I love getting an early start on Christmas planning so the season itself can be peaceful and fun.
One of the best things that I have done to work towards that end is to first take time to evaluate what is life giving and life draining about our current Christmas traditions.
It's one of the activities in Unearthing Wonder advent and it is so helpful for creating sustainable holidays that don't leave us ragged and worn.
You simply use the included template to create a column labeled life draining and another labeled life giving. Then list all the things you do at Christmas, adding them to the appropriate column.
Once you evaluate this, then you can begin to eliminate some of the activities that drain you of joy and peace.
The ones that remained for us were simple activities that build connection like attending one Christmas performance, cutting down a tree together, staying home on Christmas day, getting together with extended family for baking or for Thanksgiving, reading picture books together, and exchanging a few gifts.
You can use the template linked here to help you plan for what activities you will participate in during this holiday season, and if you want ideas for activities that bring joy and connection check out our Christmas Guides.
Has a similar format to The Peaceful Preschool and Nourishing Nature Kindergarten, with daily suggestions for read aloud, phonics, counting, motor skills and more. We include games like sock ball snowball fight, recipes like Christmas Granola bars, and phonics and counting activities that are full of fun. It's a great resource for Christmas school, perfect for 3-5 year old students but even older elementary children will want to join in the fun.
This is the follow up to our original and includes recipes for Olive Oil Orange Cake and Butterscotch Bars, poetry by Christina Rosetti, Christmas phonics and word matching games, and more. The phonics and math are a little more advanced than those that are included in Volume 1 which makes it perfect for kindergarten and early elementary students. It's also organized to accompany our history cycles with a week of Nature Christmas, Pioneer Christmas, European Christmas, and World Christmas.
Unearthing Wonder, our family guide to advent, we include 25 days of lessons to accompany the book All Creation Waits.
Each day includes thoughtful readings, and family centered activities. It would make a lovely morning time guide or evening devotion resource and can be used with all ages, but the thoughtful questions and reflections are especially great for elementary and above.
You could just grab one of these guides, they are only $12 each, or get the whole bundle for $27 and make this holiday season bright.