Ho-Ho-Homeschooling: Keeping Multiple Ages Engaged Through the Holiday Season

The tree is up with shiny ornaments, Christmas music is playing in the air, and while writing Christmas cards, thoughts fly through your mind of “How am I going to keep everyone learning and soaking up the magic of the season? And keep my sanity at the same time without losing sight of the season or completely shutting down our homeschool for the entire month?”

Here’s the beautiful secret that veteran homeschool parents discover, simple Christmas homeschooling activities.

December doesn’t have to mean choosing between rich learning experiences and creating those precious holiday memories. 

In fact, this glittering season hands you the perfect opportunity to blend both together in ways that captivate your preschooler, challenge your middle schooler, and yes, even keep your teenager engaged (a Christmas miracle in itself!).

The solution isn’t adding more to do to your days. It’s about letting the season itself become your classroom, your curriculum, and your common ground, allowing you to learn and celebrate the season all together at the same time!

Want to know how? Keep reading!

Our family found the learning time together even more meaningful when we tied “our homeschool learning” with this beautiful season.

When your six year old and middle schooler learn about the origin of gingerbread and then follow a recipe with you to make cookies, the learning together and fun begins!

The pressure lifts. The joy increases. And learning unfolds as naturally as snowflakes falling outside your window.

Ready to trade the stress for simplicity and the long to do list for a family celebration? 

Let’s explore how unit studies, beloved literature, baking and cooking, and your own family traditions (and maybe some new ones) can transform your December homeschool days into something truly special without elaborate planning.

 And Pinterest-perfect execution is not required. Just real learning, real connection, and real Christmas joy for every age under your roof.

Using Unit Studies

Unit studies allow you and your kiddos to learn about a topic or theme together with an assortment of activities and books and more!

Christmas is the perfect time for this kind of learning together.

You can pick from –

• a theme, “Christmas” or “Advent”
• a book “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” or “A Christmas Carol”
• an event or historical period “ Victorian Christmas” or “Early American Christmas”.

Any of these can be a jumping off point for reading, learning, activities, field trips, and more all centered around it.

For example, you may want to read “A Christmas Carol” together, learn about Victorian England, sing Christmas carols from that time and place, make Christmas decorations or follow some of the same traditions of that time, or cook or bake together some food they would have for Christmas dinner.

You don’t need to plan in advance and make lesson plans (just get common food ingredients or craft supplies if you want to cook or make crafts). 

Have everyone read a book together or do research about it and indicate what they would like to do.

Another type of unit study that is very popular with homeschoolers for the month of December is A Christmas around the World study.

It usually includes studying various countries and their Christmas traditions. 

It can include –

• Geography
• History
• Crafts
• Traditions
• Cooking
• Songs
• Stories
• and more

For example, this Christmas around the World studies 11 countries to choose from and includes all of those activities mentioned plus Advent traditions that are important to each of the countries, Learning Fun with Christmas around the World unit study.

This was our family’s favorite kind of learning every December.

Literature Studies are Wonderful during Christmas Time

Seasonal Christmas literature is usually filled with all kinds of literary elements to help describe the scene of the story using the five senses and makes the story come alive. 

Learning these literary elements and devices can be fun, especially when you are reading ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas or The Grinch song like in these free videos and worksheet packet.

The characters are also a source of study as well as the plot and the events that occur in the story. 

There is normally a moral or lesson to the story that can be discussed and learned.

It can be a short story, a novel, or the story of Jesus’ birth from the Bible.

What a wonderful memory and time together just listening to a memorable story. That is one of the best memories from our homeschooling time (even when they were in high school) for my guys now that they are grown.

Reading a Christmas themed book or novel can become a new family tradition. 

There are many to choose from –

• The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
• A Christmas Carol
• A Little Match Girl – a short stogy by Hans Christian Anderson (a tear jerker)
• The Gift of the Magi – a short story
• Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory” – a short story
• The Littlest Angel – a short story
• The Story of Jesus’ Birth – The Gospel of Luke 2:1-20
• The Night Before Christmas
• Letters From Father Christmas – J. R. R. Tolkien
• The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey
• Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree

So, choose a book from this list or another one you prefer, grab some warm blankets, and cups of hot cocoa, maybe put on a fire, and just be still and enjoy a good story and one another’s company.

A great book with plenty of laughs the whole family will enjoy is The Best Christmas Pageant Ever with plenty to discuss, especially when using a literature study guide.

Family or New Christmas Traditions

Family Christmas traditions can include decorating or shopping for and wrapping presents. 

But it can include other activities such as –

• Cooking or baking family or long used recipes (don’t worry about trying to tie in math practice with fractions or measurements. They will be using these concepts while practicing following directions and paying attention to detail, two other powerful skills.)
• Finding or putting up a Christmas tree with your collection of ornaments
• Making cards, gifts or Christmas decorations or ornaments together
• Caroling in the neighborhood or a nursing home
• Include a tradition from a unit study you might be doing for Christmas
• Driving through a nativity or attending a church service.
• Participating in a community service activity

These traditions can be a source of stories about your family and their history and how these traditions came to be. And if you know the country from which they originated, a lesson in culture and geography.

All of these activities are Christmas homeschool learning activities and time well spent together.

So, this December, give yourself permission to let learning and celebration become beautifully inseparable. 

When you stop treating academics and Christmas as competing priorities and instead weave them together, something remarkable happens: your children don’t just learn about the holidays, they learn through them. 

The history comes alive when it’s your own family’s story. 

The literature resonates deeper when read by firelight with cocoa in hand. 

Your homeschool doesn’t need to pause for Christmas, and Christmas doesn’t need to wait until lessons are done. They can interweave together in the most natural, joyful way possible. 

Because the very best education happens when your children can’t tell where the learning stops and the living begins.

And that’s the greatest gift you can give them this season.

Not only are you keeping Christmas in your homeschooling, you are keeping multiple ages engaged through the holiday season.

Happy holiday homeschooling, friend! 🎄

Are You Looking For More Simple Christmas Homeschooling Activities?

We’ve got you covered, friend, with these great holiday homeschool posts!

• Simple Holiday Countdown Activities Kids Love
• 6 Science Activities to Make Holiday Science Lessons Simple
• How To Use Christmas Unit Studies For Holiday Homeschooling

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