Beyond Halloween, Christmas, Easter!

Flip through the 2021 calendar and remember especially happy times. Big annual events were special, but your best memories may the “less stressful but loaded with fun” celebrations. Libraries and bookstores are hungry for picture books and board books beyond the Big Three to fill demand year-round. And back list titles take on new life every year! How can you fill this need?

Lesser-known holidays

Imagine or visit the local party store. What decorations festoon the aisles? President’s Day, Valentine’s Day, St Patrick’s Day, May Day, Mother, Father and Grandparent’s days, Arbor Day, Thanksgiving. (Try mixing two – Valentine Turkeys, Thanksgiving dinner with the Presidents. Anytime a dragon or dinosaur shows up for a holiday, fun will ensue!)

Own voices holidays

If your personal traditions include Hanukkah, Juneteenth, Diwali or Cinco de Mayo, all children need these stories.

Birthdays and anniversaries

Celebrations are annual so the possibilities are always there. Kid birthdays are ready made opportunities for gift giving. How do flamingos celebrate? What’s the right gift for a grandma?  Who was the very first person to celebrate a birthday? (States have birthdays, too, as do countries, presidents and explorers. Great opportunity to piggyback on curriculum.)

“There’s a day for that?” celebrations

Foods have days: Jan 19 is popcorn, April 12 is grilled cheese, October 4 is tacos! Animals: Feb 27 Internal Polar Bear Day, June 4 Hug Your Cat Day, Dec 2 National Mutt Day. Activities, inventors, and saints all have days! None of these alone may be big enough for a book but a “Eat your way through the year” or “Which day is better Mutts or Cats?” (To find these lists put in your interest and add “holiday,” “celebration,” or “awareness day.”)

BONUS: all these celebrations lead naturally to back matter of recipes, crafts, family activities, and origin stories.

Here’s to a year of happy holidays!

Award winning author Robin Currie led children’s departments of Midwestern public libraries before being called midlife to ordained ministry. She has a special love for children’s literacy and Bible storytelling. Robin annually volunteers teaching English in developing countries. She and her husband actively grandparent 5 wonderful kids.

Robin has published seven library resource collections of creative ideas for library story times, and more than 20 Bible story books for children.

National Dinosaur Day is June 1! How to Dress a Dinosaur, illustrated by Alicia Pace and published by familius in March 2022.