We recently asked our newsletter readers to let us know how their book group will be celebrating the holidays this year. Many thanks to all who shared their holiday plans with us! Perhaps they will provide some last-minute ideas to those who need them.
Kristen: "We each bring a wrapped book with three clues to the title on the gift tag. We then draw numbers and do an exchange where up to three steals are allowed. We also bring a beverage container to swap: wine glass, coffee mug, water bottle, tea cup, beer glass. Our reading beverages are diverse! It's tons of fun, and we all come away with a book and a glass to enjoy over the holidays!"
Jill: "For Christmas, we each bring an appetizer, and the hostess provides dessert and beverages. We discuss our book that was picked for December. We each bring a new book/books that we donate to Gifts for All God’s Children, and we bring a wrapped book for our book exchange. We play a game, and each person gets a book. We always have lots of laughs and a good time."
Becki: "The Newcomers of Birmingham Day Book Club has a regular book discussion with a special champagne brunch, and members bring new children's books for a shelter for women in recovery and their children."
Elizabeth: "Each member of my book club, The Book Parkers, wraps up a book, and we have a white elephant exchange. Because of some switching of hosting duties, rather than read the same book for our December meeting, this year we each are going to read something on our own and then tell the group what we think about what we chose. This should lead to some interesting discussions!"
Ruby: My book club, Looking For Words, is reading OLD POSSUM'S BOOK OF PRACTICAL CATS by T.S. Eliot for November, and then we are planning an outing to see the movie Cats, which releases on December 20th."
Mary: For the last year, my book group, Book Turners, has brought two-dozen homemade cookies. We have some to eat and take the rest home. We have 10 members of the group, so we get to take home 10 different cookies."
Jackie: "Each November, our book club buys books for a selected group of children. This year, we are doing preteen/teen books for the temporary foster family center. Medina has had a large number of children taken by child welfare due to the drug crisis. Intake is at the center, and we want to add books for the older kids this year. The books may be kept by the teens. If the center runs out of these books, we hope to replenish them. We began meeting at a local grocery store's community room in December several years ago. The store caters our Christmas celebration. In past years, we have had white elephant gifts passed along with a 'right-left' game. This year, we are bringing a new/nearly new book that each of us enjoyed but was not a book club pick. The book is to be wrapped in brown paper. Each member will get one of the books."
Elise: "My book club meets on our usual day (the second Tuesday of the month) in December for a holiday party. We get trays of food from a local restaurant and meet at a member’s house. We do a book exchange with each person wrapping a book they loved, or one from our upcoming list for next year to exchange. Swapping is permitted! We also do a 'Best and Worst' list featuring the books we read that year. Categories include 'Best mother,' 'Setting we’d most like to visit,' and (my favorite) 'Book we’d most like to throw across the room.' We’ve been doing this for probably 15 years now."
Deb: "One of our most fun December meetings was a white elephant book exchange, which had one rule: you couldn't buy a new book. It had to be a book you enjoyed that you wanted to pass on to someone else. There was fun and laughter as people 'stole' titles they wanted from others. Everyone went home with new reading material, no money was spent (except for wine, of course), and there was no stress of shopping. Easy peasy."
