I love to hear! Read the book (and the picture book), watch the movie here, and only then listen to the podcast here. It’s hosted by the author of the book, Jason F. Wright. I just love these stories!
Then there’s the Christmas Chronicles story, which isn’t really a true podcast but is published on podcast platforms by BYU Radio. This is a story written by Tim Slover. I just love the story because it is my favorite telling of the backstory of Santa. Not only that, but it tells the history of Mrs. Claus. We hardly ever hear about her. What’s with that in this post-feminist world? She definitely deserves equal time! The fantasy elements of this story kind of remind me of the Chronicles of Narnia. Go here to listen. I listened to this with all of my children when they lived at home, so it just breathes nostalgia for me as I fondly remember those Christmas years and I hope it does for them. The charming magical fantasy of the story with the epic battle of good vs. evil takes your Christmas to a whole new level of delight and wonder! Mr. Slover definitely has a way with words to weave a marvelous Christmas tale.
Next, movies! I have some of my favorite, little-known Christmas movies/videos over here and some of my fave Christmas rom coms here for date night. We usually always watch It’s a Wonderful Life (except the past few years I’ve needed a break after watching it annually for 30+ years) and Muppet Christmas Carol. I’ve been meaning to watch I Heard the Bells and haven’t yet so will definitely prioritize it this year. I also want to watch The Most Wonderful Time of Year (stars Henry Winkler) for the laughs it gives me as well as Christmas With the Karountzoses. Both are so, so funny! They also give you that happy holiday family energy as well.
Then there are a few new-to-me Christmas movies I noticed in this video below that maybe I’ll watch for date night with my husband.
I’m also going to dabble in watching/listening to as many Christmas Concerts with the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square. Many are on YouTube here, and often tell the backstories of well-known Christmas carols and/or stories. I got to see in person the one with the Muppets back in 2013 or so which was so fun, as well as the one about Dickens narrated by John-Rhys Davies. Some of these concerts have been made into picture books as well, like the one above.
Speaking of the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra, that leads into music. I’ll be piano-playing as many of the LDS-themed Christmas songs I’ve curated in the December section of my Family Devotionals ebook, here, as I can. I will also be playing classics from The Reader’s Digest Merry Christmas Songbook. I play on the piano every morning and evening as a call for family prayer, and scripture study in the evening. I got this for my birthday when I turned 16, and have treasured it ever since.
It has almost every Christmas song you can think of in it, that you would want. (Not the obnoxious ones like “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer,” “Feliz Navidad” etc.) Sadly, it is missing “Silver Bells” and “Mary’s Lullaby.” Mine’s an old edition, maybe the newer ones have rectified these oversights. So I’m rejoicing in the bounties of Providence in that the Our Family Christmas book which I showed above and show again below, has those two songs and the Hallelujah Chorus from the Messiah. I just love, love playing and singing all these songs! (Hint: you can buy the songbooks above for cheaper
And guess what?! One of the libraries I patronize has this book of piano and vocal sheet music below waiting for me to pick up! This is so, so exciting! Soon we can be singing the song above while I accompany on the piano, maybe for my Jolabokkaflod party or Christmas Eve! This is the one movie I love to watch every year with the family and haven’t gotten tired of.
How can I leave out thrifting as part of my December curriculum? It’s not really a course of study, which is the technical definition of “curriculum” but it does bring me a lot of joy. Especially thrifting for gifting! You can see what I’ve found here and here so far, including the gorgeous Hanna Andersson sweater for one of my grandsons above. Unless you are a family member, then don’t go look. I have a little bit more to do and look forward to what else I will find. I’ve also found more earlier in the year but don’t want to bother to hunt down which posts have those pictures :-).
I gave the above thrifted books, DVD, and new Dollar Tree candle to a friend who just left for Nevada where she lives. I put it all in the basket below with some Dollar Tree potholders and new set of gloves. My mom’s birthday is tomorrow so I’ll be making a gift basket for her too.
Next, handicrafts! America in the top video of this post mentioned that having a Christmas handicraft is important to her. I’ve got a scarf I started crocheting a few years ago. I’d love to finish it so I’ll work on that during movie time. I will also be getting out my two Nativity jigsaw puzzles to do if I have the free moment when I’m not doing other multitasking while listening to the audiobooks and podcasts. I will also work on them on Sundays and hope to get the family to join. Of course I will be sipping some peppermint tea in my Christmas-y Pioneer Woman mug while puzzling. One of my sons gave me these mugs for my birthday two years ago. They make me so happy!
Photo Credit: thepioneerwoman.com
I also love watching slow, soothing crafting and decorating for Christmas videos, like this one below with Little Women vibes. The paper snowflakes are probably the only thing I’ll be making from it but if you want some old-fashioned craft ideas to do, watch below. Or just watch for fun! 🙂
I’ve also posted this handout below on my fridge to encourage/invite/remind myself and my family members to do at least one thing each day to #lighttheworld with the light of Christ. This is part of the #lighttheworld campaign from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Giving of ourselves doesn’t have to be grand projects, it can be little acts of kindness.
I always do a little reading in bed after saying my prayers, sitting up, with an amber light bulb in my lamp. For Christmas I swapped out my usual night cap reading fare for these Christmas books:
I was thrilled to find this book shown above, while shopping at thrift stores last year, twice, once right before Christmas and once right after! It’s a tiny book but packs a punch. The first copy I gave to my married daughter, in her stocking, and then on Jan. 3 I found a copy for me. Except our copies are red. This book is a companion to a picture book for children. You can read about them here.
Then I’m reading a story a night from the books above and below. Being able to be in bed, all cozy, reading with my soft amber light motivates me to go to bed!
It’s Christmas picture book time!!!! I’m so excited!!! Here are just some of the books I’ve collected through the decades of being a mom, picture book lover, and Christmas fan.
Most of these books I found at thrift stores. Some were borrowed from the public library. The picture below shows my latest finds. I read these books aloud for Morning Basket time and then when the grandchildren visit.
I have my original list, titled “Beyond Polar Express” here. (Does anyone else think Polar Express is way overrated, if not downright creepy to have children traveling without parents?)
Then over here on my companion website, I have a bigger list. (Ignore the ad for the calendar, it’s outdated. I’ll be publishing a new one for 2026 soon.)
Then watch these videos on this post to find even more suggestions that I haven’t added to the list on the website yet.
Some people like to read one picture book a day for Advent, where they wrap each picture book, put them under the tree, and unwrap one a day. That’s too much work for me, such that I only could manage that one year, when my children were all at home. My children didn’t care about unwrapping them and being surprised so that was great. Less work for me! Ever since then we’ve just read one or two a day that I kept in a basket. But this year I’m going to decorate with them, after discovering my seasonal/holiday books fit into grooves on the ledges above my front room windows, last Independence Day. So ever since then I’ve been decorating for different holidays with my picture books! Anyway, my married daughter does a shortcut to wrapping by popping the books in simple brown gift bags she decorated. Go here to learn about that. Then she hangs them to keep them inaccessible from the little boys until the appointed time to read aloud. She got the bags on amazon.
Merry Bookmas! Because of Christ and Christmas picture books, the world is abundant!
This past week, in addition to celebrating and thinking about Thanksgiving, I’ve been celebrating inwardly and thinking about Joseph Smith. That’s because the topic for the Come Follow Christ study was the testimony and martydrom of Joseph Smith. Because of his outspoken testimony, he was killed. He sealed his testimony with his blood. The video below shows the Carthage Jail, where the murder took place. It also features one of my favorite Come Follow Christ YouTubers, Barbara Morgan Gardiner. She visits with Sydney Smith Reynolds, a descendant of Hyrum Smith, who was with his brother Joseph at Carthage Jail, and was murdered at the same time that Joseph was.
I’m so grateful for Joseph Smith! I remember hearing my dear Aunt Chris (whose funeral I blogged about here) bear testimony of him at a Sunday church service after her son came home from a mission. He had spent two years bearing testimony of Jesus Christ and his restorational prophet, Joseph Smith. I felt the Holy Spirit then and I feel it now bear witness to me that Joseph Smith was chosen by God to restore the ancient gospel and church of Jesus Christ in the latter-days.
I’ve prayed about the witness that Joseph Smith gave in his Joseph Smith History, that he saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. The account is over here. I have felt the Holy Ghost witness to me that his account is true. I’m so grateful that he willingly shared this testimony of that appearance. I’m also grateful for all he testified after the First Vision, and all he did, including following God’s call to translate the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ and establish the true church of Jesus Christ in the latter-days.
What happened because he followed those calls involved a heavenly education. In addition to being tutored by God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, Joseph was visited and tutored by other heavenly beings: Moses, Elijah, Moroni, John the Baptist, and Peter, James, and John. Maybe more, but those are the ones I remember from my study. His revelations from these messengers as well as from the Holy Ghost endow us with knowledge that can enlarge all of our minds. The image at the very top of this post shows some of the topics that God expanded Joseph’s mind about so that Joseph could think like God. Because of Joseph writing down his revelations, we can each have our mind expanded as well.
The video above is the one from which I got that screenshot, done by my husband’s cousin Lynne Hilton Wilson. I invite you to watch it as well as these amazing videos below featuring Truman Madsen, scholar and philosopher, telling us all about the amazing truths that Joseph revealed because they were revealed to him.
As Brigham Young once said, “I feel like shouting Hallelujah, all the time, when I think that I ever knew Joseph Smith, the Prophet whom the Lord raised up and ordained, and to whom he gave keys and power to build up the Kingdom of God on earth and sustain it” (Discourses of Brigham Young, 456).
Not that I personally knew Joseph, but I feel like I did know him because of what I’m able to learn about him. I also feel like I know him because of all the gifts he gave us. These gifts include treasures of knowledge of eternal truths, as well as priesthood ordinances to allow living with God again. These gifts are here to bless the whole human race. You can tell much about the giver by the kind of gifts he or she gives right? Joseph feels like the most ideal big brother anyone could ever ask for.
These ordinances he restored allow me to be with generations of my family for eternity. Despite all the drama in my family, I love them! I do want to be with them forever. I do want to be with my friends too. As Joseph revealed, “the same sociality [social relationships] which exists among us here [as mortals on earth] will exist among us there,” or when we are in the Lord’s presence, but “it will be coupled with eternal glory, which glory we do not now enjoy” (D&C 130:2).
As Brother Truman says in Lecture 2, “There is a feeling that constantly recurs as one studies Joseph Smith. You never quite get to the bottom. There is always more. You can be so impressed and overcome with glimpses that you could say, ‘There is nothing good that I could learn of him that would surprise me’ and then you become surprised. There is always more. It takes deep to comprehend deep and I wonder if any of us have the depth to fully comprehend the man.”
Then there’s the movie, down below, that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints produced to tell his story. My favorite part is when Joseph silences the evil speakers making fun of the mob violence against the Saints in Missouri.
This is what he said:
“SILENCE, ye fiends of the infernal pit. In the name of Jesus Christ I rebuke you, and command you to be still; I will not live another minute and hear such language. Cease such talk, or you or I die THIS INSTANT!’
After this command, Parley P. Pratt said about Joseph: “He ceased to speak. He stood erect in terrible majesty. Chained, and without a weapon; calm, unruffled and dignified as an angel, he looked upon the quailing guards, whose weapons were lowered or dropped to the ground; whose knees smote together, and who, shrinking into a corner, or crouching at his feet, begged his pardon, and remained quiet till a change of guards.” (Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt, ed. Parley P. Pratt Jr. (1938), 210–11.)
Truly he was a man who spoke for and communed with Jehovah. I’m forever grateful for his valiant testimony and actions that bore witness of Jesus Christ.
Tree of Life Mothering 