In my family, Christmas has always been full of books. We have always given and received books as gifts. And, unlike some families I know, books were never one of the disappointing gifts you passed over to get to the real exciting stuff.

Two years ago, I introduced my family to The Hunger Games. I put the third book on my Christmas list and brought the first two home to lend to my family. By the end of the week, everyone had read all three books in The Hunger Games trilogy: me, my sister, my mom, my dad and my husband. We spent the week passing around the books we had received. When one person finished reading The Room, they swapped the the other person who’d just finished The Passage.

I remember so many Christmas weeks sitting in our living room, next to the tree with a fire going in the fire place, the four of us on different couches or chairs reading. The week after Christmas has always felt, to me, like a bit of a break from real life–school, when we were younger, or work now.

This year is no different. I’ve started a pile of all the books that I’m going to read over the break. And although this year I won’t be reading in the living room with my sister or my parents, swapping books as we finish them, I will be sending them all books as gifts. I will also be spending lots of quality time reading. That is a tradition I’m going to keep.