Jólabókaflóð: how to start Iceland's Christmas Eve book tradition

In Iceland, the present that matters on Christmas Eve is often a book. It is unwrapped that evening, and then the family does the obvious thing with it: they read. Visit Iceland, the country’s official tourism body, describes books being exchanged on Christmas Eve followed by the rest of the evening spent reading, often into the next day.

The Icelandic name is jólabókaflóð, the Christmas book flood. It is one of the easiest traditions in the world to borrow, and it suits a family with children rather better than it suits anybody else.

Where it comes from

Every year since 1944, the Icelandic book trade has published a catalogue of new books, the Bókatíðindi, and sent it to households. It goes out in mid-November, and people use it to choose the books they will give at Christmas, which is why so much of Iceland’s publishing happens at the end of the year.

The timing has a wartime explanation. During the Second World War, paper was one of the few things that was not rationed in Iceland, so books were a present people could still give when much else was scarce. Iceland also became independent from Denmark in 1944, and Visit Iceland ties the tradition to the sense of national identity that grew up around books.

Why it is worth borrowing

The National Literacy Trust’s survey of 125,375 children and young people across the UK, in 2026, found that 61.6% of 5 to 8 year olds enjoy reading in their free time. The trust’s headline figure for reading enjoyment across children and young people was 36.1%, up from 32.7% the year before.

Somewhere between the first picture books and the teenage years, a lot of children stop thinking of reading as something they do for fun. A book that arrives as a present, on the most exciting night of the year, with the whole family reading at once, is a small push the other way. It puts a book in the same category as everything else under the tree: a treat, not a task.

If your child has already decided books are not for them, our piece on what to do when a child says reading is boring is a better place to start than a lecture.

How to do it at home

1. One book each, wrapped separately. Including the adults, which is the part that turns it from a present into a tradition.
2. Open them on Christmas Eve. After tea, once the rushing about has stopped.
3. Then read, all of you, at the same time. Children who can read alone read alone, and the younger ones read with somebody. Pyjamas, blankets and a hot drink help.
4. Put the screens somewhere else for an hour. Nobody has to say why.
5. Let them stay up a little later to finish a chapter. It is the one night when that is the point.

Choosing a book by age

Choose for the child you have, not the reader you hope they will become. A book about football, horses or volcanoes that gets read is worth more on Christmas Eve than a classic that does not. For a sense of how long a younger child will happily listen, see how long a bedtime story should be.

It does not have to cost much

The tradition is about the evening, not the shopping. A library book borrowed in December counts. So does a second-hand copy, or a book that was yours when you were their age, with your name still written inside the cover.

A book you made together

If you have spent December writing a story with your child, Christmas Eve is the night to read the finished thing aloud. We wrote about how to write a Christmas story together, a chapter at a time, and a story made that way, printed and wrapped, is a jólabókaflóð present nobody else could give.

Taleium can help with the writing down: your child decides what happens and it writes the chapter, then reads it aloud. If grandparents are too far away to be there on the night, a story can be shared with them by link. The ideas here work just as well with a notebook and a pen.

The short version

• Jólabókaflóð is Iceland’s Christmas Eve tradition: give a book, then spend the evening reading it.
• One book each, adults included, opened on 24 December.
• Choose for the child you have, by what they love rather than what they should read.
• A library or second-hand book is just as good.
• Read at the same time, together, with the screens put away.

The history is from Visit Iceland’s account of the origins of the Christmas book flood, and the figures from the National Literacy Trust’s report on children and young people’s reading in 2026.