Be sure to check out the other posts in the How To Homeschool For Free series too!

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The holiday season and all the memories that it brings is my favorite time of the year. The cold weather makes baking more fun and I love thinking about how I can spread some love around a little more than usual! I enjoy a break from the workbooks and read up a storm of fun with my girls. Whether you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah, I hope these links bring you some good ideas for making your holiday season a great one. I do wish there were more good links for Hannukah. If you have a good one, please post in in the comments for the rest of us!

Christmas

Amazing Grace — A Christmas Unit Study

This Christmas Unit is designed to be completed in four weeks. There is also a biography study of John Newton, the author of the song “Amazing Grace.” This is probably the most comprehensive unit that I found, which includes hymns and hymn writers, Christimas songs, and recipe gift giving ideas.

A Blessed Christmas

A Blessed Christmas unit study is about the Symbols of Christmas. “Every Christmas symbol ought to point to the Lord Jesus Christ. Our entire focus for this season is on Christ, His character, our service to Him, and our opportunity to spread His light to others.” Karen Caroe is the author and in that statement you can see her passion for this subject. It looks like something my children would enjoy, too.

The Names of Jesus

This unit is suitable for the entire family. Activities can be adjusted to meet the needs of the various ages of your children. What better way to get to know Our Saviour than by His name? It is a combination advent devotional and unit study. Making a Journal of the Names of Jesus would be a fantastic way to make this memorable.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas Unit

This unit is based on How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It includes copywork, language arts, social studies, science, character study, and art. While it is designed to be completed in a notebook fashion, some parts can be done as a lapbook. There are notebook pages, mini books, and worksheets to use as you wish.

A Colonial Christmas in Williamsburg

As this lesson progresses, students will plan a colonial Christmas event, demonstrate colonial Christmas customs, and participate in a colonial Christmas activity. Colonial Christmases were not commercialized in any way. In fact, they traditionally excluded children. I found this to be interesting and even found another website that said some places banned Christmas celebrations altogether with the punishment of a fine!

Saint Nicholas Center

St. Nicholas Center is a website where people can learn about St. Nicholas. It’s somewhat of an online museum. It provides resources for families, churches, and schools. It is also offers a traveling exhibit and offers display and activity kits appropriate for churches and schools. The tradition of Santa Claus is rooted in the history of a real person named Nicholas, who used his whole inheritance to assist the needy, the sick, and the suffering.

Literature Unit with Tomie DePaola books

This is an advent and Christmas unit. It was designed with the realistic limitations and demands of a large family in mind, but it would work for any family size. This unit uses books by Tomie DePaola for every lesson. I, personally, love his books and would enjoy reading these, even if I didn’t have time to do the activities to go along with them.

Christmas Around the World

ABC and 123 blog has this unit study for learning the different Christmas traditions in 4 different places: Germany, Sweden, Iceland, Hawaii. Each unit has literature suggestions, printable art activities, and some have traditional foods you might want to try out for a fun eating adventure.

Hanukkah

Hanukkah Lapbook

This lapbook unit is loaded with activities. I think it could be for older children as well, as they could help the little ones with the activities. I downloaded several of the printable cut-outs and they seem to be of good quality.

Alphabet Soup

Alphabet Soup has a nice list of activites for making your own fun memories of Hanukkah. From the songs and poems, to the crafts, and recipes, your kids will have several days (or weeks!) of fun with this list of activities.

My Chanhukah Activity Pack

Download a colorful activity pack by the mom at Jewish Homeschool Blog. She has quite a few more beautiful & fun activities available for your homeschool holiday season. This is probably the most helpful site I discovered in my searching! This mom has done a fantastic job of using pictures to illustrate every activity on her blog. If you visit today, you might want to enter the Chanukah giveaway!

Hanukkah Printables

The Holiday Zone has a nice selection of downloadable and printable activities. To get to the activity, click on the diamond shape that is next to the description.

Happy Holidays!