Thank you Penguin Young Readers for sponsoring this post.
We love to read and collect Christmas books. It is a tradition in our home to buy a new Christmas book for our family every year. I was so excited when I was introduced to North Pole Ninjas. Once I read it with my family I knew it was something I wanted to share with others. This book got us all excited because it has a mission and has a purpose to generate kindness by helping, caring and listening to others.
To be honest when I first heard the title of the book I thought it was something my girls would not like, only boys. I was wrong. The illustrations are well done, the story is so fun and the missions included are so inspired. I really appreciate the fact that I didn’t have to think of any of the missions myself, making it easy to actually follow through and accomplish them.
I gave the book to my girls on our family night. One of the first “missions” that we read was to “Make a special award for each person in your family and tell them what they mean to to you.” We went around and took turns verbally stating our favorite things about each other. My girls ate it up.
There are 50 Missions included in a little envelope with the book. 50! And they are all so unique. These are two of my favorites-
“Host a household talent show with your family and friends. Make homemade awards for everyone.” I love this! It could even be recite a Christmas story, play the piano or do a Holiday dance!
“Pay one nice compliment to each person you see today. Be honest and kind.” This is one of my favorites. What a great challenge.
Another mission that we accepted and did was to “Get a gift for your wonderful teacher. They work harder than you would ever believe.” We had hot chocolate in our favorite mugs and got the same mugs for the girls teachers with a Starbucks gift card inside.
The book comes with a little soft Ninja toy. We talked about hiding the Ninja or leaving it in the spot that you did a secret mission around the house. Then whoever finds the Ninja is in charge of picking out a new mission for the family to complete or they can do a secret mission on their own.
In order to have some accountability I will be sharing when and how we complete a North Pole Ninja Mission on my Instagram. You can follow along HERE and share your own missions with hashtag #NorthPoleNinjas
You can purchase North Pole Ninjas by Tyler Knott Gregson and Sarah Linden HERE
You can also Enter to Win a Free North Pole Ninja Book by leaving a comment on this post! Just tell me your favorite Christmas Tradition. (Ends 11-20-16 US addresses only)
How fun!!! I love the focus on kindness. One of my favorite traditions as a kid was making breakfast sandwiches on Christmas morning.. eggs, Candian bacon and cheese on an English muffin.. we could have had those any time but it was just so fun we enjoyed them together 🙂
I love that tradition! Reminds me of my parents tradition of making frittata for everyone Christmas morning.
Thanks for entering!
One of my favorite traditions is making a few holiday treats and then delivering them to our friends around town. The boys come with me and get to help deliver them to the door.
OHHHH I LOVE that tradition! Wish I was your neighbor:)
Thanks for entering!
I love the idea of reinforcing kindness! One of our favorite traditions is reading a different Christmas book in front of the Christmas tree each night of December.
You probably have a good stack of Christmas books then! This book would be awesome in your collection:)
This is such a fun idea!! My favorite tradition is baking Christmas cookies for the neighbors. We live in the country so our neighbors are pretty spread out and this helps us be more intentional about recognizing them. We always make enough for them to share with their holiday guests.
I love that you said it helps you to be more intentional. Such a wonderful tradition.
What a great book! I love that it comes with kindness missions! One of my favorite traditions that my family does is we order Chinese takeout on Christmas Eve while opening one present. My siblings & parents (8 of us all together) draw names & make or purchase a small gift. It’s such a fun night!
We had Chinese on Christmas Eve last year too! It was by accident, we didn’t realize so many places closed at 4:00:)
But I like your tradition and I think it will be ours now too! My parents and siblings draw names as well, I love it!
I would love to share this book with my classroom! Good Luck to my kids!! We are changing it up this year and instead of a Christmas concert we are making art, having “A Gala” and auctioning it off. All the funds we raise will go to families in need during the holiday season.
What a fun book! We started a new tradition last year where we ate a simple “shepherd’s meal picnic” in front of the Christmas tree and talked about the story of Christ.
I REALLY like that idea. I am going to copy! Thanks for sharing!
I love the idea of incorporating acts of kindness with Christmas! Although my little one is 3 months old we started reading to her every night. I hope I remember this book and this idea next year!
How fun to have a new bay around Christmas:) yes it is a good book!
hey girl love the post! This is so cool! There needs to be more books like this!
Thanks Shawnna! I totally agree- so inspiring.
Thank you for sharing this post I always love hearing of a good book! Growing up me and my siblings would wake up excited Christmas morning and wake our parents up by me playing Christmas carols on the piano while the others sang. It became something our parents looked forward to! I’m married now and we are expecting our first baby in June next year so I’m excited to begin new Christmas traditions with our little family. Your posts are always so inspiring to me! Have a merry Christmas!
that is SO wonderful!! I absolutely love your tradition. I love having the piano played in the home. I am going to do this! Thank you!
This looks amazing. Our family would really love this tradition. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for commenting Marianne!
Super Cute! I’m sure my boys would love this book too 🙂 Your Christmas tree in the background is beautiful. I can’t wait to see more of your home this holiday.
Hello Emily! Thanks for coming over and your sweet words:)
We love to give out blessing bags to people we see that are homeless. Trying to spread more love. Everyone matters.
yes! My mother-in-law started that last year- we walked around down town Salt Lake City Utah and handed them out. Wonderful tradition!
Every year growing up my mom gave us a new ornament on Saint Nicholas Day, Dec. 6th, sometimes purchased, oftentimes handmade lovelies. We would decorate small trees in our bedrooms with our personal collections. As we left home for college, work or marriage we each had a box of ornaments to adorn our tree in our new homes. I have a box a beautiful Christmas memories thanks to her efforts. It’s a tradition I’ve loved and happily continued.
That is such a great idea. My girls have a tree in their room- maybe I will start the tradition with a new ornament. Thanks for sharing!
I love this idea! I have a young family and I’ve been thinking about what traditions we can start! Getting kiddos involved in service and sharing kindness is where change in the world begins. Thanks for sharing such wonderful idea!
How exciting to start new traditions! This book would be great for you.
What a great book! Even if I don’t win I will purchase the book … lovely idea to do with my kids. One of our favorite traditions is I pick a random weekend night (Friday or Saturday) leading up to Christmas and my kids get ready for bed. Once jammies are on and they are ready to get tucked in I start to sing jingle bells and my kids jump out of bed because they now what happens next! We make hot chocolate to go race to the car and drive around town looking at all the Christmas lights.
How cute is this?! My sister has taken my girls for a couple years now on a car ride and watch polar express in the car and look at christmas lights. How cute are you to sing Jingle Bells and surprise them. Thanks for sharing!
Every year our town always has a “Christmas Preview” downtown. They shut the streets off to cars so people can roam the streets, all the local shops are displaying their Christmas goodies, there are choirs singing Christmas carols outside so you are walking around with your family, sipping hot cocoa, and listening to live Christmas songs with lights and the chatter of everyone having fun. It’s always SO much fun and a great way to kick off the Holiday season! It’s this Sunday, and our daughter will be joining us for the first time, (she’s six months old), so we are over the moon excited to experience all that goodness with her. 🙂
That sounds amazing! You live in a charming town! How fun to have your baby!! Christmas will be amazing with her. Thanks for sharing!
I love your tradition of buying a new Christmas book every year. Can’t wait to see more of your Christmas decor. So one of my favorite traditions is fairly new. About 3 years ago I started an advent countdown calendar where we make a Christmas bucket list. So it’s something different every day. Like watch a Christmas movie, build gingerbread houses, shop for your cousins, make cards for grandparents, clean out filled toy boxes and donate toys to someone in need, make a red and green meal, bake cookies, give them away. It takes some planning to make sure things are scheduled on the right days or in the right order. Can’t deliver the cookies until they are made 😉 I plan to clean my house tomorrow and start decorating over the weekend!
I love that you call it a Christmas Bucket list! Sounds like a lot of the things we do for our Christmas Countdown. Have so much fun putting out Christmas! Thanks for sharing and your comment!
I have to check out this book!! I usually put good deeds for us to do as a family in the advent bags as we count down to Christmas. I’m sure they are due for an upgrade 🙂 Given the state of affairs in our country right now we have been focusing on our kids doing more within our communities to help each other heal and to just be present with each other. Our adbvent deeds have always been focused on the people in our community. This may be another sweet way to do that right in our own home. Like my firing said, “…it doesn’t matter who is in the White House. Start with who is in your house.”
I think that seeing those in our community makes such an impact too- it raises us all up. I love that quote- My mom recently shared it with me! Thanks for your comment.
I too love a good Christmas book. The past couple of years we check books out of the library and even listen on audio. When we come across one we really like , I’ll purchase it and give them away as gifts to friends that have kids or even our family members. We love books at our house and love even more gifting them.
I love that Christa, I too love sharing good books- I think they make the best gifts for kids! xoxo
Love this! I love every tradition at Christmas: putting up the tree, listening to the music, reading the treasured Christmas stories, reading the story of the Savior’s birth on Christmas Eve. They all are so special!
I totally agree! Thank you!
Love this! I love every tradition at Christmas: putting up the tree, listening to the music, reading the treasured Christmas stories, reading the story of the Savior’s birth on Christmas Eve. They all are so special!
This book looks so fun! I love the kindness and service it calls to action! We’ve had many traditions over the 32 years since our family began but our most meaningful traditions include watching It’s a Wonderful Life, the original animated Grinch, and reading the Nativity out of Luke 2 in the New Testament just before bed on Christmas Eve.. Being together and feeling the awe and wonder of this event is Christmas to us.
Those are wonderful traditions- thanks for sharing!
Every Christmas Eve we sit down as a family with the World Vision catalog and each person gets to pick two things we want to buy for those in need. My girls love picking the goats and chickens. We talk about how it more important to give than receive. Each person shares how what they picked is going to change someone’s life and we tell how we think they will react.
It’s definitely a tradition I look forward too.
I have never heard of that catalog- thank you for sharing! I will have to check into it. Thanks!
I’d love to give this book to my nephews. They are the sweetest kids I know, so I think they would be eager to complete kindness missions. My favorite tradition is Christmas breakfast with them and the rest of my family. There is nothing that compares to the joy and excitement of a child on Christmas!
Sounds like you are a really loving good Aunt. Thanks for sharing
Even if I don’t win a copy for the kids, I will definitely be out buying this! Thank you!!!
Thank you! You and your kids will really enjoy it!
At our local rec center there is a Christmas Tree with wishes for children and teens at the Ronald McDonald house. Every year my kids choose a child close to their age they would like to help make Christmas better for. Then we go shopping for these gifts as a family.
Hello Mariette! – how perfect for your kids to actually go out shopping for the child. Great idea.
Every Christmas we go to a tree farm and cut down our own Christmas tree. We spend all day together at the game, drinking hot chocolate, listening to music, sitting by the fire and then decorating the Christmas tree while watching Christmas movies! It is so much fun! Since our girls are getting older we want to start doing more acts of kindness this book sounds like a fun way to start!
CONGRATS you are the winner of the book! We will be contacting you to send you the book!
This book sounds amazing! A tradition in my house…. New Christmas Pjs and lots and lots of holiday movies…countdown to Christmas is my favorite time of year. We cuddle and spend time slowing down during a busy time of year.
Now this is a book tradition I could get behind! Port away that creepy elf and do some good! I’d love to win!
This book sounds amazing–Spread kindness! I would love it for my own kids and my kids at school. I have lots of traditions I love but my favorite is re-enacting the Nativity on Christmas Eve. Everyone gets to be something and we read the story in the Bible and sing carols. It’s a good way to remember the true reason for the season!
I love that- made me feel so great reading your tradition, because we do that too. Merry Christmas!
I love this! What a wonderful book! Thank you for sharing a great gift idea that keeps on giving…have lots in mind for this one! And a free one could help with that list!