Icelanders have a wonderful tradition of giving books to each other on Christmas Eve. They then spend the rest of the night curled up with a hot beverage, reading. This tradition has led to the Jolabokaflod, roughly translated to “Christmas book flood.” It refers to the retail cycle between September and December when the majority of books in Iceland are sold in preparation for Christmas.
According to jolabokaflod.org this tradition of book giving began during World War II when paper was one of the few things not rationed in Iceland. As other commodities were in short supply, Icelanders gave books as gifts. This increase in book gift-giving has turned Iceland into a nation of bookaholics. In fact, Iceland has one of the highest rates of books per capita.
Every year since 1944, the Icelandic book trade has sent out a book bulletin to each household in the country in mid-November during the Reykjavik Book Fair. People use this catalog to order books to give to family and friends. According to this article, in 2014 each Icelander bought on average 2.1 books as Christmas presents and received 1.2 books as a gift.
I don’t know about you, but this sounds like an ideal way to spend Christmas Eve.
I LOVE this idea! Maybe one day someone will be gifting one of my books!
That would be the best!!