Holiday School has been gaining traction in the homeschool world the last few years. This is the practice of pausing your normal homeschool rhythm, or slowing down, to enjoy more holiday-based activities together. It’s become something many Fun-School families look forward to year after year. If this is a new idea for you, we hope this blog will give you what you need to get started. If you’re an experienced Holiday School family, hopefully you’ll gain some new ideas.

What is Holiday School?

Holiday School is a break from the “normal” rhythm of school to enjoy the holiday season

How long do you do Holiday School?
Holiday School Can be all of December, Thanksgiving-the new year, a couple weeks before the holiday, or the 12 days of Christmas (Dec 25- Jan 6)

How do I do Holiday school?
There’s no wrong way to do Holiday School- take time to enjoy time w/ your family and enjoy this special season. We have three journals that focus on holidays- Countdown to Christmas- North Pole, Countdown to Christmas- South Pole, and Jewish Feasts and Festivals.

Holiday School Ideas-

• Holiday theme copywork, recitation, and dictation
• Cooking
• Baking
• Making decorations
• Homemade gifts
• Handicraft time by a cozy fire
• Learning to play or sing a carol or hymn
• Make/decorate wrapping paper
• Write and address the family cards
• Play games and puzzles
• Watch your favorite holiday movies
• Holiday hidden pictures, word searches, crossword puzzles, and coloring
• Learn holiday words in the foreign language you’re studying
• Or learn a carol or hymn in another language!
• Read one holiday book/day
• Create a holiday play
• Learn about different winter religions and traditions than your own
• Memorize a different version of the Christmas story in the Bible each year

-Remember- kids, especially Teens are often really tired by the end of the year and may need extra time to just REST

Holiday School IRL- Ideas from other Fun-School families

“Neurodivergent families, your holidays doesn’t have to look like what you see in social media. You can have a low-demand Christmas that meets your families needs and it’s okay if it looks different, not as hyped, relaxed. You can say no to traditions that drain your mental health and start new ones if it suits. Make the food the kids will eat, stay at home if big get-togethers are too much. It’s okay, it okay, we don’t have to wear matching pjs, the gifts don’t have to be a surprise if it causes too much anxiety, skip the advent calendar, put up the tree a little later instead of Dec 1st — if it makes it easier, accomodate yourself and remove this expectation that Dec must be magical and picture perfect all month. A little retrospective blues is part of the experience too, it’s been a long year!
It took me a while to understand this and accept it. That’s more like a mum-school holiday tip ” ~Bern

“We take a break from our normal schedule and do lots of Christmas baking and crafts. We had a neat advent book with a daily craft that we do, plus this year we’re doing a Christmas around the world unit study.” ~Beth

“Cooking: science, math, and reading
Crafts: art, possibly STEM, math, reading, and more
Gift shopping: math and reading
Gift list: reading and writing
Christmas stories: reading, listening comprehension, possibly social studies and more
So many things you do around holidays can count for school! Don’t be afraid to drop the normal stuff and enjoy a break that can still count as school days!” ~Debbie

“Tip: Do whatever works for you!
Could be business as usual for most of December,a month + “off”, focus on life learning or what we do is a focus on winter holidays around the world and the warm weather Fun-Schooling Christmas book although may have to get the regular one since we don’t live on an island anymore lol.” ~ Elizabeth

“We put our books away for the month of December and we start our projects and volunteering…. we have a huge list of people to make our gifts for (vanilla, balms and salves, ornaments, hand drawn pictures), we do a lot of baking and we try to do something new each year, we serve food to the less fortunate and we volunteer at our local pet shelter (usually we handmake pet toys or pet treats). I teach them how to wrap gifts, we sing carols, we decorate, we serve And all of what we do is counted daily as school! They don’t even realize the life skills they’ve learned and all the handwriting of letters/cards that they do!!” Erika

“When my oldest was in her first year of school she asked me if everyone celebrates Christmas the same. That sparked our holiday school tradition. Every year we pick a few different counties and we spend time watching videos and reading books to learn about how they celebrate Christmas. They love discovering the differences that other places have to our own celebrations. This year we are expanding it a bit more to include some other cultural aspects so they can include their world wide fashion book and adventures around the world in our learning about the other countries. We usually extend it into also learned about new years celebrations after Christmas. They loved learning about Chinese new year last year.” ~Heather

“One of my favorite traditions we have developed in our homeschooling is picking some different countries each year at this time to learn about how they celebrate Christmas. We have learned some really cool Christmas traditions over the years. This year we are incorporating the World Wide Fashion book, the Adventures Around the World, and the Praying for the World books to round it out into more of a full culture learning experience instead of just learning about their Christmas traditions and we are loving it. We plan on focusing more on that for the next several weeks and less on some of our other stuff so I guess that’s our holiday school this year ” ~Heather

” We reserve December for instruction we don’t usually do in other months. Online classes, Christmas/winter holiday school, family projects.
This year my cub is doing online classes to work on his Cub Scout Nova Awards and eventually his Super Nova medal. We are also doing a Project Based Learning (PBL) unit by Shelley Gray.” ~ Homeschooling Cubs

“Every December we pause school for “Christmas School”. We all look forward to the rest and family time. We learn through baking and volunteering. We read Christmas novels and watch the movie. We spend the time together and not feeling rushed. I’ll print off activities and worksheets that are fun and encourage learning but nothing from a strict curriculum!” ~Jenessa

” Last year we did a month long of learning about how other countries celebrate Christmas. My kids loved it!!
This year we plan to visit the Flint Institute of Music to see “Little Scrooge.”
I like finding different ways of including the arts during Christmas time. And, of course, following and making new traditions!” ~Jillian

“There’s more baking during the holidays usually, so don’t stress if you can’t get to all the Math and Reading.
Just try to slow down and let the kids help…they’re learning plenty that way measuring and practicing fractions.
If it does stress you out to let them handle ingredients, keep it simple. They can…
-Read the recipes out loud to you
-Learn how to preheat the oven
-Pronounce and find the ingredients in the cabinet
For Spelling, the holidays have a lot of different new words to learn. Make it fun by choosing the seasonal words: Mistletoe, Emmanuel, Orient, Advent, etc.
Have them decorate a Christmas tree on paper, and make “lights” across it with their spelling words.
If you need something to keep your kids busy, have them make a long festive paper chain with construction paper or leftover scrapbook paper!
Then you can hang it up somewhere around the house after for a Christmas decoration!
There seems to be a lot of internet pressure to do a fancy Christmas advent curriculum.
You don’t have to! If you’re tired and overwhelmed already, free yourself from that expectation.
Just read books. Read the Bible. Play Christmas Worship music. Breathe.
Don’t stress!” ~Katie

” We live in New Zealand so we spend alot of time outdoors in nature at this time if year. Doing things together as a family that don’t cost anything. Nature is free  We don’t tend to do any bookwork but the learning doesn’t stop.” ~Leeanne

“I like to plan baking, board games, and a fun Christmas read aloud! It’s also nice to find ways to give to others or help others.
We are a Christian family so reading through Luke is nice. Also looking at the historical story of the real Saint Nick.” ~Morgan

“Plan a definitive stopping point. We do our regular work until the week before Christmas, when we stop for baking, games, and Christmas stories.

Also, say no. You don’t have to do every Christmas-related event or party or whatever. It’s okay to have quiet evenings and weekends at home or impromptu drives to look at lights.” ~Sara

• Ann- Take it easy! Don’t plan too much, don’t be afraid to say no
• Brenda- Make the kids go close to you at baking/cooking time, also they can learn how to wrap presents (you can use empty boxes and use it as decoration if you don’t want to ruin the fun )
• Heather- Don’t stress  need a break? TAKE IT!
• J.H. We do lots of reading, crafts and hot chocolate. Some days we throw in xtramath and copywork but maybe only 2 times a week.
• Jenna- Don’t plan packed school days. But do plan the fun things you want to make sure you get to.
• Kristi- To slow down and enjoy this month! Plan family schooling instead of individual work.
• Laura- Relax!! That’s my plan at least  the season is just so stressful!
• Laura- We do our yearly Family Fun Christmas bucket list. Each year we pick what we really want to do from the big list and sprinkle them all over the calendar.

Enjoy this little video of our family Christmas caroling in Italy, a decade ago! Merry Christmas!