Jólabókaflóð – An Icelandic Christmas Tradition

We all have different traditions, some in our own families and some celebrated across our communities.  We loved hearing about the Icelandic tradition of Jólabókaflóð from the National Literacy Trust.

On Christmas Eve, people exchange gifts of books and then read them straight away, snuggled up in front of the fire, eating chocolate or drinking hot chocolate.  What a cosy idea!

The National Literacy Trust is suggesting that this Christmas we follow the Icelandic tradition of Jólabókaflóð – the Christmas book flood. To read more about this tradition including a list of fun ideas of how you could adapt the Jólabókaflóð tradition and resources, click here.

The National Literacy Trust is also promoting the Gift of Reading.  More children and young people own their own books, but a survey carried out found that there are still many who don’t. The survey found that children who own books are 6 times more likely to read above the level expected for their age.  So that’s a huge incentive to share books with children is it not?  You can read more about the survey by clicking here.