Five Fun Holiday Activities for Book Clubs

Make some new holiday traditions with your literary friends.

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Whether you are in an established book club or relatively new one, it’s never to late to have a little literary fun over the holidays.

Host a Book Exchange

Ask book club members to bring used books that they no longer want. (Just make sure everyone doesn’t bring the book everybody hated in book club!) Pile all the books on a table and allow everyone to “shop” the table. There are usually books leftover, so arrange to have one of the members bring the leftovers to the local library to donate to their used book sales.

Go Book Shopping for Your Local School

This is a great way to support children’s literacy. Contact the school you want to support and tell them your book club would like to donate books to their library or teachers’ classrooms. Ask them what they are looking for-many teachers have wish lists that they can send you. Once you have a shopping list, make a date with your book club to meet up at your favorite bookstore and have everyone buy a book or two for the school. Make sure you have coffee and a treat after the shopping excursion.

Read a Holiday Classic

Now’s the time of year to get one of those classics checked-off your list. No matter what your book club’s preferred genre is, why not read a holiday classic? Little Women or A Christmas Carol are obvious choices.

See a Movie Based on a Book You Read This Year

You read the book, now go see the movie. Be sure to go out for dinner or coffee afterwards so you can all complain about how the movie didn’t live up to the book. (I mean, we know it’s going to happen.)

Have an Awards Ceremony

Get trophies made for the best and worst books you read that year. Whoever picked the book gets to take it home and keep it for a year. If people are sensitive about their choice being voted the worst book, come up with other awards like Best Guilty Pleasure Book of the Year.

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At the checkout desk…..

One thing I love about going to my local library is getting to know the librarians personally. If you are friendly and kind, they will tell you what they think about the book you are checking-out, make book recommendations, and even share recipes. One of my librarian friends even brought me plums from her tree one year. That’s the kind of relationship I want to build with you here in The Cozy Library too. So I’m starting this new section on the newsletter with that in mind. I hope you will use the comments to chat a little with me too.

This weekend, my husband and I had the first of what we are now officially calling, Empty Nest Saturdays. These are Saturdays when we do whatever we want. No longer held prisoner to children’s sporting events, recitals, or school activities, we are free to do, you guessed it, whatever we want.

We spent the inaugural Empty Nest Saturday going to the Portland Book Festival. Then we came home and drank wine while we listened to music and cooked Spaghetti Bolognese (this is my favorite recipe) garlic bread, and a salad. We talked about books and just reconnected.

It felt like the days before our daughter came along. It was pure magic. What did you do last weekend?

Thanks for stopping by The Cozy Library,

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P.S. Don’t forget! It’s my birthday this month and to celebrate, I’m offering a 20% an annual subscription. Paid subscribers get access to my original short stories, posts about the writing life, and the joy of knowing they are helping me meet my goals as a writer. Click here to take advantage of the offer. Offer expires November 30, 2023.