Christmas School is one of my favorite times of the year! It’s the perfect time to slow down, get cozy, and enjoy some meaningful learning together.
Throughout December we continue our core work but pause all extra subjects like history, science, or geography for the month. We replace these subjects with a fun Christmas study, novel study, or holiday projects and crafts.
We have done a lot of great studies throughout the years so I wanted to put them all in one place so you can browse and see ideas of what you might want to use. Reminder we have done these over 9 homeschool years, so don’t feel overwhelmed to do them all now. I always suggest choosing one study your kids (and you!) are most excited about and you can save the others for future years.
If you are looking for something SIMPLE for the holiday season, this is my number one!!
This guide covers 12 different Christmas symbols (candy canes, wreaths, angels, lights, presents, etc.) and how these items we always see during the holidays, relate back to Christ. It uses ONE book and art supplies you probably already have on hand. You can complete one symbol each day for 12 days or do multiple in one day, however it works best for you.
For each symbol there is scripture, a read aloud video linked for you, and you’ll create one pentagon art project.
Once you have all 12 symbol projects completed, all the pieces will form together to create this really cool dodecahedron (12 sided shape) that you can hang in your home for all to see! My kids loved making these and they turned out so cool!
This is such a great guide that you can use for multiple years! It comes with 6 mini guides each pairing with a historical American Girl and her Christmas/winter story. Read the story together, complete a craft or two, an act of service, and a recipe. You can choose to do all of them, or just a few. We did 3 girls one year and 3 girls the next year. Each girl teaches about the history, traditions, and what Christmas was like during the pioneer era, the Great Depression, the Civil War, the Victorian era, and WW2. If you are studying US History, this would be a great study for the Christmas season.
Learn more all about it on this blog post plus a free planned out study for American Girl Felicity.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe Unit Study
Although it’s not technically a Christmas story, this was one of our favorite studies ever! It was so magical, wintry, and has biblical connections, so was amazing to do during December. This study by Hearth Magic goes through each chapter of The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis with copy work, vocabulary, art projects, notebooking, crafts, and recipes. We didn’t do everything but even just the few art projects and recipes we did really brought the story to life and made it so special!
You can see my Narnia highlight of everything we completed and how our notebooks turned out, plus some fun tips and extras we added HERE. I highlight recommend the book A Family Guide to Narnia: Biblical Truths in C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia to go with it. It breaks down and explains the biblical truths in every chapter for all the books in the series!
I definitely hope to use some of the other studies from Hearth Magic in future years, like The Christmas Carol and Little Women.
Christmas Adventures Around the World
The year we studied different countries and cultures around the world of course we had to study the different holidays around the world too! We used the simple advent calendar from The Masterpiece Studio and really enjoyed it. Each day you have a numbered card that shares what book to read and an activity or recipe you can do together. Those amazing QR codes is all you need! Scan the code with your phone each day to have the instructions to crafts, recipes, and read alouds of the books. Simple to use and so fun to flip the card each day to see what we were going to learn!
Holiday Fun Around the World
This is another great guide by The Waldock Way for learning about different holidays around the world. An easy to follow guide, providing you with all the information you need and lots of great videos, games, book lists and project ideas.
Nutcracker Study
You all know my kids are obsessed with the Nutcracker, so a few years ago we did a full study on it using this guide from Little World Wanderers. It was amazing and so fun to read the original story, create fun projects, and learn about the history of Nutcrackers, the Russian ballet, all about walnuts, and more! We finished it off by watching George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker Ballet or going to see a performance. Definitely recommend!
One year we had a lot of fun just learning about reindeer with this unit study by Books and Willows. We learned about the parts of a reindeer, reindeer migrations, their families, and adaptations that help them survive the Arctic tundra. It includes 6 open-and-go lessons with literature, science, outdoor studies, art, and hands-on projects.
If you have really little ones, this guide by Brighter Day Press is so sweet! We used it years ago and my kids loved it.
This is a 4-week guide for ages 3-7. Each day has a Bible reading with a short commentary and discussion questions, a picture book to read, and a hands-on activity whether it be baking, craft, or experiment.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
This was another simple, yet such a sweet study. Together we read the chapter book The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson and completed a fun lap book project. My kids enjoyed coloring or drawing while I read aloud to them and it also was part of our Language Arts as it covered reading comprehension, writing, compare/contrast, cause & effect, and more. Once we finished the book we had a fun movie day to watch the movie together. It is super cute! Watch the trailer HERE!
This is a great & simple study for little ones that covers one bible story throughout the 25 days leading up to Christmas Day. The stories are just one page long, beautiful illustrations, and has a great discussion question at the bottom to talk about the story together and how it relates to their lives. You can also get the Advent Storybook Coloring Book that goes along with each story. My kids are very big into coloring, so they loved to color each page (or ornament option) that coordinates with the story while I read it to them.
Adoration at the Manger: Christmas Hymn Study
Not Consumed has some great Advent studies! This study teaches the true meaning of Christmas through classic Christmas hymns and carols we hear every year. There are workbooks you can choose for any age (2-13+) that all work together, but are modified for each age range. There are also parent guides if you would like to join them!
This was fun to do together, learning about Christmas hymns/carols and show how they were written to tell the story of Jesus coming to earth as our Savior.
Extras:
Candy Cane Science: Check out THIS post for some fun science experiments to try using candy canes!
Nature Crafts for Kids-Winter: A guide full of crafts using nature items from outside. Great to use all fall and winter whenever you need a fun project! These also make great hand-made gifts for family and friends.
Annual Nativity Project: I purchased a wooden nativity set for each of my kids to paint. Every year they pick one piece to paint and we write their age on the back. They will paint their last piece when they are around 16 years old and will have their first nativity whenever they are grown and move out on their own. It has been such a fun tradition each year. Wooden Nativities linked here! Video about it HERE!
I hope you found something you are excited to use this holiday season! You can always come back for future years on other guides you might want to use!
Come back next week also as I’ll be sharing our plans of what we are using this year! We are going VERY simple, but I’m excited to slow down and enjoy the Christmas season together.
-Lindsay
2025 Gift Guides
I updated my gift guides for 2025! These are some favorite things my kids have played with and loved for years, or a few things on their wish list this year! I hope this helps make your holiday shopping a little easier or gives you some great ideas!
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