Christmas School 2025
It’s that time again! I asked each of my kids what they wanted to do for Christmas school and my 12 year old girls said, “read lots! And art!” My 8 year old requested science experiments and my 6 year old wanted to “make things.” So, I eclectically pulled a bunch of ideas together and am excited to share them with you!
Christmas Rhythm
Our rhythm during the holidays changes every year. This year the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is not very long so I am prioritizing our Christmas school over our math & language arts. Typically I like to do core work in the morning and family studies in the afternoon, but one of the things I wanted to do this Christmas was have slower cozier mornings with lots of reading and a yummy breakfast. I picture kind of like a tea-time feel but instead with hot cocoa and wassail and fun Christmas activities. With the exception of my girl’s online English and piano classes we’ll have no other classes my kids need to be to (thankfully everyone is taking a nice long break between Thanksgiving/Christmas) so this will allow us to get to some core work here and there and whenever we can work it in. Some years we’ve put it completely aside - I don’t think we’ll do that this year - but I am not going to stress if we don’t get to it every day.
Advent
Advent is a time to prepare spiritually for both the celebration of Christ’s birth and the promise of His second coming so this is really important for me to prioritize each year. Over the years we have loved pulling from the 25 Days of Christ and typically use this during our morning devotional time. The kids love hanging up the ornaments first thing in the morning. And, this year I am going to keep it really simple and just have one of my girls read one of the coordinating scriptures that go along with each ornament.
Then in the evenings when my husband is home we’re going to read Jotham’s Journey together with the kids. We’ve never done a candle advent before so I thought this would be special and new way to quiet down in the evenings and invite the Spirit of Christmas into our home. I’ve heard the story of Jotham’s journey is really good!
Since I am new to a candle advent I got this Christmas Advent Wreath & these 5 advent candles to go with it. The book touches lightly on the symbolism behind the wreath and candles and there is definitely no one right way to do this but I’m going to save a few of my other notes here that I plan to teach the kids just in case it helps someone else:
The advent wreath is typically made of evergreen branches and formed into a circle. Both the branches and circle shape are meant to symbolize eternal life and the everlasting love of God - even during winter or dark & cold times of our lives.
The First Purple Candle is called the “Prophecy Candle” or the" “Candle of Hope.” The color purple is associated with kingship and royalty and acknowledges Christ as the coming King. Further, we can have hope that in our darkest times, Christ has come, is still spiritually with us, and will return.
The Second Purple Candle is called “The Bethlehem Candle” or “Candle of Faith.” It reflects the anticipation and preparation we must go through to be in His presence. This includes a time or repentance and sanctification.
The Third Pink Candle is called “The Shepherd’s Candle” or “Candle of Joy.” It marks a lighter shade of purple symbolizing the joy that comes from repenting, setting aside the things of the world, and turning our hearts toward Christ.
The Fourth Purple Candle is called “The Angel Candle” or “Candle of Peace” and marks the final week of prayer and preparation and the announcement of Christ’s anticipated coming.
The Fifth White Candle is called the “The Christ Candle” and is lit on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day and is a symbol for Christ himself - the Light of the World who has finally come.
Science Advent Calendar
Since Christmas science was something my son requested I wasn’t quite sure how to pull it into Christmas school until I came across this Science Advent Calendar. I think this will be perfect because the science experiments are super simple. You just open a little advent box each day of the month and all the instructions and most of the supplies are in the box (you do need a few other household supplies, but looks like everything most homes would normally keep on hand.) I think everyone is going to enjoy this!
Christmas Through the Ages
Christmas Through the Ages is a brand new guide released from Stephanie at Light Unto Light Press and is all about where some of our Christmas traditions come from. It has scripture, music, art history, story and a few hands-on activities including lots of notebooking suggestions. There are also youth extension suggestions. It covers traditions from pre-Christian Europe through 20th Century America.
I’ll say, the book recommendations are excellent and I am really excited for these. We have TONS of Christmas books and, I hardly ever purchase new ones now, but I actually picked up six new books from Stephanie’s suggestions. She has curated a really solid list (she has digital links for many of them) and I am so excited because there is a story suggestion each day with an explanation of where a certain tradition has come from. For example, one of the days in the Medieval/Renaissance study we’ll be reading/listening to The 12 Days of Christmas and learning & watching a video about what the real 12 days of Christmas actually were.
Read Aloud
Since I’ve been sharing that our family is currently reading The Ickabog (and loving it) so many people have recommended The Christmas Pig. So naturally it just seemed like the next best book for our family read aloud.
Hands-On Activities
As you can tell we will be doing lots of reading this month so I wanted to have a buffet of hands-on activities for my kids, especially keeping my 6 year old in mind. I already had a bunch of these things on hand from year’s past and it’s always fun to pull them out during the holidays and revisit them. The week of Thanksgiving I am hoping to set up a little station in the middle of our school table with a bunch of these things so they’re just super easy to keep out and work on during the holidays, but if it’s too cluttered I may have to rethink that.
Air Dry Snowmen (I’m also going to have some playdoh out with this)
Like I mentioned my kids also really wanted to do an art project, but I am not sure which one we’ll land on - probably one out of our subscription to The Sparkler’s Club or Art Makes Me Smart. I also scheduled a day for our family to serve at our local food bank for a service project and we’ll also be attending a ballet of The Nutcracker and a performance of Christmas Around the World.
I hope you guys have an amazing holiday season! Merry Christmas!
Looking for gift ideas? Be sure to check out my Homeschool Family Gift Guide!
