YES I AM EXCITED FOR THE HOLIDAYS!!! This post is to share with you some of the holiday-themed happenings at Bookmark Lit, as well as show what secret santas and gift swaps I’ve signed up for this year. I am a huge fan of Christmas music, cozying up by the fire, drinking hot chocolate, and reading holiday themed books. Giving and receiving gifts is so much fun, so I’m eager to buy some swap/secret santa gifts and see what others pick out for me! 🙂
UPDATE: Secret Santa & Book Exchange Reveal | 12 Days of Christmas Reveal
I joined the Broke & Bookish Secret Santa! The sign-ups end on November 15th, so hurry there if you’re still interested in joining. You just have to send out an email with some info about your interests and bookish preferences to sign up. I created a wishlist on Goodreads to make it easier for all of these swaps. Jamie pairs everyone off and the exchange begins! You can choose what “level” of expectations you have (the amount of books/goodies you’d like to give and receive) so the price limit is really up to you. Send out your package by December 15th so hopefully the person gets it before Christmas! I’m really excited for this one; a lot of people have signed up so far.
I also signed up for the 12 Days of Christmas Swap at Chaotic Goddess Swaps! This is a really fun one. You spend between $40-50 to buy 12 individually wrapped gifts for your swap partner. That way, they can open one present a day in the 12 days leading up to Christmas! The idea was too unique and cute to pass up. I’m really excited for this one. The sign-ups end on November 10th and packages need to be shipped by December 6th, so they arrive before the “12 days” begins. (Don’t worry, you ship all 12 gifts in one box and hope your partner is able to hold off on opening them all on the same day! I know I’ll have an issue with that one 😉 )
Finally, I signed up for the Secret Santa Book Exchange at Becoming Books! This one is really easy and pretty simple to do; I couldn’t resist. The sign-ups are open until November 21st. All you have to do is purchase one book to exchange with your partner, which means it is much cheaper than other options…but still really fun! You can include other goodies if you’d like, as long as everything is around $15. I used my wishlist again with this one, but I would be interested to see if someone could recommend a book to me instead. Why not?
I’m really excited to see what kind of bookish goodies I end up with! I love buying gifts too, so hopefully I get a partner who likes a lot of things I can be creative with. Any other swaps or secret santas you could recommend? Not that I need to spend any more money or anything…
So far I only have the Ho-Ho-Ho Holiday Read-a-thon, which started on the 6th and goes through the 11th. It is hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer and Bookshelfery. I created a page to track progress and complete my challenges, if you’d like to check it out! I only plan on reading one or two holiday books during this read-a-thon. I want to save most of my books for late November and December, so I can really enjoy them closer to the actual holidays. This read-a-thon is a good way to hopefully read and write reviews for the first days of my December holiday reviews.
Any other holiday readathons you’ve seen? I could have sworn I saw one for later in December but I could be wrong.. Let me know! I need an excuse to binge read some seasonal favorites 🙂
Throughout December, I’ll be reviewing a total of eight holiday or Christmas themed books. I am going to spread them out starting December 1st and ending with the final review on Christmas day (25th). My full holiday schedule of reviews is as follows:
- Monday December 1st
- Friday December 5th
- Monday December 8th
- Friday December 12th
- Monday December 15th
- Friday December 19th
- Monday December 22nd
- Thursday December 25th
You’ll be getting two holiday reviews a week throughout the whole month. Kind of like the 12 Days of Christmas, except the Eight Days of Holiday Reviews. (Should have come up with that name before I made these graphics..) One of these reviews will be a Book Buddies Review, where 
Cristina and I take on My True Love Gave to Me. You can see the full list of books I’m going to read this season on the right! You’ll see the reviews marked with the Holiday Reads graphic (left). I’m hoping that the reviews will be started early enough in December so people still have time to add them to their TBR lists and get into the holiday spirit! I’m welcoming any holiday recommendations if you have them, too! 🙂
Love this post! What a great idea Lauren. Can’t wait to see what you end up with.
Thank you!! Thought it would be easier to throw it all in one post 😉
I’m so glad you signed up for our swap (the 12 Days of Christmas swap). I’m in the other two, as well. ‘Tis the season for swapping! 😉
I wish I had enough holiday books to participate in any sort of targeted read-a-thon, but I have 0. Ah well, maybe next year.
So excited for all of the swaps!! I’m reading pretty much every holiday book that’s been on my TBR this year alone..so next year I’ll be in the same boat with zero holiday books haha
This is such an awesome post. All of those Secret Santa Swaps sound like so much fun. I would totally join in if I had the funds. What great ideas. I’ve also been thinking of reviewing wintery books, but after my last attempt at a theme-read, it didn’t go so well. 🙁 I have a very tentative list of wintery books I want to review next month though.I definitely want to read My True Love Gave To Me and Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares. Good luck with all of your holiday posts. :).
Haha I understand what you mean, I went a little overboard so I’ll be trying my best to handle it financially haha. Thank you! I have eight holiday reads so I figured I may as well schedule them out throughout the month 🙂 Dash & Lily is my current read and I’m loving it.
http://yabookaholic123.blogspot.ie/2014/10/end-of-2014-read-thon.html?m=1
I joined the Secret Santa at Becoming Books too!!! It should be great fun!!
I am also hosting a read-a-thon that is running from Dec 20th to Dec 31st if you want to have a look 🙂 The link is above!!! There will be more information closer to the time 🙂
Awesome!
Hope you are having fun with Ho-Ho-Ho read-a-thon and just so ya know it goes till midnight on the 11th. Happy reading and hope to see you at the Twitter party!
Whoops! Haha made the change. I knew it was the 11th too, not sure what I was thinking of.
I love this! I get in the Christmas season too! Damn I wish I could so a Secret Santa, but I’m hopefully planning on next year, hoorah! No seriously, I’m following you like pronto because I seriously love this, and I’m excited for your Christmas reviews too! I’ve got reviews for Christmas/Winter things up in December too, Wintertown and My True Love Gave To Me, hopefully Snow Child and Twelve Days of Christmas too, and some Christmassy posts, like one about me crafting my handmade Christmas Cards and books I’d give as gifts to people if I could, so yes, I get excited. Such a great post! 😀
Haha aww thanks so much!! I’ll be looking forward to your Christmasy posts too!!
I’m doing the Chaotic Goddess swap and the Ho-Ho-Ho readathon too. I considered joining the other swaps/Secret Santa, but decided I’d better limit myself to just one.
I wish i had that self control!
[…] Lauren asks do you trust your gut or take a risk and also shares her holiday-themed events. […]
You have a busy season being involved in so many swaps (I’m looking forward to seeing how they go for you- maybe I’ll do one next year!) I’m looking forward to reading My True Love Gave to Me with you 🙂
I’m so excited for that book!! I’m hardcore resisting the urge to read it ASAP but I think it’ll be best read as close to the holidays as possible 🙂
[…] doesn’t mean their opinion is less valuable. Lots of people seemed to enjoy my post about HOLIDAY THINGS! Yes, all caps are necessary. In this one, I shared the various holiday swaps, secret santas, […]
[…] always post about the various holiday things I’ll be participating in each November/December (2014, 2015 here). I’ve already put together what holiday books I plan to read, my holiday […]
[…] books during the actual holidays.) You can see past TBRs, readathons, and wintery graphics from 2014 and 2015 if you’re […]
[…] 2014 Holiday Things […]
[…] 2014 Holiday Things […]
[…] 2014 Holiday Things […]