We’re Christians, and our faith is the big reason why Christmas is my favourite holiday (the smaller reasons being, family, food and general sparkliness). Toddler Girl is nearly three this Christmas and it’s the first year that she really understands what all the fuss is about. Well, not quite (she can’t quite grasp the fun of Christmas morning until it comes), but she’s picking up on the excitement. I wanted some fun, age appropriate ways to teach her about the first Christmas this year, and this is what we’ve been doing:
This is a great advent e-book for preschoolers. Every day you make an ornament and talk about a couple bible verses. In the end it covers the whole Christmas story. The crafts looked a bit over her head (as in, I would be doing all the work), so I was really excited to see that there are also a set of printable colouring pages you can buy. I printed them off with numbers on the back and set them up on our door with a bit of cute washi tape. Every day we take one down and colour it, then we put it back up with the coloured side facing out. It only takes a few minutes and I’ve really been enjoying having a little quiet colouring time together every day!
I picked up this nativity set by Melissa and Doug and Toddler Girl looooves it. She’s been playing with it nonstop all month. It’s sturdy enough that Wonder Baby hasn’t done any real damage (a couple tooth marks…) and I think it will last us for years to come. I’m planning on putting it away with our decorations, and bringing it out again next December.
This is our favourite Christmas book right now. It starts with a family having a modern Christmas and then tells the story of the first Christmas, ending with the family again. I think it helps make the connection with Christmas with the tree and the presents and everything a little clearer. It’s fairly accurate (other than having the wise men in the stable, which is a pretty standard error), and I like the illustrations (I’m picky).
So that’s what we’ve been doing this month. It’s so fun sharing Christmas with TG this year, I’m excited to be building our family traditions around my favourite time of year! Do you guys have any ideas for me? Any favourite picture books, especially?
blogger / papaya / 11641 posts
Love this! I, like you, am really excited for Christmas traditions to do with Cobi when he’s older. Even though he’s only ten months, we’ve been reading “my first story of Christmas” by Dowley each night. The story is simple enough to grasp, and amazingly enough the wise men come visit Kesus when he’s older haha! I love the last page that says “we give and receive presents at Christmas because of the presents the wise men gave baby Jesus, and because God gave us the best gift of all- baby Jesus.” I love that it makes that connection for kids.
I found an amazing advent wood nativity scene/puzzle on etsy that I really want to get for Cobi when he is older- http://www.etsy.com/listing/35595359/nativity-advent-calendar-wooden-puzzle?ref=usr_faveitems
persimmon / 1340 posts
OH cool! Thanks so much. I will definitely check both of your recommendations. :D
hostess / papaya / 10061 posts
This is a great post. Thanks!
kiwi / 680 posts
We’ve been doing advent calendars! A chocolate one, and the Little People cloth one. It’s been a good way to talk about numbers, the date, AND Christmas.
GOLD / honeydew / 8191 posts
Thanks for this post I will save this for later when my LO is older
olive / 82 posts
I’ve been on the hunt for a nigh-indestructible Nativity set! Thanks so much for posting that!
apricot / 366 posts
My favorite Christmas-y picture book is “The Christmas Cat” by Efner Tudor Holmes. The pictures by Tasha Tudor are really beautiful.
guest
just bought “The Truth in Tinsel”. what a fabulous resource, thanks for sharing! my tot is too little for most of the projects, but i’m going to choose a few to do with my Sunday School class on Sunday. we also have The Story of Christmas and like it a lot too.
blogger / pear / 1817 posts
@Rock n Roll: oh I know, everything is about numbers here too. We are constantly counting all the angels and sheep and whatnot while we read :)
@honeybear: That looks like a great book! I’ll have to see if I can find it at the library tomorrow.
apricot / 366 posts
@Mrs. Superhero: I’ve loved that cat’s story for decades! :)
You might also look for Robert Sabuda’s “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” The text is just the words of the song, but Sabuda is a master pop-up artist and this book is fun! We also have his version of “Alice in Wonderland,” which I think is even better, partly because it is surprisingly text-heavy considering the intricacy of the artwork/pop-ups. Our “Twelve Days” has some pieces that catch and so it has to be carefully opened–it isn’t quite as well made as “Alice,” but it’s fun to look at anyhow. One caution: My LO is two and good about not grabbing the pop-ups, but these books are very, very delicate!
blogger / apricot / 455 posts
This is awesome! Thank you! We’ve been trying to focus a little more on the reason for the season here… especially since Spencer is convinced (and has been for a couple years now) that the reason the baby Jesus isn’t in the manger until Christmas day is because Santa brings him! Oops.
guest
Thanks for this post…I’ll have to get that book for next year. We looked all over for a Christmas book for our 9 month old, and we couldn’t find anything that we really liked. I finally just bought a kids bible so we could read through the story of Christmas with cute illustrations, but I would really like a specific book to read together every year.
We did find this cute touch & feel board book. It’s from the point of view of a little boy, talking about if he had been there on Christmas night, he would have been the brightest star/loudest angel/given Jesus his softest teddy bear. It’s really cute and it has a great message at the end. ‘One Night in Bethlehem” http://www.amazon.com/NIGHT-BETHLEHEM-Jill-Roman-Lord/dp/0824918630/ref=pd_rhf_sc_p_t_3