Our Christmas School Traditions
Over the years, we’ve developed some Christmas School traditions that have worked well for us during the month of December. Rather than taking a full pause from our normal lessons, I’ve found ways to lighten up some subjects and intertwine some Christmas activities into our rhythm for the two to three weeks before we take our Christmas break.
While December is my favorite month, it always flies by at lightening speed, and it’s become increasingly important to me that our family keeps a Christ-centered focus through the holidays. Christmas School has become a great way to do just that.
I want my boys to discover the beauty of Jesus being born to be our Savior, while having fun enjoying this special time of year.
Though this isn’t an exhaustive list of what we’ve done over the past several years, I wanted to highlight some things that have been especially meaningful.
Christmas Books
I could write a whole post on just Christmas books, but I’ll just briefly mention it today. Books are really what bring any unit study to life in our homeschool, and it’s no exception for Christmas School.
Every year, I add a book or two to our Christmas collection, so we own a pretty thick stack of books by now. The library is also a helpful resource, but Christmas books (especially the ones on all those lists you’ll find online) fly off the shelves quickly and be can hard to get ahold of in December. So this is one time of year that I don’t rely on the library as much.
We have a few fun and light-hearted books like the Gingerbread Man, but I’m also intentional about choosing books that keep the focus on Jesus.
Rather than reading our normal chapter book read aloud during Morning Basket, I use December to read through our Christmas books.
I also ordered a new Advent devotional book this year I’m excited to read with my boys called, All Creation Waits, but we’re still waiting on its arrival. We love learning about animals and things in nature, and how it all points to our Marvelous Creator, so this sounded like a good one to try.
Jesse Tree
I didn’t learn about the Jesse Tree until I became a mom, but since learning about what it is, it’s become a long-standing tradition for our family. The name comes from Isaiah 11:1:
A shoot shall come out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
Jesse was King David’s father and Jesus ended up coming from their line. So the Jesse Tree is a way to trace the people, prophecies, and events leading up to Jesus’ birth. It’s used in a similar way as an Advent calendar to count down the days leading up to Christmas Day.
Starting on December 1, each day we read a passage of Scripture and then my boys switch off hanging the corresponding ornament on our Jesse Tree—and who gets to hang the ornament is always a big deal in our home!
The Jesse Tree has been a meaningful way to trace the intricate details of God’s perfect plan and to remember Jesus is the reason for Christmas Day.
There are pre-made kits you can buy at various places online, or there are places that sell materials you can print off and put together at home. I opted to print them out and use wood slices for our ornaments. You can find the set in these pictures HERE.
Names of Jesus Countdown Cards
There are lots of ways to countdown the days to Christmas, while also keeping the focus on Christ. We have some Names of Jesus flashcards we’re using this year. On one side of the cards are numbers and each day we flip over a card to reveal a Name of Jesus. We’ve used some different sets of cards over the years, and it’s not something we’ve done every year, but it’s a quick and easy activity to add to a morning routine.
We also have a set of Scripture cards with a corresponding Advent countdown sticker chart that we’re reading together as a family at dinner when my husband is home. They’re verses that point to Jesus and His coming, and are short and manageable to keep up with. With so much going on this time of year, I’ve found it helps to choose activities that are actually sustainable.
Christmas Baking & Poetry Teatime
We’ve being doing a cooking or baking lesson once a month, and December is the perfect month to bake treats with kids. This week we made a German coffee cake for our weekly poetry teatime, and ended up doing a little bit of a Christmas-themed teatime. While I’m saving our more official Christmas Poetry Teatime for next week, we got a head start this week.
I’m planning to make a special Christmas-themed snack mix with the boys next week for our teatime, and of course, we’ll be making lots of Christmas cookies this month.
I also found a FREE collection of Christmas Poems from Homeschool Compass that we’re reading through this month. This is a generous collection of poems that come with colorful pictures, and it’s a perfect addition to our December poetry teatimes.
Christmas Sensory Activities
If you know me, you know I’m a big fan of sensory activities in our homeschool because I’ve seen the benefits for my boys. Next week, I’ll be setting up a hot cocoa sensory bin for my youngest, an activity we’ve done in the past. It would also be a good sensory bin for winter in general.
And because I love play dough, I’ll also be making some Christmas play dough for next week. This is something both my boys can enjoy and I personally think there is no age limit on play dough. In fact, I’ll probably sit down and join them!
Christmas Music and Hymn Study
We do music appreciation in our homeschool and have used SQUILT in the past as a resource. This month we’re using SQUILT’S December Listening Calendar which is “Unexpected Christmas Music.” There’s a music piece for each day accompanied by a video. Our favorite so far has been Vivaldi’s “Winter” because of some of its fast tempo. As someone who played the violin as a little girl, I appreciate the skill this piece takes to execute.
We are also going through some of the traditional hymns like “Joy to the World” and SQUILT also has some Christmas Carols volumes that cover hymns like this.
Christmas Crafts
I don’t have pictures to share for this section, but we do Christmas related art activities and handicrafts in December. This week we made some paper bag snowflakes and dried oranges for decorations, and salt dough ornaments are on the schedule for next week.
There are endless craft options to enjoy this time of year, and Christmas School wouldn’t be complete for us without a few projects.
A Note on Christmas Guides
There are some wonderful Christmas Guides available, often written by other homeschool moms. While we’ve done some in the past and they can be great if you don’t want to piece everything together, I’ve found that I stray away from following them exactly because I have other activities I also want to fit in. Since I’ve had several years to figure out what works for us and doesn’t, I didn’t feel I needed to buy a new guide this year. Instead, I created a spreadsheet plan for our Christmas School with all the activities I wanted to cover with my boys. And I also brought in a few activities from previous guides we’ve used. It’s been the right fit for this year.
December will come and go, but I hope that by centering our attention of Jesus’ birth this month, my children will grow in wonder of all He has done and how much He truly loves them.
Also, when I chose this year’s chalkboard sketch, I chose to letter “Joy to the World” because while darkness invades our world, Jesus is the Light that pierces through, giving us every reason to shout for joy.
Even though we’re already a week into this month, it’s still not too late to add some of these traditions to your homeschool and family time. And if you have a favorite tradition not mentioned here, I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
May you and yours be filled with joy and hope this Christmas season as we celebrate a Baby born to give us eternal life.
Rejoicing in Hope,
