I love books, and since my children heard and read books from their infancy, they love books, too. I hate to get rid of books - passing them on is ok, but that's mainly fiction. The nonfiction I keep because I may want to reread them. Over the years of our moves, our books have added tons of weight, and finding places to put and/or build bookcases in the homes we've lived in hasn't been easy.
For Christmas, we often give each other books, along with other presents. Our family, however, has a unique twist to giving books. We test them. We wouldn't want to give someone a book that wasn't a good book, would we? So we buy the book, read it to make sure it's good, and then wrap it up and put it under the tree. Kind of crazy, but we all do it, so it's ok. Now when we open one, we ask, "And are you sure this is a GOOD book?" Then after we've read it, we'll usually pass it around, as many of our tastes are similar.
Starting about December a "DON'T buy" list appears with various books on it. Since we share the books, we don't want someone else to buy one we've already bought. So - even though you know a certain book will be under the tree, you don't know who's getting it, so there's still some surprise.
That's a great idea to pre-read and share the books. I'm sure it helps to create some special holiday memories, as well as making the books come alive.