Book Love: The Sweet Smell of Christmas

When I saw this book and awesome interactive read-aloud idea on one of my favorite blogs, Teach Preschool, I knew I wanted to incorporate it into our holiday activities this year. It fit in so well with our overall theme of families and the things that they do together.

The Sweet Smell of Christmas by Patricia M. Scarry

This cute story follows a family of bears as they get ready to celebrate Christmas. From baking in the kitchen to picking out a Christmas tree, each event has a smell associated with it. The scratch and sniff stickers inside the pages already make for a fun interactive element, but I loved the way Deborah at Teach Preschool also added real items for the kids to touch and smell. So we did something similar!

We read this on the same day that we made our gingerbread cookies, so we were really able to imagine what the bear's kitchen must have smelled like when they made the cookies. Using our sense of smell (and taste once or twice...) really brought this story to life. This book is definitely a new holiday favorite for me.