Christmas Around the World - December Term

 

Our family enjoys a "December Term" each year. I've also heard homeschooler refer to this time as "Christmas School!" Basically, we hold off on our regular curriculum studies and spend a quiet and peaceful month at home with poetry, music, literature, and activities that bring us into a spirit of Christmas! You can find a post about our first December Term in 2018 here!

While looking through the website archive.org (my favorite public domain library!) I found adorable Christmas stories published by Dana Estes & Co. out of Boston in the early 1900s. I read each story in the collection and knew they would be perfect for our December Term so I spent the weekend writing lesson plans with links and ideas to make the most out of a cultural holiday experience! The age range for these stories is 6-12 years old. In Christmas in Austria, the children in the story include an 11 year old boy and a 9 year old girl! That's exactly the ages of my children in December!

While these stories are not exactly information heavy (cultural traditions are mentioned lightly throughout each tale), they include interesting character development that lead to great discussions and narrations by children. I plan to read each story as a read aloud in the afternoons. The activities for days 1-3 in each lesson will take around 30-60 minutes. Day 4 in each week is a recipe mentioned in the story or known as a traditional dish for each country. Look ahead in the ingredients to have items ready for a fun day in the kitchen on day 4-5 of each week!

Maps are included in the lesson packet but you can also use your family atlas and maps to find locations of the children in each story.

Additional activities like crafts and short writing prompts are also included!

The books are available to purchase on Amazon. 

You can purchase the books used in this study here (#affiliatelink)
Christmas in Sweden: https://amzn.to/3SnkDIg
Christmas in Austria: https://amzn.to/3Spp3yb
Christmas in Italy: https://amzn.to/3QGtrHT
Christmas in Russia: https://amzn.to/3QHdP6Y
Christmas in Germany: https://amzn.to/3stUiOk

I put a guide together for Sweden, Austria, Italy and Russia HERE
A new guide in 2023 focuses on Germany and can be downloaded HERE

Here is a synopsis of each story:

 Christmas in Sweden

Dorothy and John travel to Sweden with their professor father for a year and discover the joys of celebrating traditions like "Dipping Day" and making gingerbread goats and pigs (julbocken and julgrisen!) They are excited to find the relatives of their friend back in the United States and enjoy planning a party for the young siblings!

 Christmas in Austria

A young orphaned boy discovers that his "Santa Claus" is the emperor! Fritzl plays his violin and his dog Tzandi dances for the royal family! Fritzl is welcomed by the royal family and hopes to follow in the footsteps of Mozart and Haydn.

Christmas in Italy

Crezina is the daughter of a wealthy Italian who loves to help others. She meets a musician near the Nativity Scene in their hill town of Italy and finds a way to help his family. The musician boy seems familiar to Crezina's father and they discover a delightful surprise!

Christmas in Russia

Paulina is searching in the snowy forest for the way back to her father. Her father has been unfairly punished and sent away but Paulina escaped to be with him. Along her journey she encounters a man in trouble and shows kindness in her willingness to help him. He is not who she expects and in the end finds a new friend and help for her father.

Christmas in Germany

Little Lischen goes to sleep on Christmas Eve and dreams of adventures with the Christkind angel. She visits the homes of several families on Christmas and experiences the feelings of sorrow and love for the families who have little, and also for the families who have much.

The illustrations are beautiful and the stories, although over 100 years old, show character and kindness to others. I hope they put you in the Christmas spirit like they did to me! Let me know how you enjoy the lessons and share your other December traditions in your homeschool!

Thanks for reading! -RaeAnna