I guess I haven’t really mentioned our plans for Christmas School this year, have I? We’re back to “Christmas Around the World,” after two years focusing on Christmas through American history, and Christmas in England, respectively. I chose five countries to study this year: Germany, Greece, Russia/The Ukraine, Sweden, and France. My Celebrate Christmas Around the World teacher resource book has been, as always, a great help in planning our lessons!

We always focus on Germany when we learn about different Christmas customs, because so many of our traditions originate from that country. I chose Greece again this year because we’ve been learning about the ancient Greeks and Greek mythology in our regular studies (plus, it tied in nicely with the commemoration of St. Nicholas). We’ll be learning about Christmas in Russia (and Ukraine, by extension), as a lead-in to our Olympics studies in February. Bunny wanted to learn about Christmas in Sweden again this year, so she could be Santa Lucia, and since it’s been a few years, I thought it would be fun to do that again. And I asked Turkey what country he’d like to learn about, and he chose France, which we really haven’t focused on before. Here’s a brief rundown of the activities I have planned for each country (please bear in mind that we’ve already completed some of these activities since I got such a late start on blogging about it)–stories, music, and a craft or baking project (and, of course we’ll be learning the Christmas greeting in each country’s native language, as well as a general overview of what their celebrations and traditions look like!):

Germany–Frohliche Weihnachten!

• The Seasoned Traveler–“Christmas Markets”
• Lego Winter Village Market Assembly
• Christmas in the Trenches
• The Kingfisher Book of Classic Christmas Stories–“The Elves and the Shoemaker”
• The Lion Storyteller Christmas Book–“The First Christmas Tree”
• Handprint Christmas Tree Craft

Greece–Kalá Christoúgenna!

• Saint Nicholas–The Real Story of the Christmas Legend
• Baking Baklava (quite time-consuming!)

Russia/Ukraine–Hristos Razdajetsja!

• Bolshoi Ballet Nutcracker
• The Lion Storyteller Christmas Book–“Papa Panov’s Visitors”
• The Lion Storyteller Christmas Book–“The Four Seasons”
• The Lion Storyteller Christmas Book–“The First Tinsel” (This is where I cheated a little and chose something Ukranian, to go along with the craft we’ll be doing.)
• Legend of the Christmas Spider Ornament Craft

Sweden/Scandinavia–God Jul!

• Lucia–Saint of Light
• Kirsten’s Surprise
• The Kingfisher Book of Classic Christmas Stories–“A Very Big Cat”
• The Kingfisher Book of Classic Christmas Stories–“The Fir Tree”
• The Lion Storyteller Christmas Book–“The Christmas Rose”
• The Lion Storyteller Christmas Book–“Christina’s Christmas Garden”
• Baking Lussekattes for Santa Lucia Day on December 13

France–Joyeux Noël!

• Joyeux Noël–Learning Songs & Traditions in French
• The Kingfisher Book of Classic Christmas Stories–“Old Pierre’s Christmas Visitors”
• The Lion Storyteller Christmas Book–“The Raven”
• The Lion Storyteller Christmas Book–“The Little Juggler”
• Madeline’s Christmas
• The Family Under the Bridge
• Baking Colombes
• Glitter Ball Ornament Craft

In addition to learning about these countries, we’ll have our standard Nutcracker Day (I know have four different ballet company’s interpretations of this Christmas standard!), and our Christmas in Italy Day, which has also become a tradition. We may also read A Christmas Carol out loud if there’s time, because it’s also a favorite. I have a few field trips planned (one of which we’ve already been on), and possibly some other special events. I love planning for school at this time of year!