Perhaps we should be more like Iceland (uh, not the weather).
Iceland has a lovely national tradition called “Jolabokaflod,” or the “Christmas Book Flood,” which started during World War II.
Books are the majority of the presents given to one another for Christmas. Presents are opened on Christmas Eve then “people spend the night reading,” according to Kristjan Jonasson, president of the Iceland Publishers Association. You can read much more about it here.
Let’s hope for a great 2017 for all of us, with many new books and many more new readers.