Halloween is not the biggest holiday at our house (that would definitely be Christmas), but I do love celebrating holidays with kids and my kids love this time of year! We stick with “fun” for Halloween with a touch of creepy atmosphere rather than scary or gory.
One thing I love to remember about traditions is that traditions are here to serve our family, not the other way around! They can also change and adapt. One example of this is that we have had a tradition for years of going to our local corn maze. It’s about a 30 minute drive for us, the prices have gone up, the activities (like a bullet train ride or pony rides) are $2-5 extra per kid, and we have a lot more kids now than when we started (we had two small kids the first year we attended). On top of that, when I try to do the actual maze with the kids, they complain and don’t like it. I decided this year that it’s not worth it to me to take them. Does that mean we’ll never go again? No. And it also is okay that we have done it every year up to now and aren’t going to this year. We’re also adding in some simple traditions to try out this year. It’s okay for things to look a little different as your family circumstances change, or even to take a break for a year or two from traditions.
Here are some of our favorite Halloween traditions!
Decorating the Stairs
When I was growing up, we would do crafts at the beginning of October and decorate the stairs leading down to our living space (we lived in my grandparent’s basement at the time). I love carrying on this tradition with my own kids! At the beginning of October, we take a morning and turn on Halloween Music from our playlist on YouTube music and make Halloween crafts out of construction paper. Then we hang up our projects on the stairs leading to their rooms and all month as we do Halloween activities, they can add art and projects to the wall there!
Songs on our Halloween Playlist
Thriller by Michael Jackson
Ghostbusters by Ray Parker, Jr.
The Monster Mash Original
Somebody’s Watching Me by Rockwell
The Addams Family Theme by AMC Orchestra
What’s New Scooby Doo by Simple Plan
Scooby Doo Theme Song by Ohio Express
Hex Girls by Moon Sisters
Earth, Wind, Fire and Air by Moon Sisters
This is Halloween from Nightmare Before Christmas
Shake Them Skeleton Bones by The Kiboomers
The Hanging Tree by James Newton Howard
Harry’s Wonderous World from Harry Potter
Hedwig’s Theme from Harry Potter
Kids in America by Kim Wilde
Display Past Halloween Pictures
I got this idea from one of my favorite bookish bloggers, Janssen at Everyday Reading, and we love it! I have 4X6 pictures of the kids in the Halloween costumes from previous years (and print last year’s) in dollar store frames and we set them up in the living room. It is so fun for everyone to see those past costumes and super simple decorating for me!
Library Trick or Treating
Every year leading up to Halloween (or sometimes on Halloween), our library does a trick or treat for the kids. We walk through the library, local free museum, and city building (that are both right next to our library) and trick or treat the workers there. The workers decorate their stations in fun ways, sometimes there’s a magician, and the kids get a little bit of candy. It is so fun!
I think it’s always worth it to check out what is going on locally and decide which events you want to participate in. We also always do a truck or treat with our church, but there are other events (like a city truck or treat on main street) that we don’t participate in because it’s too much for us.
Themed Family Costume (sometimes)
This is another example of traditions being here to serve our family, not the other way around. Some years, we all are themed together, some years only a couple kids are, some years none! I always start off in the summer by exploring different themed costumes the kids might all enjoy. As we throw around ideas and the kids decide what they want to be, I don’t make them stick to a theme if they don’t want to. If it was really important to me to do a family theme, I’d try to find a way to do a theme and make each child happy with the costume, I just don’t mind too much.
Last year, we did a dragon theme. The kids each picked a color of wings and a mask and since I was pregnant with Leah, I got a shirt that had a dragon egg on it. It was extra special because the kids picked that theme before they knew I was pregnant and after Ben and I had already started writing a children’s book themed around dragons to tell them about the pregnancy. It was really fun and the kids were all on board with the theme!
This year, we never ended up finding a theme they all wanted to do together. Ashtyn has decided she wants to be a “pink thrifter” with her cousin, Rylee is going to be Elpheba from Wicked (and a cousin may be Glinda with her), Parker is going to be a cat and Leah will be her kitten, and Oliver is going to be a Jedi. They are all excited about their costumes and I’ve been able to find inexpensive, easy ways to put their costumes together.
Collecting Leaves and Raking Leaves
We love fall and live in a place where the leaves turn beautiful every year! We actually don’t have any trees in our yard yet, so we go to my in-laws house and always rake a ton of leaves into a big pile for the kids. They love raking the leaves almost as much as they love to jump in the pile afterwards.
We love to go to the creek by my in-laws house or a place up the mountains that has a park and a little stream to collect leaves. We do crafts and activities (Pinterest is full of ideas) with the leaves afterward. It wouldn’t be fall for us without some leaf collecting!
Pumpkin Pancakes for Movie Night
We do movie night and breakfast for dinner each Friday. I love to make pumpkin pancakes at least once leading up to Halloween as we watch a Halloween movie for movie night! I did a post sharing our favorite Halloween movies here.
Halloween-themed School Activities
One of my favorite parts of homeschooling is that I can do fun holiday activities as part of school! We love to do worksheets, math activities, crafts, and science all themed around Halloween.
Witch Cauldrons
This is something my kids love to do every single year. I put baking soda in little witch’s cauldrons and give them vinegar, food coloring, and other little things (sticks, tiny spiders, googly eyes). They get to make fizzing witch’s potions then. We can turn it into a science lesson if we talk about why the baking soda reacts to the vinegar, or just do it for fun!
Halloween Bingo
I didn’t even realize how much my kids love this tradition until they started asking almost daily when we’re going to do it this year–but Halloween bingo! I printed off some free Halloween Bingo cards a few years ago and laminated them. Then I buy candy corn and we use those as place markers for the bingo board. As we play, they eat a few and afterwards, they get to eat all the candy corn (I am firmly in camp “candy corn tastes like wax” but my kids all love it). It’s simple and they love it!
Halloween Scavenger Hunt
This is a new tradition I would like to start with my kids (and probably their cousins) this year! I am going to make up a list of Halloween things that are often found on people’s Halloween decorations and the kids can take that list around the neighborhood to find them.
Make the Same Face as your Pumpkin
My kids love to paint and carve pumpkins, of course. One fun tradition we have each year is to take a picture of the kids trying to make the same face as their pumpkin. We’ve gotten some priceless pictures this way!
Jack O’Lantern Pizza and Taco Soup before trick or treating
On Halloween, we always have the same dinner. I buy a jack o’lantern pizza from Papa Murphy’s and make taco soup. I also make things like carameled apples and pumpkin muffins. We always have a big group for trick or treating, so we invite them all to join us and whoever can, comes!
After we are done eating, we all set out together to trick or treat our street! Ben stays behind to hand out candy and when we all get back, anyone who wants more dinner can have some. It’s a super easy dinner that everyone loves and fits perfectly with the feeling of Halloween.
Visit Grandma to Trick or Treat
After we finish trick or treating, we let the kids stay up late and go trick or treat Grandma! In the past, we’ve stopped at my husband’s grandmother’s house and his parent’s house. This will be our first year after his grandmother passed away, which is sad to think about. We are still planning on stopping at his parent’s house. I have memories growing up of stopping at my grandparent’s house after trick-or-treating as well and I love that I get to share that tradition with my own kids.
The Switch Witch
My least favorite part of Halloween was always the unending candy for weeks afterward. I got sick of it and I felt like my kids got sick of it. When I heard about the Switch Witch (a witch who comes to your house after trick or treating and switches candy for a toy), I decided to try it. We’ve done it every year since!
When we’re done trick or treating, we have the kids dump their candy out in a pile and go through it. They get a quart sized freezer bag to put their favorite candy in (so they still get plenty of candy for the trick or treating efforts) and the rest goes into a big bowl. I’m always amazed at how much candy is leftover after filling their plastic baggies. While they are sleeping, the candy in the bowl disappears and something is left in its place.
The first few years we did this, the Switch Witch brought kinetic sand. Last year, the kids got water colors and colored pencils. This year, the Switch Witch is bringing molding clay for each child. Our kids know the Switch Witch is me, because I have talked about it that way from the start (our two youngest don’t know about Santa or the Toothfairy yet). I love doing it this way because my kids get to enjoy a lot of candy at Halloween still, but it’s so much more of a manageable amount. I also love that they wake up on Halloween and spend all day doing whatever it is the Switch Witch brought, rather than just eating a ton of candy (they do eat candy, but honestly, they forget about their candy for hours every single year because they are so busy playing).
I hope some of these traditions have inspired you, not only with some ideas of traditions that will work for your family, but also showing that traditions don’t always have to be big and flashy! Some of our favorite traditions are simple and easy. Now inspire me! What are some of your family’s favorite traditions?
We have a lot of Christmas traditions that I love to do with my kids and as they get older, I know things will get crazier and we’ll probably need to adapt and maybe start changing some of our traditions (which means stopping some old ones as we start new ones). This year, I thought it would be fun to sit down and ask each of my kids what their top three favorite traditions of the season are.
Here are their answers!
Ashtyn
Polar Express Party
Each year, we do a party where we buy a few treats (like chocolate oranges and candy canes), make white hot chocolate, and put on pajamas to watch The Polar Express. I also have some Polar Express tickets that I printed off and laminated a few years ago and we always invite their cousins to come watch with us. It’s very simple for me to set up, but the kids all love it.
Candy Hunt
This is another simple tradition that we’ve been doing for years–we read The Legend of the Candy Cane, which talks about the symbolism of the candy cane and how it relates to Christ, and then I hide a candy cane or two around the house for the kids to each find.
Making Ornaments Every Year
This tradition started the year Ben and I got married–we didn’t have a lot of money, so instead of buying a new ornament, we decided to make one. We’ve done it every year with our kids since and we have many homemade ornaments from grandparents and great grandparents as well for our tree. I love that this is one of Ashtyn’s favorites!
Parker
Polar Express Party
It made me happy that Parker also chose this as a favorite! It’s such a simple tradition, we will definitely be continuing it.
The Combined Gift
It surprised me that Parker picked this one. Every year, we give our kids each one big gift from Mom and Dad and then they also get one combined gift from us to share. We try to make the combined gift a fun one that they can use all year long–we’ve done things like a guitar, a Get Out Pass, and nugget couch. This year, we’re doing a karoake machine.
The Scavenger Hunt Christmas Morning
It was so fun to me that Parker picked this one too! I love this tradition, but I didn’t think my kids cared that much about it. I saw this idea online a couple years ago and loved it, this will now be our third year doing it. I set up an escape room-esque scavenger hunt for the kids to find the last present of the morning (their combined gift). I always have a ton of fun with it, so I’m glad the kids do too!
Rylee
Decorating the Tree
It’s always good to remember that sometimes the simple traditions are the things our kids will remember most.
Opening a Present on Christmas Eve
It’s funny to see how married couples handle bringing together different traditions–Ben was surprised when he found out that we always opened a present on Christmas Eve. To him, that was cheating (you had to wait until Christmas!). We always opened something on Christmas Eve–sometimes pajamas, but sometimes it was something like slippers. The first few years we had kids, I did Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve, but I didn’t love saving them so late. I like getting out the pajamas (and not always buying new pajamas either) at the beginning of the season. What our tradition has now turned into is each family member (Ben and I share) getting a new blanket to open on Christmas Eve. The kids always know it’s a blanket, but there’s still something so special about opening that first present.
Playing in the Snow
Again, the simple traditions are the best.
Oliver
Playing in the Snow
I was very curious what Oliver would remember and talk about, because he’s so young. I love that he remembers playing in the snow together.
Watching Christmas Movies
This one made sense to me, since we had already started watching some Christmas movies this year when I had asked him the question. I am with him—watching Christmas movies is one of my favorite parts of this time of year as well.
Wrapping Presents
Again, we’d already wrapped some when I asked him. Whenever I can, I let him come in with me to wrap and he’s watched Hallmark movies with me while wrapping. I love that he loves to come in and hang out with me.
Mom
I thought I’d add in my top three favorite traditions, since I asked my kids!
Acting out the Nativity
Growing up, we always acted out the nativity on Christmas Eve and helping my kids act it out has remained one of my favorite traditions. It brings such a sweet spirit and really helps me remember the reason for the season on Christmas Eve.
Ninja Elves
When I first married into my husband’s family, they drew names with the siblings and each person got someone else a present. As the siblings all reached adulthood, we decided to forgo getting presents for each other and instead pool that money to give to a local family in need. We often do other things with the money, like a fruit basket, a box of chocolates, or stuffed animals for the kids. Then we let the kids be “ninja elves” to doorbell ditch the money and goodies. One of my favorite parts of this tradition is seeing how my kids, on their own, every single year, get money from their own piggy banks to contribute. To me, that is the true Christmas spirit.
Christmas Tree in the Morning
Remember when I said the simplest traditions can be the best? The same holds true for adults. One of my favorite parts of this season is sitting in front of our Christmas tree in the mornings while everyone else is asleep (I am a morning person anyway and I wake up early everyday leading up to Christmas … it’s a blessing and a curse). It’s so peaceful for me to sit and work on my book or my blog with the lights of the tree in front of me.
Those are my kids’ favorite traditions, according to them! I love the holiday feeling in our home at this time of year and all the traditions we have. What are some of your favorite Christmas traditions? I’d love to hear in the comments below!
It’s that time of year when we are finalizing all our presents for everyone (I like to have it done earlier, but it just wasn’t going to happen this year, on top of the fact that my family wasn’t as on board with deciding what they want for Christmas super early). I love the process of deciding on what we’re getting everyone and buying/wrapping it all almost as much as I love Christmas morning.
Our tradition is to get our kids one big thing (we have a $50 budget for it) from Mom and Dad and then we get them stocking stuffers from Santa (we budget about $100 per stocking). My two older kids know about Santa and my two younger kids don’t. We are doing less for the baby’s stocking this year.
Our oldest girls are 11, 9, and 7. We also have a 4 year old boy and an 8 month old baby.
Here is what we are buying our kids for Christmas!
Ashtyn
Makeup
Ashtyn’s biggest Christmas wish this year is makeup (she just turned eleven), so I got some mascara, eye shadow, lip gloss, and lip stick for her. I also have some face powder that I never use that she wants, so I’m going to give her mine.
Makeup bag
I also thought it would be good for her to have a bag to keep her makeup in and found this cute one on Amazon.
Scissors and Faux Leather
Ashtyn got supplies for making bows for her birthday recently from an aunt and loves it. For her stocking, I picked out some cute new faux leather I think she’ll like and the same aunt had some extra scissors that are nicer that she gave us.
Rubics Cube
The one other thing she is asking for is a rubics cube, and especially a 2X2 rubics cube. I found this combo for not too expensive on Amazon.
Bluetooth headphones
Both Ashtyn and Parker have Kindles and love using bluetooth headphones to listen to audiobooks on their Kindles. Ashtyn’s headphones are starting to break (only one headphone currently works), so I’m getting her a new pair.
Joycons
My grandparents send $25 every year to pick out a gift from them and this year, we’re getting Ashtyn joycons for her Switch that she already has (she currently uses a controller because her joycons broke).
Parker
Switch
For her big gift, Parker wanted us to get her a Switch. We put $50 dollars toward it and she paid the remainder. We found one for $130 on eBay, that came with a charger and joycons.
Nintendo Store Gift Cards
In her stocking, we’re giving her a $20 gift card for the Nintendo eStore so that she can get some games on her Switch (we only own a few physical copies of games). We’ve also picked out a $25 giftcard for her from my grandparents, so she should have enough to get quite a few games that she wants.
Headphones
Something Parker (and Rylee) really want for Christmas this year are headphones they can plug into their school computers (they often use them to listen to music as well). We found these on Amazon for not too much.
Bluetooth headphones
Just like Ashtyn, Parker could use a new pair of bluetooth headphones (you can’t plug headhpones into a Kindle), so she’s going to get some as well in her stocking.
Colored pencils
I bought myself some new colored pencils this year when I did my bullet journal and then we gave them to Ashtyn for her birthday. Both sisters were very jealous, so I think they’ll be very excited to find these in their stockings.
Rylee
Telescope
Rylee has been asking for a telescope for a long time, but we didn’t think we’d be able to get one for her (nicer ones are so expensive and we didn’t want to get one that didn’t work very well). When we were helping clean out Ben’s grandmother’s house recently (she passed away earlier this year), there was a very nice telescope there and her children gave it to us for Rylee’s Christmas. We had already told her it wasn’t something we could do, so she’s going to be beyond excited when she opens it!
Animal Crossing for 2DS
All the girls have a 2DS and both Ashtyn and Parker have Animal Crossing for theirs. They are synced up and will play together, and Rylee wishes she could play with them too. I got the DS Animal Crossing game for her stocking so that she will be able to!
Colored pencils
Just like Parker, I got these colored pencils for Rylee. I know they’ll both be excited to find them in their stockings.
Headphones
Like Parker, Rylee really wants headphones for Christmas, so we’re getting her the same ones, just in a different color.
Oliver
Remote Control Car
Oliver’s big gift this year is a remote control car. I’m really excited for this gift, because I have wanted to give him something like this for a long time, but we were trying to wait for him to be old enough to really enjoy it. This is the year! We found one on Amazon that seems to have a good battery life, has two batteries (so one can be charging while they are still using the car with the other), and doesn’t have frustrating controls.
Spiderman DVDs
Oliver loves superheroes right now and often wants to get superhero DVD’s from the library, but most of them are Marvel movies we don’t want him watching yet. My husband has always loved The Spectacular Spiderman series, so we got the DVD’s for Oliver for his stocking.
Animals
We have just a couple animal figurines that Oliver really loves playing with, so I’m getting him more for his stocking.
Bath Toys
I’m also getting Oliver some new little bath toys, including little boats that I think he’ll really like.
Magnet Blocks
From his grandparents, we’re getting him some new magnet blocks. Magnet blocks get played with all the time at our house, especially by Oliver, but some of them have started breaking. These cost a little more than what my grandparents budget, but his main gift from us cost a little less than what we budget, so it works out in the end.
Leah
Teething Toys
Leah is just reaching the age where she loves to put things in her mouth to play, so her main gift is going to be teething toys. We’re not doing a lot for her, because she won’t know the difference, but we are getting her some things that I’ve been wanting to get her and her siblings would be disappointed if she didn’t get anything.
Snuggly
I am also getting her a little snuggly toy for her crib (she’s almost old enough that I’ll feel comfortable leaving it in there with her).
Wooden toy
From her grandparents, I’m giving her a little wooden activity toy that I think she’ll like. I also think the other kids will play with it some, which is always a win.
Baby treats
In her stocking, I’m planning on putting some baby crackers and yogurt drops. She’ll love it, because she loves food right now!
Combined Gift
Karoake Machine
In addition to one big gift for each child, we also get them one combined gfit (for all the kids to share). In the past, we’ve done things like a Get Out Pass, a guitar, a nugget couch. This year, we decided to get them a karoake machine. I think it’s going to be huge hit because all our kids love singing and we love to do karoake using YouTube as a family as well.
Blankets
We always get out Christmas pajamas early on in the season so the kids can wear them all month long (and we also reuse/pass down our Christmas pajamas). Our traditional Christmas Eve gift is to give each child a new blanket. We always get the Queen sized ones and the kids usually use them in the living room in the mornings or while watching shows.
Stockings
There are also a few things we are getting for each stocking in addition to the individual gifts they are getting.
Outfit
I love getting everyone a new outfit to wear on Christmas Day and for the rest of the winter. This year, I went for comfy and cute. I also got Oliver and Leah a similar outfit.
Coloring Book
Each child is getting a coloring book this year because they all love coloring and these coloring books were too cute to pass up! I got Oliver this ABC one instead because he’s very into letters right now.
Pencil bag
To go along with their colored pencils and coloring books, I got them these cute pencil bags. I got a different color for each girl (I didn’t get Oliver one).
Murdle book
I also got each girl a puzzle book–these are really cool mystery puzzle books that I think the kids are really going to like. I got Murdle ones and a Cluedle.
Thrifted Book
At a recent trip to the thrift store, I also found a book for each child that I think they are goign to like. For $2 or less, I got them each the book for their stocking!
Jerky
We love to put a beef jerky packet into our kids’ stockings. It’s a great way to do a snack that isn’t candy and our kids love these, but usually don’t all get one because of how expensive that would be.
Candy
This year for candy, I let the kids tell me a couple of nicer things that they like rather than getting a lot of smaller candy from the Christmas aisle. I also got some Neco wafers from the dollar store, because their great-grandma who passed away earlier this year always gave them Neco wafers. I think that is going to be a special addition to our Christmas.
Cheetohs
We love the Simply Cheetos and it’s another snack my kids love that isn’t candy!
That’s what we’re getting our kids for Christmas this year! What are you most excited to gift your children this year? Do you love the preparation for Christmas or just endure it? Let me know in the comments section below!
With Thanksgiving just around the corner, I’m wondering where the time went! I love the holiday season, especially as a mother to young kids. Thanksgiving isn’t as busy as Halloween or Christmas for us, which is nice because it gives us a chance to catch our breath, but we do have some traditions that we really love as a family.
Today I am sharing our favorite November/Thanksgiving traditions!
Gratitude Tree
Our gratitude tree is my absolute favorite tradition this time of year! I have a whole post about it here, but in brief, we put a paper tree up on the wall. Each day, every person in the family gets to add a leaf with something they are grateful for written on it. We watch the tree fill up with leaves all month and get to focus on all our many blessings.
Make Butter
I did this years ago with my girls for a homeschool activity and they have asked every single year to do it again. I use this post I found on Pinterest. I take a cup of cream and 1/4 teaspoon of salt and put them in a jar. Then the kids and I all take turns shaking the jar until it turns into butter–you can tell it’s done because the butter becomes a ball in the middle with the buttermilk around it. Then we can talk about the science behind why it turns into butter and enjoy eating the butter on bread!
Dancing Corn
This is another science experiment I did years ago with the kids that they request every year. It’s a super simple and fun one! You put popcorn kernels, water, and vinegar in a jar, then add baking soda. As you add the baking soda, little bubbles appear around the popcorn kernels, making them float to the top. As you watch, the kernels the move up and down in the water, looking like they are dancing.
Handprint Turkeys
Who doesn’t love tracing their hand and making it into a turkey? The thumb is the head, the other fingers become the turkey feathers, and the hand itself is the body. It’s such a simple activity, but my kids love it every year.
Make pie and rolls
The day before Thanksgiving is my baking day! I love making pies and rolls each for Thanksgiving and as my kids have gotten older, I have loved including them in the process and teaching them how to bake. I have a basic pie crust recipe I use every year and then I make at least one (often more than one) pumpkin pie using my great grandma’s recipe and apple pie using a recipe I got from my mom. I also like to make two chocolate pies, one with a graham cracker crust and one with an oreo crust. I keep these pies simple by using whipping cream in pudding mix. This year, I am also trying out a new recipe and making a pumpkin roll cake for any of the kids who don’t love pie.
Watch the parade on TV with Coloring Pages
The morning of Thanksgiving, we relax and get out Christmas coloring pages with the Macey’s Thanksgiving Day parade going on in the background. I finish up any prep work for Thanksgiving. One of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving is how relaxed a holiday it is for us.
Watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
When my kids get tired of the parade or when it’s finished, we turn on A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. I love watching it on Thanksgiving each year!
Make Turkey Hats
Every year, I print off turkey (or pilgrim) hats for the kids to color and wear on Thanksgiving. I like these ones I found on Pinterest.
Dinner with Family
Then, of course, we get together with family to eat Thanksgiving dinner. We almost always do it earlier in the afternoon to make it easier for great grandparents to come. Every other year, we get together with my father-in-law’s family, and on the off years, we do something with just my in-laws at our house. We used to drive out some years to see my family, but we love spending the holiday relaxing at home, so we save those trips for other times of the year now.
Watch Miracle on 34th Street
In the evening, we are ready to just relax again! We have leftover pie and watch Miracle on 34th Street. I love watching this movie on Thanksgiving because the movie itself starts on Thanksgiving. It’s such a cute, heartwarming Christmas movie to start the season off. I like both versions, but the 1947 version is our favorite.
Pie for Breakfast
The next day, we have leftover pie for breakfast! This is everyone’s favorite way to continue Thanksgiving weekend.
Holly Days
Growing up, I always went Black Friday shopping with my mom. While I cherish those memories, it’s not a tradition I’ve continued with my own kids (we don’t live somewhere with great Black Friday shopping anyway and I am almost always pretty much done shopping for Christmas by Thanksgiving). Instead, we attend a local event called Holly Days. They have all sorts of fun activities and food and the kids and I love to go enjoy the day together (and Ben gets to stay home with the baby or napping toddler, which he’s more than happy to do). It’s a fun way to finish off the holiday weekend!
Those are our favorite Thanksgiving traditions! What are your family’s favorite holiday traditions? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
I love Christmas and am so excited that it is coming up! One of my favorite things to do this time of year is plan our family’s annual countdown to Christmas. Each day between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I have our kids open a holiday-themed children’s book. We read it together and do an activity (I like to have the activities and book correspond as often as possible).
I have spent years building up our library of Christmas books. Thriftbooks has been one of my favorite websites to do this with, and while we were working on our own stash of books, I often utilized our library’s selection for this tradition.
While I start as soon as Thanksgiving is over (that has always been when Christmas “starts” for me, even growing up), it would also be very fun to do this tradition starting on December 1st.
If you want to try a similar tradition with your kids, I’ve made a few free printables to help, including a book list of the Christmas books we are using this year, a list of Christmas activity ideas, and a page to fill out what book and activity you want to do each day, whether you want to start right after Thanksgiving or on December 1. *The page to fill out link will let you make a copy to edit right on your computer, the other links are for printing off.
Here are some other printables (a blank printable calendar and printable chart rather than Google docs) to help you get organized:
Here is my plan for the Christmas season 2025:
Friday, November 28
Book to Unwrap: C is for Christmas by Tonya Skousen Arenaz
Activity: Holly Days
C is for Christmas is a poetic Christmas book with the most beautiful illustrations. I always read it on the first day of our countdown because it covers so much of Christmas. It is the perfect read as we’re anticipating the Christmas season.
Each year, our community has a big event the day after Thanksgiving called Holly Days. They have activities going all day, including free bounce houses, popcorn, hot chocolate, hayrides, and train rides. I love to take the kids for a few hours in the afternoon (when it’s warmest) before going home for movie night. If there aren’t any local activities in your area the day after Thanksgiving, this is a good day to go window shopping and see all the store’s decorations that are up or have pie for breakfast (we often do both of these as well!).
Saturday, November 29
Book to Unwrap: The Mismatched Nativity by Merrilee Boyack
Activity: Make a Paper Christmas Countdown Chain
The Mismatched Nativity is a cute book about a boy who moves to a new place where he doesn’t have friends. A church teacher helps the class befriend the new boy by sharing different pieces of their nativities with him, until he has a full nativity. I love reading this book as we bring out our own nativity and other decorations.
I love having a visual countdown for the kids. I think it really helps them understand how long until the big day. I usually cut the paper strips in advance (we use red, green, and white paper). Then the kids get to pick what pattern they want with the colors and put their own chain together. We enjoy making the paper chain and then we hang them by our back door as a sort of decoration.
Sunday, November 30
Book to Unwrap: The Last Straw by Paula Palangi McDonald
Activity: Draw Service Names
The Last Straw is a book about a family who brings the Christmas spirit to their home by doing secret acts of service for each other, and when they do an act of service, they get to add a piece of hay to the manger for Christmas Eve. There’s a twist at the end that makes me tear up every time I read it.
A few years ago, my father-in-law helped me make a wooden manger for our own secret service tradition. Before that, we used a cardboard box. For “hay”, we actually use felt cut into strips while our kids are young. It was my husband’s idea and every year I’m grateful for it as it is so easy to clean up every time the toddler empties it out.
For our tradition, each family member picks a name out of the hat and does secret acts of service for that person during the week, putting a piece of “straw” in the manger for each act. At the end of the week, we draw new names. My oldest daughter loves this activity every year and is in charge of helping us pick new names each Sunday. The kids love trying to make the manger as full as possible for baby Jesus (who gets laid in the manger on Christmas Eve).
Monday, December 1
Book to Unwrap: Little Blue Truck’s Christmas by Alice Shertle
Activity: Decorate Kids’ Tree
We are big Little Blue Truck fans at our house and my kids love the Christmas one! In the book, Little Blue Truck is delivering Christmas trees to his friends, and it finishes with light up Christmas lights.
I love having a tree for kids in their room. It’s mini and cute and they are allowed to move the ornaments around all they want. We pull out a few “kid” ornaments we don’t want on our tree downstairs for and then spend the morning making paper ornaments to put on their tree.
Tuesday, December 2
Book to Unwrap: Corduroy’s Christmas Surprise by Lisa McMue
Activity: Write Letters to Santa
I have to admit that Corduroy’s Christmas Surprise is not my favorite picture book, but the kids enjoy it and we’ve read it every year since my oldest was a toddler.
I love to pair the book with writing to Santa because throughout the story, Corduroy writes many different letters to Santa. I like to try to get letters to Santa in nice and early, so there aren’t any surprises right before Christmas (which has happened to us before!). This year, I’m going to use one of these letters to Santa templates. Then I’ll put them in an envelope that has their name on it to keep in my folders to look at in the future. On this day, we can also do some Santa themed activities together.
Wednesday, December 3
Book to Unwrap: The Christmas Wish by Lori Evert
Activity: Visit Santa
The Christmas Wish is such a fun book! The story follows a little girl who wants to be Santa’s helper, so she is trying to find him. As she looks, she has a lot of animal friends help her along the way. The illustrations are photographs and really bring the book alive.
Our kids always love to visit Santa. This is one of the activities where we have to be flexible for when Santa visits are available (I think this is the day our church will have them, but if not, we’ll find somewhere else). We also have some Santa-themed activities that we can do, and my kids often like to make a little present or note to take to Santa. My two oldest understand about Santa (it happened a lot earlier than I had wanted) and they still love visiting Santa.
Thursday, December 4
Book to Unwrap: Maple and Willow’s Christmas Tree by Lori Nichols
Activity: Decorate the Christmas Tree
Maple and Willow’s Christmas Tree is a new book we got last year that I love (I also love the original Maple and Willow books)! Maple and Willow are sisters who are so excited to get a real Christmas tree, but one of them might allergic! I love the way the book portrays sibling relationships and the way they work things out together. It’s also the perfect book to read when decorating our tree.
With so many kids, decorating the tree is never a calm activity, but we do try to keep it simple. We turn on Christmas music and let the kids cover the tree with our ornaments while I try to turn off my perfectionism. (Of course, I do change things after the kids are in bed to even out the decorations).
Friday, December 5
Book to Unwrap: The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
Activity: Polar Express Party
The Polar Express is a classic that we love reading every year! We purposely do this activity on a Friday so that we can watch the movie for movie night. We invite cousins, wear pajamas, and I prepare our own “train tickets” (I actually have them laminated, so we don’t punch them, but I’ve seen many people who do punch their tickets at parties like this). Then we have a spread of treats and hot chocolate while we watch the movie. The kids look forward to this party all year and it’s a pretty simple event to put together.
Saturday, December 6
Book to Unwrap: The Broken Ornament by Tony Diterlizzi
Activity: Make Ornaments as a Family
The Broken Ornament is a story about a boy who wants Christmas to be as big as possible, but in the process, he accidentally breaks his mother’s special ornament. To make things right, he has to learn the true meaning of Christmas (there is “magic” in the book with a Christmas Elf appearing to the boy after he breaks the ornament). I love to pair this one with our tradition of making a new ornament every year.
When I was growing up, my mom bought us all an ornament each year. When Ben and I were newlyweds, we hardly had money for a gift for each other, much less buying things like ornaments. We decided to make an ornament together. My mom gave us the ornaments her grandmothers had made years ago and our tree became covered in beautiful, homemade ornaments. We’ve continued making new ornaments each year with our own children instead of buying ornaments and we’ve made such fun memories together doing so (though I also love other people’s tradition of buying ornaments that have special meaning!).
Sunday December 7
Book to Unwrap: Mortimer’s Christmas Manger by Jane Chapman
Activity: Decorate Gingerbread Houses
Mortimer’s Christmas Manger is a cute book about a mouse looking for a place to belong. With a focus on the nativity scene, a gingerbread house plays a big part, making it the perfect book for our gingerbread house activity!
We have tried many ways of making gingerbread houses from making our own gingerbread to using premade kits to cutting up graham crackers. For us, graham crackers are by far the easiest method. Ben cuts the same pattern out of the graham cracker each year for me. Then I cut a base from a cardboard box, wrap it in tinfoil, and use my great grandma’s frosting recipe (which makes the houses practically indestructible when it dries) to put the houses together before the kids come. Then we dump candy into bowls, get out store frosting for them to decorate with, and let them at it.
We also like to include an upside-down ice cream cone in the “yard” of each house and green (food-colored) frosting to make Christmas trees as well.
Book to Unwrap: Mouse’s Christmas Gift by Mindy Baker
Activity: Make Cookies for Neighbor Gifts
Mouse’s Christmas Gift is a sweet story about a mouse who brings a community together for Christmas. He’s just a small mouse and does just a small act, but his actions have big ripples. I love the community aspect of this story and love to pair it with our neighbor gifts activity.
I love making Christmas cookies and I love doing neighbor gifts, so I make Christmas cookies to gift to neighbors every year. I take the whole day (and usually mix up some cookie dough the day before to chill overnight) and make several batches of several kinds of cookies and then distribute them to gift bags. I like to get out coloring pages for the kids and watch some Christmas movies while I bake. The next day, the kids help me deliver cookies up and down the street.
I usually make green cookies with Christmas M&M’s (I use my chocolate chip cookie recipe and just replace the chips with M&M’s), red chocolate chip cookies with white chocolate chips, snickerdoodles, peanut butter kiss cookies (rolled in sprinkles), and homemade Oreos with red and green frosting. I make big batches of all of them so I can do about 50 bags to deliver.
Tuesday, December 9
Book to Unwrap: A Christmas Dress for Ellen by Thomas S. Monson
Activity: Ninja Elves
If I had to pick one favorite Christmas book, A Christmas Dress for Ellen would be it. I can’t make it through the book without crying several times. The story is about a destitute family and service that is given to bring them a Christmas miracle. I love reading this book as an introduction to talking to my kids about the way we give to a family in need.
One year, my husband’s family decided that we didn’t want to exchange gifts and wanted to instead use the money to help a local family in need. After I read the book with the kids, we talk about the specifics of the situation of the family we chose to help and the way they were helping them (in giving up extra gifts they didn’t need to give that money to someone who really needed it). Every year, the kids have wanted to add money from their own piggy banks as well, and my heart loves to see the generosity of children. Once we’ve gathered the money from everyone who wants to participate, we let the kids be “ninja elves” and doorbell ditch it to the family. It’s one of my very favorite traditions.
Wednesday, December 10
Book to Unwrap: The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg
Activity: Candy Cane Hunt
The Legend of the Candy Cane is a cute little story that ends with teaching how the candy cane symbolizes Christ. I love the story and the message of the book.
We always do a “candy cane” activity when we read this book. We start with a candy cane hunt–I hide candy canes around the house and then the kids search for them. Then they can eat one of the candy canes while I read the book to them. Sometimes we add in other activities. We’ve done some science experiments, measured candy canes, made paper candy canes, or made butter cookies into the shape of candy canes. This year, I want to be “candy cane bombers”, where we leave a nice note with a candy cane on people’s windshields.
Thursday, December 11
Book to Unwrap: The Gingerbread Doll by Susan Tews
Activity: Make Gingerbread Cookies
The Gingerbread Doll is a darling book we ran across at the library one year. It is set in the great depression, when a little girl’s mom can’t afford the doll she wants, so instead she makes one from gingerbread. It’s a cute little story and perfect for when we make cookies.
We are big gingerbread fans at our house (I actually make it year round in the shape of dog bones as “Scooby snacks”) and nothing says Christmas like the smell of gingerbread cookies. We make and decorate them every year. I use my great-grandmother’s recipe and buy special decorating things like icing bags, Christmas M&M’s for buttons, and sprinkles that look like eyes. We are not professional cookie decorators by any means, but we have fun with it.
Friday, December 12
Book to Unwrap: Christmas from Heaven by Tom Brokaw
Activity: Deliver Cards to Mailman, Policemen, etc.
Christmas from Heaven is a book about a pilot in the US Army Air Corps who notices German children in Berlin and decides to “candy bomb” them. The act grows into something bigger. The book is a beautiful story about service to others and includes real photos from the events described.
Each year, the kids love to make cards for local police officers and fire fighters as well as the mailman. We then deliver the cards and a bag of gingerbread cookies (that we made the day before) to them. I thought this book, talking about public service and workers who give so much to their community, would be appropriate for starting a conversation with the kids about why we do this act of service.
Saturday, December 13
Book to Unwrap: All the Colors of Christmas by Matthew Paul Turner
Activity: The Kids’ Christmas Concert
All the Colors of Christmas explores Christmas through colors and poetry. I love the scope and feel of the book, from the illustrations to the rhythm while reading it to the Christmas themes shared. The feel of the book felt appropriate for this activity.
My kids are involved with a local theater class that has a Christmas concert each year. It’s a big deal in our schedule because there are two dress rehearsals that weekend as well as the performance. Every year, I have planned another activity to do after the performance and every year, it’s a struggle to get to it (or we just give up and don’t get to it). Often, I end up doubling up on an activity later to get it in or simply count the concert as our activity, so this year, I am starting off by counting the concert as the activity. To make it special, we can go get ice cream or some sort of treat as a family afterwards.
Sunday, December 14
Book to Unwrap: The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
Activity: Make Sibling Gifts
The Gift of the Magi is such a traditional story and I love it. The one we own has beautiful illustrations and uses the original text, so the old-fashioned language can be a little hard for my kids to follow. I help though, and they always light up when the twist at the end comes. Because of the focus on giving, it feels like the perfect book to pair with making gifts.
Having my kids make gifts, rather than buy them, for each other is a tradition I got from my aunt, and I love it. With four kids (we won’t have the baby involved quite yet), we now have them draw names and make a gift for just one sibling. They love making the gift and get really excited about it, and usually the gifts are the kinds of things that we don’t need to keep forever.
Monday, December 15
Book to Unwrap: How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
Activity: Grinch Day
We read How the Grinch Stole Christmas every year and doing a “Grinch Day” with it has become a tradition over the last few years. We have some themed activities and food, read the book, and watch both the cartoon and the animated Grinch movie (I am not a fan of the live action, so we never watch that one, but we love both the others).
One activity we do is Grow the Grinch’s Heart science. You put a red heart on a green balloon, put baking soda in the balloon, and then put the balloon over a water bottle with vinegar in it; when it reacts, the balloon fills up and the heart “grows”. We also make grinch pancakes for breakfast and write letters to family members telling them something we love about them (and connect it to the heart growing three sizes). We learn how to draw the Grinch and later in the day, we have Grinch Rice Krispie Treats.
Tuesday, December 16
Book to Unwrap: A Birthday Party for Jesus by Susan Jones
Activity: Birthday Party for Jesus
A Birthday Party for Jesus follows a little rabbit who doesn’t know what to give Jesus as a gift while all the animals prepare to celebrate his birthday. Along the way, he learns what is truly important to give.
A birthday party for Jesus is a tradition I’ve brought from my own childhood, and I love the chance to focus on Christ. We always have a treat, like cupcakes or pie, to put a candle in while we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. Then we each decide on a gift (something we want to change or a way we want to be better) and write them down. I found a present craft, with Jesus in the middle, that I really like and a poem. We end the night with watching The Christ Child on YouTube.
Wednesday, December 17
Book to Unwrap: Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl S. Buck
Activity: Make Gifts for Extended Family
I remember hearing this story when I was a child and loving it. It’s a sweet story of a boy who learns how to serve and truly show love to his father at Christmas time. I like reading a story about giving and serving on the day that the kids are making gifts for family.
When my oldest was four or five, she wanted to make a gift for a lot of her extended family members. The next year, she and her younger sister wanted to, and it’s become a tradition for all the kids since then. They always have an extensive list of people they want to give to, so I try to make it easy. I help the kids each write a short story, illustrate it, and then photocopy it for everyone on their list. Then I help them wrap and address each present. It’s still a big job, but having one gift they can give everyone really helps make it manageable.
Thursday, December 18
Book to Unwrap: Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner
Activity: Snow Day
I love Snowmen at Christmas (and the original, Snowmen at Night). They are such cute stories imagining what snowmen might be doing while their makers are sleeping. The Christmas one has such a fun festive feel to it. I also like to read Harold at the North Pole on our snow day, because of the focus on snow.
Because I can’t control the snow and I like to plan ahead (and some years, it doesn’t snow where I live until Christmas Eve/Day), our snow day involves indoor activities like making paper snowflakes and playing with fake snow. My favorite thing is to make each person’s name into a snowflake. When we’re done with the snowflakes, we hang them on the ceiling of the kids’ rooms. Some years, it lines up and we have real snow to play in as well!
Friday, December 19
Book to Unwrap: A Christmas Carol by Jennifer Adams
Activity: Christmas Movie Party
These Babylit books are some of my favorites! A Christmas Carol is a short and sweet way to introduce the story to young kids. We also have a picture book of the Christmas Carol that tells the story for older kids that we’ll read this day as well.
Having a Christmas Movie Party is a new tradition I’m trying out this year, though we have family movie night on Fridays throughout the whole year. I thought we could make this movie night a special one with special food (we always do breakfast for dinner, so I can make snowman pancakes or some sort of Christmas themed food) and wearing our Christmas pajamas for it. I can pop popcorn after dinner. I picked A Christmas Carol because I want to watch a version of the story for movie night this year.
Saturday, December 20
Book to Unwrap: Chicka Chicka Ho Ho Ho by William Bonoface
Activity: Look at Christmas Lights
We love the Chicka Chicka books at our house (the Halloween one is my favorite!) so when they came out with a Christmas one last year, I got it right away! It’s a cute story about the letters getting to be decorations on the tree.
Driving around looking at Christmas lights is a tradition my kids all look forward to. I try to look up beforehand some neighborhoods that go all out or houses that have dancing lights. We often will pair it with stopping for a treat somewhere. The book and the activity today are only vaguely related because I wasn’t sure what book matched up with this activity really well.
Sunday, December 21
Book to Unwrap: A World of Cookies for Santa by M. E. Furman
Activity: Make Cookies from Somewhere in the World
A World of Cookies is one of my favorite Christmas books. I love the idea of the book, with Santa visiting many different places around the world and tasting their Christmas treats. It’s such a fun way to learn about traditions in different cultures.
In past years, I tried to take a day to set up different traditions from around the world for the kids to experience, but it’s always proved too much for me. What we do instead is choose a recipe from the back of this book and try out some new cookies from around the world. Baking is something I love to do with the kids and it feels much simpler and more manageable. Plus, we all love trying the new cookies!
Monday, December 22
Book to Unwrap: Merry Christmas, Little Pookie by Sandra Boynton
Activity: Caroling
Sandra Boynton is one of my top children’s books authors and we love all the Pookie books (again, the Halloween one is my favorite!). Merry Christmas, Little Pookie follows Pookie as he and his mother invite friends over for Christmas, ending with all of them caroling together.
My kids love to go caroling, so my husband and I rally ourselves to help them experience that. We invite cousins and whatever family the kids can talk into joining us and visit our nearest neighbors (we limit the number of houses to just a few). We pick a couple songs the kids all know, like Jingle Bells and We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and try to just have fun with it.
Tuesday, December 23
Book to Unwrap: Christmas Cookie Day by Tara Knudson
Activity: Make Sugar Cookies for Santa
Christmas Cookie Day is a cute but simple book about a Mama Bear and her son who make sugar cookies together. We always save this book for when we make sugar cookies.
Every year, we leave sugar cookies for Santa, and I like to make them the day before Christmas Eve so we can spend Christmas Eve morning relaxing. The kids take turns rolling out and using the cookie cutters and then I finish up after every child has had a turn (taking turns helps me keep my sanity while also allowing them to help). Then I let them decorate their own plate of cookies with store frosting and sprinkles and decorate the rest myself.
Wednesday, December 24
Book to Unwrap: The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore
Activity: Christmas Eve Traditions
This book is my favorite version of this traditional story. I love the illustrations in it, and it follows the traditional poem. For the rest of our countdown, we open each book in the morning, but we always save this book for right before bed on Christmas Eve.
Our Christmas Eve traditions start in the morning. We play games, especially video games like Mario Kart or Mario Party, after breakfast. We love to have the morning relaxing since our evening is busier.
In the afternoon, we go to our in-laws house for an early dinner. Some years we have done a fancy dinner and other years, we’ll do the fancy dinner the Sunday before Christmas and do something like soup for dinner on Christmas Eve. After dinner, we act out the Nativity scene, one of my very favorite Christmas traditions.
Then it’s usually time to go home. At home, we open one present. Right now, our tradition is to each get a new blanket (we get our Christmas pajamas after Thanksgiving so that we can wear them all season long). After getting on pajamas and snuggling in our blankies, we read The Night Before Christmas. Then we set out cookies for Santa and get the kids in bed.
Our Christmas traditions are something that I love and look forward to every year. This sort of countdown is something that my personality as a mom thrives on. I would love to hear some of the traditions you as a mom thrive on and love! Let me know in the comments below!
November is upon us and that just puts the holiday feeling in the air! I love the holidays and Christmas, but we also love to slow down in November and enjoy focusing on Thanksgiving and gratitude.
One of my favorite traditions that we have in November is our gratitude tree. We started this tradition years ago when we only had two children old enough to really participate and every year, we all love doing it.
The tradition is that every person gets to add a “grateful leaf” to our gratitude tree everyday during the month of November. By the end of the month, our tree is full of all the things we are grateful for!
I start by making a tree. I’ve made it out of brown construction paper before, peicing it together, but I wasn’t very happy with how it would turn out (it did not look very tree-like). What we do now is buy a roll of brown paper from Walmart and my husband draws a tree on it. I cut out the tree and hang it on the wall.
For the leaves, I let every person pick a different color of construction paper. We try to stick with colors that leaves would actually be (green, orange, yellow, etc). One year we had extra people staying in our house, so we got creative with it and added in colors like pink and purple.
I cut the construction paper down to the size of printer paper and then I print leaves onto with this free printable I got off Pinterest. I do the smallest size of the simple leaf (simple leaf because it’s easiest to cut out and I’m already cutting out a million) and print enough for each day of the month for each person. Then I cut out the leaves and stick them in a baggie so they are ready for all the things we are grateful for!
I like to have a key, showing which person has which color. This year I also printed out a page of one size bigger of the simple leaves onto white paper and used colored pencils to write each person’s name on one in their color. I’ve put each person’s name on a leaf of their color before, but it was always confusing to tell which was the key and which was something people were grateful for, since we often will do people as our grateful thing that day.
Each night at bedtime, each person tells me one thing they are grateful for and I write it down on a leaf and tape the leaf to the tree. And all month long, we get to think about all we have to be grateful for and watch our tree fill up!
I love the focus of gratitude in November. What are some ways you and your family focus on gratitude at Thanksgiving time? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
When I get out our Halloween decorations, I also haul up our big pile of seasonal books to read throughout the month together. It’s both my favorite thing and my kids’ favorite thing! We love our “Halloween” books–some are actually about Halloween, some are a little creepy or about Halloween related things like monsters, and some are simply books perfect for fall.
Today I am sharing some of our FAVORITE books to read at Halloween time!
Goodnight Goon by Michael Rex
We love Goodnight Moon at our house and Goodnight Goon is a fun and hilarious Halloween take of the original. It includes all things Halloween–monsters and witches and a werewolf–but all in the same cutsie art style. The changes that are made are clever and fun to read.
Little Blue Truck’s Halloween by Alice Shertle
We are also huge fans of Little Blue Truck at our house! I am usually not very impressed with spin offs of favorite books (for example, I will sometimes read Pout Pout Fish holiday books, but I don’t love them, and we don’t even own any other Tacky the Penguin books, despite the fact that I love the originals of both), but I have loved every Little Blue Truck book that we’ve read. Little Blue Truck’s Halloween is no exception! It’s a flap book (and the flaps are very durable) showcasing all the animals’ and truck’s Halloween costume.
Monster Mash by David Catrow
I have a daughter who simply loves Halloween and always has, and the Monster Mash is one of her favorite songs. This book has some creepy or weird looking pictures in it, but that’s part of the appeal to her and doesn’t have anything gory. It’s a fun book that follows the song.
Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere by Smriti Prasadam-Halls
Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere is a cute picture book looking at different jack o’lanterns and following a group of people who have a pumpkin festival. It’s perfect for Halloween time!
Sheep Trick or Treat by Nancy Shaw
Sheep in Jeep is another of my very favorite children’s books. Sheep Trick or Treat is a fun spinoff following the sheep as they make Halloween costumes and go trick or treating–but on the way home, some wolves start to follow them. It’s clever and well done, just like the original.
Ollie’s Halloween by Olivier Dunrea
I love all of the Gossie and Friends books and so do my kids. Ollie is our favorite. Ollie’s Halloween follows the goslings on Halloween night, talking about how it’s a night to scare. At the very end, Ollie hasn’t had any treats and they share with him, and the book ends by saying it’s a night to share. It’s a cute little story.
Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberly
Go Away, Big Green Monster! has been a Halloween book I’ve had in my house since my youngest was a toddler and the kids all want to read it every single year. We love the clever way it’s set up to first show the Big Green Monster appearing and then disappearing. We also Nighty Night Little Green Monster, which is set up in the same way, and If You’re a Monster and You Know It, which is just a monster version of If You’re Happy and You Know It with pictures to go along with it, by the same author. I love reading all of them at this time of year!
Mercy Watson, Princess in Disguise by Kate DiCamillo
Princess in Disguise is technically a chapter book, but it has lot of illustrations and is a fun read for younger and older kids alike (it’s my four-year-old’s favorite right now). It’s short enough that we’ve read it one sitting before. Mercy Watson is a fun series about a couple who have adopted a pig named Mercy, and Princess in Disguise follows their adventures as they try to take her trick-or-treating.
A Super Scary Narwhalloween by Ben Clanton
A Super Scary Narwhalloween is another short chapter book, and is in graphic novel format. My kids love for me to read them the Narwhal and Jelly books and this one is perfect for Halloween time.
There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat! by Lucille Colandro
Ah yes, the classic Old Lady Who Swallows books. We love seeing all the variations on this story and There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat is great for this time of year.
Dem Bones by Bob Barner
Dem Bones is another song that my younger kids love (my older kids groan every time I turn it on). This version of the book is fun because it teaches about the different bones with facts on each page rather than just being the song in book form. It was a great one to use when I did a unit study on bones at Halloween time one year.
T. Rex Trick or Treats by Lois G. Grambling
T. Rex Trick or Treats follows a T Rex who wants to dress up as something really scary for Halloween but isn’t sure what to be. His friends help him find the best costume–himself with a really big frown–and they have fun together trick or treating. It’s a cute story for Halloween time and perfect for any kid who loves dinosaurs!
Halloween Hustle by Charlotte Gunnufson
Halloween Hustle is in the top 5 of my favorite Halloween books to read! I love the rhythm that naturally comes out as I’m reading the book and the story and illustrations are both super cute. Even though it has Halloween characters, the book is about dancing and friendship rather than anything scary.
There’s a Witch in Your Book by Greg Abbott
There’s a Witch in Your Book is an interactive book about trying to “clean up” the mess a naughty little witch makes. It has you block spells with your hand, clean things up by wiping them away, and point your finger to say some spells. My kids love reading this together!
Stumpkin by Lucy Ruth Cummins
I think Stumpkin has the number one spot for my favorite Halloween books. It follows a pumpkin who is perfectly round and orange, but no one picks him for a jack o’lantern because he doesn’t have a stump. In the end, he realizes he doesn’t need a new home because he already has one–with the shopkeeper, who makes him into a jack o’lantern for the shop. The story telling and illustrations are so well done, I love reading it every year.
Ten Timid Ghosts by Jennifer O’Connel
Ten Timid Ghosts is another of my top 5 favorite Halloween books. It follows a group of ghosts who live in a haunted house when a witch comes and starts to scare them into leaving so she can the house for herself–but one ghost is paying attention and helps the ghosts all get their house back. The rhyming is fun to read and it’s fun to catch the little ghost paying attention in the illustrations.
Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson
Room on the Broom is a book we read throughout the year, but because it’s about a witch, I love pulling it out each Halloween time. It follows a witch who keeps dropping things. Each time she stops to find her things, she meets another animal who asks if there is room on the broom for them. In the end, all her new friends are able to help her when a dragon shows up. I love the book and I also love 30 minute animated movie they’ve made of the book. Both are super cute, with super cute rhymes, story, and illustrations.
Sherlock Chick and the Case of the Night Noises by Robert Quackenbush
Sherlock Chick is not actually a Halloween book, but I love reading mystery books at this time of year–both in my personal reading and out loud to the kids. The Case of the Night Noises is such a fun picture book mystery, it is a great introduction for kids to the mystery genre. I grew up reading this one and loving it. I also noticed while writing this post that there are other Sherlock Chick books and now I am going to go check those ones out with my kids!
Little Witch’s Big Night by Deborah Hautzig
Little Witch’s Big Night is a fun Halloween book. It follows a young witch who is accidentally “too good” so she has to stay home from the Halloween fun with her mom and aunts. While at home, she makes friends with some trick or treater kids. In the end, she and her mom make up and there’s a cute ending.
The Monster’s Monster by Patrick McDonnell
The Monsters’ Monster is a cute story about monsters who have a lot to learn–I love that the story is about gratitude, even while following monsters. I like to read it at Halloween because monsters are Halloween-y to me but it’s a fun one that isn’t about “being scary”.
Little Ghost Makes a Friend by Maggie Edkins Willis
Little Ghost Makes a Friend has super cute illustrations and a really fun story. It follows a ghost who is nervous about making friends. When he gets a new neighbor, he decides to be brave and invite her to a Halloween party, where he finds out that she sometimes feels nervous about making new friends too. He has the best Halloween ever with his new friend. My favorite part of this book are the illustrations, but the story and character are also fun to read about.
At the Old Haunted House by Helen Ketteman
At the Old Haunted House is probably my kids’ favorite Halloween book. It’s always the first one they pick out for me to read and we often read it several times throughout the month. I also love it. The rhythm of the book makes it a really fun read aloud and the illustrations aren’t scary or weird as the book introduces each Halloween character.
Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds
Creepy Carrots and the entire series (Creepy Crayon and Creepy Pair of Underwear) are some of our favorite books to read year round, but I especially love them at Halloween. They play on the horror genre, but because it’s about carrots–or crayons, or underwear–it’s silly instead of scary for kids. The story and illustrations are so well done, both the kids and I love reading these together.
How Spider Saved Halloween by Robert Kraus
How Spider Saved Halloween is my favorite Halloween book from my own childhood. The story follows spider and the way he and his friends handle a group of bullies at Halloween time. It’s a cute story that my kids love every time we read it.
The Spooky Old Tree by Stan and Jan Berenstain
The Spooky Old Tree and the similar book, Bears in the Night, are books we love reading all year, but especially at Halloween. This is such a classic book with an atmosphere that is perfect for Halloween time without being too scary for kids.
The Pumpkin Patch by Elizabeth King
The Pumpkin Patch is a picture book of photographs that chronicles how pumpkins are grown for pumpkin patches. I love photo books like this, especially holiday ones.
Leaf Man by Lois Elhert
Leaf Man is such a unique and fun book–it depicts leaves in different shapes, like a man, cows, or an orchard. Each page has new shapes to discover and my kids love it. It’s also fun as a book to read before going out and gathering leaves together).
Those are our family’s favorite picture book reads at Halloween time each year! What are some of your favorite holiday reads? Do you lean into the scarier or more fun Halloween vibe? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
One of my favorite parts of homeschooling is during the holidays when we can theme a lot of our school activities around the holiday! With a baby, I’m feeling a little behind, but I have started planning some Halloween homeschool activities to do with the kids this Halloween and I wanted to share them here!
Halloween Crafts
Skeleton Paper Garland
For this activity, you use paper chains to make a large skeleton. We have already done a few simple skeleton activities this year (labeling the bones in a skeleton, cutting out and gluing together a paper skeleton, etc) and I thought this would be a fun activity for the kids. I have one daughter in particular who I think will love it this year and it can be a decoration when we are done!
Water Color Webs
With this activity, you use a white crayon to draw a spiderweb on a paper plate. Then you let the kids paint over it with water colors–the paint sticks to the paper but not to the crayon drawing. My kids have loved water color paints this year and this is a really fun activity that all my kids (ages 4 to 11) will really enjoy.
Make a Paper Spiderweb
This is similar to making snowflakes, but in a way that when you open up the paper, it is in the shape of a spiderweb! I think my older three girls will love this one! I also think once they learn how to make one, we’ll end up with about a hundred paper spiderwebs around the house (anyone else have factory-mode kids with crafts?).
Yarn Pumpkins
For this activity, you cover yarn in glue and place it around a balloon. Once the yarn is dry, you pop the balloon and are left with a pumpkin shape of yarn. I don’t know if I’ll do this activity, but we have balloons and yarn, so it would be doable. I think my kids would love it, it just seems a little more involved for me and with the baby, it depends on how much capacity I end up having for something like this.
Draw Monsters with Googly Eyes
This activity is really simple! You put googly eyes on a paper in random places and let your kids draw monsters around the eyes. It’s a good activity for all ages because they can draw at their own level, but I think my four year old will especially love this activity.
Halloween Science Experiments
Mummy Apples
One thing I love to do with science is find things that are Halloween-y and learn about them (I did a whole unit study on bones one year!). This year, we are learning about the mummification process and what real mummies were, and for a hands on science activity, we are mummifying our own apple. It’s really simple–you just make some cuts in the apple and place it in a bag with salt and baking soda–but it does take a few weeks.
Witch’s Cauldrons
This is an activity we do every year. I have mini cauldrons that I fill halfway with vinegar. Then I give my kids baking soda and things to put in their potions (sticks, food coloring, googly eyes, fake spiders, etc) and let them go at it. We talk about catalysts and reactions and things, but mostly they just like to make potions.
Dissolving Candy Corn
This is another favorite activity–you get different liquids (water, hot water, oil, vinegar, etc) and put a piece of candy corn in each one. You can each make a hypothesis beforehand about which one will dissolve the candy corn fastest, and then you wait and watch to see who was correct.
Disappearing Monsters
I’ve never tried this activity before, but it seems pretty simple, which is great for us this year. The kids draw monsters on coffee filters and then use water to make the monster pictures disappear.
Core Subjects
Halloween Madlibs
Madlibs is a fun way to get some grammar in with my kids and doing them themed just makes them more fun.
Surprise Math Pictures
These are always my kids favorite–they are color by number graphs that don’t have any pre-drawn lines, so the kids don’t know what it is until they fill in all the squares. Just like with color by number, Pinterest has a ton of free printables ranging from just numbers to addition to multiplication.
Graphing Candy
Graphing Candy is a new tradition I want to start with my kids this year. Before Halloween starts, you all guess how many of each popular candy is going to be handed out. After trick-or-treating, you create a graph together of how many your family actually recieved and you use the graph to see who was correct in guessing. It sounds very fun and is great graphing practice.
Halloween Decor Scavenger Hunt
Another new tradition I want to try this year! A few days before Halloween, I’ll have an outdoor scavenger hunt ready, with items like Giant Spider or Spiderwebs, things that are often used as decorations. The kids and I can walk around the neighborhood looking for each item on the list.
That’s what I have planned to do with my kids this month for Halloween that are school related! I think it’s a manageable list, but also will be fun for the kids. What do you have planned to do with your kids? What are some of your favorite Halloween homeschool activities to do? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
One of my favorite traditions (that encompasses most of our other traditions) is our Book Advent. This is a tradition we have where the girls unwrap one Christmas picture book a day from after Thanksgiving to Christmas. We read the book and do an activity together (I do my best to match the book with the activity). It’s a countdown we have in addition to their countdown chains, and we all have so much fun with it.
I start our countdown the day after Thanksgiving, though I know many people who wait until December 1st to start. This year, there’s only two days before December. I also am very flexible with our countdown, changing days around when needed or even changing the activity for the day.
A note about the books we unwrap: I have spent years collecting the books we use in our countdown. Until I had collected more, I used the books we had already (even when they didn’t match the activity) and used a lot of library books.
Here is my plan for the 2024 Christmas season!
Friday, November 29th Holly Days
Book to unwrap: C is for Christmas by Tonya Skousen Arenaz
Activity: Holly Days
C is for Christmas is a beautiful and poetic Christmas book. It has the most beautiful illustrations. I always pair with our countdown chain activity because it covers so much of Christmas that it feels like the perfect read as we’re anticipating the Christmas season.
Our community has a big event the day after Thanksgiving each year called Holly Days. They have activities going all day, including free bounce houses, popcorn, hot chocolate, hayrides, and train rides. I love to take the kids for a few hours in the afternoon before going home for movie night.
Saturday, November 30th
Book to unwrap: The Mismatched Nativity by Merrilee Boyack
Activity: Make a Countdown Chain
The Mismatched Nativity is a cute book about a boy who moves to a new place and doesn’t have friends. A church teacher helps the class befriend the new boy by sharing different pieces of their nativities with him, until he has a full nativity. I love reading this book as we bring out our own nativity and other decorations.
I love having a visual countdown for the kids. I think it really helps them understand how long until the big day. I usually cut the paper strips in advance (we use red, green, and white paper). Then the kids get to pick what pattern they want with the colors and put their own chain together. We enjoy making the paper chain and then we hang them by our back door as a sort of decoration.
This is a cute little story of the nativity and it comes with a puzzle that pops out and in. My kids love it!I love this story of Christ’s birth. It touches on all the different parts of the nativity and includes a section of what happened in the Americas at Christ’s birth, as told in the Book of Mormon.This cute book spins the 12 Days of Christmas song to go through the nativity. I like reading it to the kids about once a year and then I’m done.
Sunday, December 1
Book to unwrap: The Last Straw by Paula Palangi McDonald
Activity: Draw Names for Secret Service
The Last Straw is a book about a family who brings the Christmas spirit to their home by doing secret acts of service for each other, and when they do an act of service, they get to add a piece of hay to the manger for Christmas Eve. There’s a twist at the end that makes me tear up every time I read it.
A few years ago, my father-in-law helped me make a wooden manger for our own secret service tradition. Before that, we used a cardboard box. For “hay”, we actually use felt cut into strips while our kids are young, and it is so easy to clean up every time the toddler empties it out.
Each family member picks a name out of the hat and does secret acts of service for that person during the week, putting a piece of straw in the manger for each act. At the end of the week, we draw new names. My oldest daughter loves this activity each year and is in charge of helping us pick new names each week. The kids love trying to make the manger as full as possible for baby Jesus (who gets laid in the manger on Christmas Eve).
Monday, December 2nd
Book to unwrap: Little Blue Truck’s Christmas by Alice Shertle
Activity: Decorate Kids’ Tree
We are big Little Blue Truck fans at our house and my kids love the Christmas one! In the book, Little Blue Truck is delivering Christmas trees to his friends, and it finishes with light up Christmas lights.
I love having a tree for kids in their room. It’s mini and cute and they are allowed to move the ornaments around all they want. We pull out a few “kid” ornaments we don’t want on our tree downstairs and then spend the morning making paper ornaments to put on their tree.
Tuesday, December 3rd
Book to unwrap: A World of Cookies for Santa
Activity: Make Christmas Cookies Around the World by M.E. Furman
This is a book we got last year and it is so cute! I love the idea of the book, with Santa visiting many different places around the world and tasting their Christmas treats. It’s a fun way to learn about traditions in different cultures.
In past years, I’ve tried to take a day to set up different traditions from around the world for the kids to experience, but it’s always proved too much for me. What we did instead last year was choose a recipe from the back of this book and try out some new cookies from around the world. The kids loved it and asked if we could do a new recipe each year, so that’s what our “around the world” activity has turned into. It’s much simpler and we all love it!
Wednesday, December 4th
Book to unwrap: Corduroy’s Christmas Surprise by Don Freeman
Activity: Write Letters to Santa
I have to admit that Corduroy’s Christmas Surprise is not my favorite Christmas book, but the kids enjoy it and we’ve read it every year since my oldest was a toddler.
I love to pair the book with writing to Santa because throughout the story, Corduroy writes many different letters to Santa.
I like to try to get letters to Santa in nice and early, so there aren’t any surprises right before Christmas (which has happened to us before!). This year, I’m going to use one of these letters to Santa templates. Then I’ll put them in an envelope that has their name on it to keep in my folders to look at in the future. Then we can do some Santa themed activities together.
Thursday, December 5th
Book to unwrap: Why Christmas Trees Aren’t Perfect by Richard H. Schneider
Activity: Decorate the tree
Why Christmas Trees Aren’t Perfect is a cute little book about a Christmas tree that gives up its perfect shape to serve the creatures in the forest. It’s a heartwarming story that reminds us that Christmas is about more than how perfect our decorations or house might look.
With so many kids, decorating the tree is never a calm activity, but we do try to keep it simple. We turn on Christmas music and let the kids cover the tree with our ornaments while I try to turn off my perfectionism. (Of course, I do come in afterward to even out the decorations)
Friday, December 6th
Book to unwrap: The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
Activity: Host a Polar Express Party
The Polar Express is a classic that we love reading every year! We purposely do this activity on a Friday so that we can watch the movie for movie night. We invite cousins, wear pajamas, and I prepare our own “train tickets” to punch. Then we have a spread of treats and hot chocolate while we watch the movie. The kids look forward to this party all year and it’s a pretty simple event to put together.
Saturday, December 7th
Book to unwrap: The Broken Ornament by Toni DiTerlizzi
Activity: Make Ornaments as a family
The Broken Ornament is a story about a boy who wants Christmas to be as big as possible, but in the process, he accidentally breaks his mother’s special ornament. To make things right, he has to learn the true meaning of Christmas. I love to pair this one with our tradition of making a new ornament every year.
When I was growing up, my mom bought us all an ornament each year. When Ben and I were newlyweds, we hardly had money for a gift for each other, much less buying things like ornaments. We decided to make an ornament together. My mom gave us the ornaments her grandmothers had made years ago and our tree became covered in beautiful, homemade ornaments. We’ve continued making new ornaments each year with our own children instead of buying ornaments and we’ve made such fun memories together doing so (though I also love other people’s tradition of buying ornaments that have special meaning!).
Sunday, December 8th
Book to unwrap: Mortimer’s Christmas Manger
Activity: Gingerbread Houses
Mortimer’s Christmas Manger is a cute book about a mouse looking for a place to belong. With a focus on the nativity scene, a gingerbread house plays a big part, making it the perfect book for our gingerbread house activity!
We have tried many ways of making gingerbread houses from making our own gingerbread to using premade kits to cutting up graham crackers. For us, graham crackers are by far the easiest method. Ben cuts the same pattern out of the graham cracker each year for me. Then I cut a base from a cardboard box, wrap it in tinfoil, and use my great grandma’s frosting recipe (which makes the houses practically indestructible when it dries) to put the houses together before the kids come. Then we dump candy into bowls, get out store frosting for them to decorate with, and let them at it.
We also like to include an upside-down ice cream cone in the “yard” of each house and green (food-colored) frosting to make Christmas trees as well.
Book to unwrap: A Christmas Dress for Ellen by Thomas S. Monson
Activity: Ninja Elves
If I had to pick one favorite Christmas book, this would be it. I can’t make it through the book without crying several times. The story is about a destitute family and service that is given to them to bring them a Christmas miracle. I love reading this book as an introduction to talking to my kids about the way we give to a family in need.
One year, my husband’s family decided that we didn’t want to exchange gifts and wanted to instead use the money to help a local family in need. After we read the book, we talk about the specifics of the situation of the family we chose to help and the way they were helping them (in giving up extra gifts they didn’t need to give that money to someone who really needed it). Every year, the kids have wanted to add money from their own piggy banks as well, and my heart loves to see the generosity of children. Once we’ve gathered the money from all the families, we let the kids be “ninja elves” and doorbell ditch it to the family. It’s one of my very favorite traditions.
Tuesday, December 10th
Book to unwrap: The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campell Ernst
Activity: Gingerbread Cookies
The Gingerbread Girl is a simple twist on the original story–with a girl instead of a gingerbread man. With three girls, it’s popular at our house!
I am not actually the biggest fan of gingerbread, but my girls love it and we make and decorate them every year. I use my great-grandmother’s recipe and buy special decorating things like icing bags, Christmas M&M’s for buttons, and sprinkles that look like eyes. We are not professional cookie decorators by any means, but we have fun with it.
Wednesday, December 11th
Book to unwrap: Mouse’s Christmas Gift by Mindy Baker
Activity: Deliver Treats and Cards to Firemen and Policemen
Mouse’s Christmas Gift is a beautiful book about how Mouse’s small act of caring brings a community together for Christmas. I love the story, message, and artwork of the book. I like to pair it with making cards for others, because that’s a small act that my kids can do to serve our community.
Thursday, December 12th
Book to unwrap: The Gingerbread Doll by Susan Tews
Activity: Make Cookies for Neighbor Gifts
The Gingerbread Doll is a darling book we ran across at the library last year. It is set in the great depression, when a little girl’s mom can’t afford the doll she wants, so instead she makes one from gingerbread. It’s a cute little story and perfect for when we make cookies.
I love making Christmas cookies and I love doing neighbor gifts, so I love taking a day to make Christmas cookies to gift to neighbors. I take the whole day (and usually mix up some cookie dough to chill overnight) and make several batches of several kinds of cookies and then distribute them to gift bags. I like to get out coloring pages for the kids and watch some Christmas movies while I bake. The next day, the girls help me deliver cookies.
I usually make green cookies with Christmas M&M’s (I use my chocolate chip cookie recipe and just replace the chips with M&M’s), red chocolate chip cookies with white chocolate chips, snickerdoodles, peanut butter kiss cookies (rolled in sprinkles), and homemade Oreos with red and green frosting. I make big batches of all of them so I can do about 50 bags to deliver.
Friday, December 13th
Book to unwrap: How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
Activity: Grinch Day
We read How the Grinch Stole Christmas every year and this is my second year doing a “Grinch Day”. We have some themed activities and food, read the book, and watch both the cartoon and the animated Grinch movie (I am not a fan of the live action, so we never watch that one, but we love both the others).
One activity we do is Grow the Grinch’s Heart science. You put a red heart on a green balloon, put baking soda in the balloon, and then put the balloon over a water bottle with vinegar in it; when it reacts, the balloon fills up and the heart “grows”. We also make grinch pancakes for breakfast and write letters to family members telling them something we love about them (and connect it to the heart growing three sizes). We learn how to draw the Grinch and later in the day, we have Grinch Rice Krispie Treats.
Saturday, December 14th
Book to unwrap: A Birthday Party for Jesus by Susan Jones
Activity: A Birthday Party for Jesus
The book follows a little rabbit who doesn’t know what to give Jesus a gift as all the animals prepare to celebrate his birthday. Along the way, he learns what is truly important to give.
A birthday party for Jesus is a tradition I’ve brought from my own childhood, and I love the chance to focus on Christ. We always have a treat, like cupcakes or pie, to put a candle in while we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. Then we each decide on a gift (something we want to change or a way we want to be better) and write them down. I found a present craft, with Jesus in the middle, that I really like and a poem. We end the night with watching The Christ Child on YouTube.
Sunday, December 15th
Book to unwrap: The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
Activity: Make Gifts for Extended Family
The Gift of the Magi is such a traditional story and I love it. The one we own has beautiful illustrations and uses the original text, so the old-fashioned language can be a little hard for my kids to follow. I help though, and they always light up when the twist at the end comes. Because of the focus on giving, it feels like the perfect book to pair with making gifts.
When my oldest was four or five, she wanted to make a gift for a lot of her extended family members. The next year, she and her younger sister wanted to, and it’s become a tradition since then. They always have an extensive list of people they want to give to, so in the past, it’s been a job getting all the gifts ready. This year, my plan is to let the kids write a story, illustrate it, and then photocopy it for everyone on their list to make it easier.
Monday, December 16th
Book to unwrap: The Little Drummer Boy by Bernadette Watts
Activity: Cards for the Beehive Home
I really like the story and illustrations of this version of the book, based on the song. I really like pairing the story of the drummer boy, someone who gifted his musical talents to Christ, with caroling. Our girls love to go caroling and we like to do it at the Beehive Home because it is warm and the residents love it.
Tuesday, December 17th
Book to unwrap: The Christmas Wish by Lori Evert
Activity: Visit Santa
The Christmas Wish is such a fun book! The story follows a little girl who is trying to find Santa to be his helper, and she has a lot of animal friends help her along the way. The illustrations are photographs and really bring the book alive.
Our kids always love to visit Santa. This is one of the activities where we have to be flexible. Because I like to plan our Christmas countdown so early, the library and city haven’t announced their dates for free Santa visits yet, but we usually just switch with another activity. We always have a lot of different options, so we can always find a date that works well.
We also have some Santa-themed activities that we can do, and my kids often like to make a little present or note to take to Santa. My two oldest understand about Santa (it happened a lot earlier than I had wanted) and they still love visiting Santa.
Wednesday, December 18th
Book to unwrap: Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl S. Buck
Activity: Make Sibling Gifts
I remember hearing this story when I was a child and loving it. It’s a sweet story of a boy who learns how to serve and truly show love to his father at Christmas time. I like reading a story about giving and serving on the day that I make neighbor gifts.
Having my kids make gifts, rather than buy them, for each other is a tradition I got from my aunt, and I love it. With four kids, we now have them draw names and make a gift for just on sibling. They love making the gift and get really excited about it, and usually the gifts are the kinds of things that we don’t need to keep forever.
Thursday, December 19th
Book to unwrap: Harold at the North Pole by Crockett Johnson and Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner
Activity: Snow Day
This is the only day we’ll open more than one book and it’s because I love both of them so much. I love doing a Christmas-themed snow book for our snow day!
Because I can’t control the snow and I like to plan ahead (and some years, it doesn’t snow where I live until Christmas Eve/Day), our snow day involves indoor activities like making paper snowflakes and playing with fake snow. My favorite thing is to make each person’s name into a snowflake. When we’re done with the snowflakes, we hang them on the ceiling of the kids’ rooms. Some years, like last year, it lines up and we have real snow to play in as well!
Friday, December 20th
Book to unwrap: You Are My Miracle by Maryann Cusimano Love
Activity: Read Poems in Christmas Pajamas
I love the poetic feel of You Are My Miracle, and the way it reminds me to treasure each of these moments with my own kids.
I chose to do this activity on a Friday because we always do breakfast for dinner then. We can all don our pajamas and share some Christmas poems while we eat breakfast foods before movie night.
Saturday, December 21st
Book to unwrap: Llama Llama Jingle Bells by Anna Dewdney
Activity: Look at Christmas Lights
We like the Llama Llama books and this one is pretty cute. We also really like the show on Netflix and they have some cute Christmas episodes. I paired it with this activity because of the title.
Driving around looking at Christmas lights is a tradition my kids all look forward to. I try to look up beforehand some neighborhoods that go all out or houses that have dancing lights. We also often will pair it with dropping off some Christmas gifts farther from our house or stop for a treat somewhere.
Sunday, December 22nd
Book to unwrap: The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg
Activity: Candy Cane Hunt
The Legend of the Candy Cane is a cute little story that ends with teaching how the candy cane symbolizes Christ. I love the story and the message of the book.
We always do a “candy cane” activity when we read this book. We start with a candy cane hunt–I hide candy canes around the house and then the kids search for them. Then they can eat one of the candy canes while I read the book to them. Then we do other activities. We’ve done some science experiments, measured candy canes, made paper candy canes, or made butter cookies into the shape of candy canes. This year, I want to be “candy cane bombers”, where we leave a nice note with a candy cane on people’s windshields.
Saturday, December 23rd
Book to unwrap: Christmas Cookie Day by Tara Knudson
Activity: Make Sugar Cookies for Santa!
Christmas Cookie Day is a cute but simple book about a Mama Bear and her son who make sugar cookies together. We always save this for when we make sugar cookies.
We always leave sugar cookies for Santa, and I like to make them the day before Christmas Eve, so we can spend Christmas Eve morning relaxing. I make it manageable to have the kids help me by doing one kid at a time. They take turns rolling out and using cookie cutters with the dough and then I finish up after every child has had a turn. Then I let them decorate their own plate of cookies with store frosting and sprinkles and decorate the rest myself.
Sunday, December 24th
Book to unwrap: The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore
Activity: Christmas Eve Traditions
This is my favorite version of this traditional story. I love the illustrations in it, and it follows the traditional poem. Most of the other books we open in the morning or afternoon as we’re doing the activity, but we always save this book for right before bed on Christmas Eve.
Our Christmas Eve traditions start in the morning. We play games in the morning, especially video games like Mario Kart or Mario Party. We love to have the morning relaxing since our evening is busier.
In the afternoon, we go to our in-laws house for an early dinner. Some years we have done a fancy dinner and other years, we’ll do the fancy dinner the Sunday before Christmas and do something like soup for dinner on Christmas Eve. After dinner, we act out the Nativity scene, one of my very favorite Christmas traditions.
Then it’s usually time to go home. At home, we open one present. Right now, our tradition is to each get a new blanket (we get our Christmas pajamas after Thanksgiving so that we can wear them all season long). After getting on pajamas and snuggling in our blankies, we read The Night Before Christmas. Then we set out cookies for Santa and get the kids in bed.
Our Christmas traditions are something that I love and look forward to every year. This sort of countdown is something that my personality as a mom thrives on. I would love to hear some of the traditions you as a mom thrive on and love! Let me know in the comments below!
We are so blessed and Christmas is a time that I really feel it! Not only are we blessed to be able to do the things we want at Christmas, but we are also surrounded by friends and family who bless us with presents and their presence.
To make sure I don’t go overboard at Christmas (which is really easy for me to do!), we have some traditions around presents. We get our kids one big present each from Mom and Dad as well as a combined present for all of them. We also have stockings, which we have a budget for that I try to not go over, as well as a Christmas Eve present for each family member.
Today I wanted to share the presents I’m giving to each family member.
Ashtyn, age 9
This year, Ashtyn saved up and bought her own Nintendo Switch. She bought a used one without joy cons off of eBay and then bought a Nitrodeck to play it in. For Christmas, we are getting her anSD card for her Switch so it can hold more games and a Nintendo eShop gift card so she can buy some games.
Parker, age 7
Parker is really into tumbling and gymnastics right now and really wants a gymnastics mat to practice on at home. We are getting her a 4′ by 8′ by 2″ mat off of Amazon.
Rylee, age 5
This year, Rylee has consistently wanted a play kitchen. She loves to play with pretend food and has loved using play kitchens at friends’ houses. I got this one from Amazon during a sale.
Oliver, age 2
Because Oliver is the fourth child, I wasn’t sure what to get him. We decided to go for an open-endedclimbing toy, that I got from Amazon during a sale.
Combined Gift for Kids
We like to give the kids a combined gift that they all share. We’ve done things like Switch games, magnet blocks, and experiences. This year, we are thinking of giving them a pet leapord gecko lizard. Growing up, my brothers and I had one and loved it. My mom still has all the stuff for one and is willing to give it to us. Our kids really want a pet, but we aren’t quite ready for something like a cat or dog. I think they will love this if we decide to do it.
Benjamin
Ben can be particularly difficult to buy presents for. This year, I had the brilliant idea of getting him a nice stainless steelwater bottle that he has been wanting. It’s the perfect price for our Christmas budget and he is excited (he likes to pick out his present rather than being surprised). As an extra little gift, I have another surprise for him that’s more of a sentimental gift. During the latter half of this year, I’ve been working on writing out the birth stories of each our children in story form. I want to finish those up (I’m almost done writing our third child’s, so I think I can finish in time) and put them in a binder for Ben. He doesn’t know I’ve been writing them and I think he’ll love reading through them.
Charly
For my present this year, I picked out a small bookshelf for Oliver’s room upstairs. We haven’t had enough bookshelf for our kids’ books for a long time and have used various solutions. Right now, we stack the board books against the wall in Oliver’s room and I’m really excited to be able to arrange them on a bookshelf in there.
Christmas Eve
Ben didn’t grow up with the tradition of opening a present on Christmas Eve, but I did and I love continuing it with our kids. We like to give our kids their Christmas pajamas after Thanksgiving so they can wear them all season long, so instead of pajamas, we’ll open a new blanket. I love these blankets from Amazon! They are soft and thick and the right price for me.
Stockings
I like to both fill up our stockings and also get quality items for our stockings. To fill them up, I like to get things like underwear or socks and candy, which usually does the trick. This year, I also got some pickleballs for my husband since he’s really into pickleball.
This year, Ashtyn is asking for video games for her switch, so her main present from Santa is going to be a $25 Nintendo eShop gift card. I also am getting her some crochet things because she’s been learning to crochet this year. I plan on getting her some nice scissors, a pouch to hold her crochet hooks, and some new yarn. I also have candy, new underwear, a newwater bottle, adrawing pad, and anew dress for her stocking.
Parker is asking for acamerafrom Santa. I also found her a tintea set that I think she will love. Like Ashtyn, I have candy, new underwear, a newwater bottle, adrawing pad, and anew dress for her stocking.
Rylee is asking for acamera and a crown from Santa. I found this adorable crown that sounds like it is great quality. And like her sisters, I have candy, new underwear, a newwater bottle, adrawing pad, and anew dress for her stocking.
Oliver is asking for a toydrill from Santa and it’s probably the gift I’m most excited for (he loves when Ben gets out his drill). The other toy Oliver is getting is this cool buildingbath toy. He also has candy, new socks, adrawing pad, awater bottle, and a new outfit.
For my stocking, I wanted to get some new kitchen things. I’d had thesebowls with lids on my list for a long time and got them when they were on a big sale. I also need new measuring cups because my children have somehow lost my 1/3 cup measuring cup, so I found these teal ones (I love teal!). I’m also getting a calendar, a book, awater bottle,socks, someNorwegian chocolate caramels, and a box of cereal.
For Ben’s stocking, I’m getting him a neck and shouldermassager. I got this one when it was also one sale and it will be more of a surprise for Ben. I also got him awater bottle for his hot chocolate in the morning,socks, softpickleballs, the chocolates, cereal, and beef jerky from our local meat plant.
A tradition I love is having my kids make a gift for each other. I’m going to wait one more year before adding Oliver in, so this year I’ll have Ashtyn make a gift for Rylee, Parker make a gift for Ashtyn, and Rylee make a gift for Parker. I haven’t decided yet what they’ll do for each other, but I usually help them pick something from my Pinterest board.
The kids also love to make a gift for Dad. My idea this year was for them to draw a picture of the family or of themselves with their Dad and I’ll laminate it for them.
I love Christmas and am enjoying the anticipation of gifting these things to our children! I know they will love the presents and I feel we’ve picked gifts that they will get a lot of use out of during the upcoming new year.
I would love to hear what you are planning for your family’s Christmas! Let me know in the comments below!
