Posts Tagged holiday traditions

Creative Ways to Keep Kids Reading During the Holidays

Happy Holidays

The holidays are a busy time of the year, and we often forget to do the things that we love the most–like reading. Here are some fun ways to promote reading during these busy weeks. You can send these suggestions home with your students or do this with your own family. You can start anytime, but I find Thanksgiving break through New Year’s Day always works well.

Embrace The Joy of a Read Aloud

book with headphones on it

Listen to an audiobook on all those drives while you are out working on your holiday to-do list. Or while baking in the kitchen together or while wrapping presents, crafting, etc. You could also have somone in your family read out loud. Someone could be the designated reader, or you could take turns. All of my kids ages 4-15 love listening to books read out loud! You could also have books that you read every holiday. Many years we take turns reading A Christmas Carol out loud. My husband teases me that I always fall asleep, but its really only sometimes and he does have such a soothing reading voice lol, and most importantly it doesn’t change the memory I have of the moments.

 

Holiday Count Down

stack of wrapped books

You can choose how many days you are going to count down. Wrap a book for each day, and either take turns opening the packages or have enough books for everyone to open their own each night. Many people do this with holiday picture books, but you can also select a book that is the right reading level for the recipient. And no need to break the bank here. You can get used books or library books (assuming you can check them out for the duration of the countdown). My family has a stack of Christmas books that we pull out each year and we buy one new one every year to add to the pile. The kids enjoy unwrapping one each night and they know certain books are certain sizes so they have fun trying to unwrap a desired book or find the new one. I am of the opinion that you are never too old to enjoy a good picture book. Just like the above suggestion, no one is ever too old to listen to someone read a book out loud.

 

 

Read the book/Watch the Movie

Read a book together and then watch the movie together. This is one of my family’s favorites. There is always extra motivation to participate when kids know that they get to do a movie night after you finish the book. I do have to tease one of my reluctant readers that they don’t have to listen to me read, but they don’t get to watch the movie with us if they don’t.

Host a Read-A-Thon

family reading together Get everyone together for a read-a-thon. We started this tradition a couple of years ago on my birthday. Everyone gets a new book, and we read and eat, read and eat, read and eat. Everyone in the family loves this! Even my reluctant reader looks forward to these events, although it certainly helps that his new book is always a desired graphic novel.

 

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Remember the words of the song, “there will be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories…” Ask your kids to come up with their own scary story. Then sit around in a cozy setting, maybe with the lights dimmed by the light of a glowing fire (or one on the TV if you don’t have a fireplace). Scary stories are often a great way to appeal to reluctant readers. A couple months ago I was interviewing author M.R. Fournet and she was talking about her experience writing middle grade horror. She talked about how so many kids love a good scary story and that they often invent their own just as scary as anything published authors are coming up with. If they don’t want to write their own there are so many great scary stories out there. I remember sitting around at recess taking turns reading Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark when I was a kid. There was a similar book released this year called The Haunted States of America.

Give the Gift of a Graphic Novel

As much as kids love receiving and reading graphic novels, they also find joy in writing them as well. Suggest that they create a graphic novel of their own and gift it to a sibling, friend or parent. This doesn’t have to be anything fancy. My son has a spiral notebook in which he is always drawing boxes to sketch and write his own graphic novels. You could even print out pages of blank boxes and get a simple inexpensive binding done for them after they create the words and images.

Learn About Other Holidays Through Books

When we think of winter holidays we often think of Christmas and Hanukkah, but there are so many more out there to explore. You could learn about Kwanzaa, Diwali, Chinese New Year, etc. There are fun fiction books, like Let It Glow by Marissa Meyer and Joanne Levy, and there are nonfiction books, like A Kids Book About Diwal by Chhavi Arya Bhargava. You can find more bookish ideas in From the Mixed Up Files blog post Holidays are For Books

Reading Challenges

Many kids love the joy of a challenge or competition. Make a game out of reading and see who can get the most in each category. You could have a winner for each category or 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places for categories done as a large group, like at school. Prizes can be as simple as bragging rights, certificates, little treats, bookmarks, etc.

Holiday Reading ChallengeHoliday Reading Challenge printable

Holidays are for Books: Nine Bookish Ideas for the Holiday Season

With the holiday season upon us, it’s easy to get busy and not make time for reading. Incorporating literature into the holiday season can create lasting memories for all involved and encourage a year-round joy of reading. Below are nine ideas for creating holiday reading traditions:

  • Read books aloud together. Find holiday-themed books, some mugs of hot chocolate, and read a little bit aloud each day during the month of December. Reading also can be turned into an advent calendar experience with a picture book to read for each day.

 

 

  • Re-read classic books. Whether its A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens or something entirely unrelated to holidays, creating a ritual of reading the same book during December creates a sense of stability and is grounding. It also teaches the value of revisiting literature and learning or noticing new things upon each re-read. To take it a step further, you can create a bookmark that records the year, each child’s name, and their observations or reactions to the story. This can create a keepsake to pass down to the next generation.

 

  • Read to build empathy. As we all know, books encourage us to empathize with characters and thus allow us to see and appreciate different perspectives and diverse life experiences. The holidays can be a hard time for many people. Reading at least one book in which the main character comes from a very different background and life situation than your family can build greater awareness of the needs and perspectives of others.

 

  • Spark a love of reading by giving books. Whether it’s a book you’re ready to part ways with or something brand new, a thoughtfully given book during the gift exchanges of the holiday season feels personal to the receiver. Here’s a list of new books just in time for the holidays. A brief personal note from you, written on the book’s inside front cover with the date and why you think that they will enjoy that particular book, can make the gift even more meaningful.

 

  • Create decorations with old books. Do you have any books that are falling apart at their seams? If so, you can repurpose them into great holiday decorations. For example, a stack of green books can be made into a “tree,” cut-up pages from a book can be put into a clear round container to create a unique holiday ornament, and you can make a paper chain from pages of an old book.

 

  • Bring books to life. Pick an element of a book that you’re reading as a group or family. You may focus on recipes the main character enjoys, a tradition in the main character’s family, or a craft that the main character enjoys. Then spend an evening cooking, trying out a new tradition, or enjoying a new craft. You also often can find a book playlist on the author’s website and here’s a sample one from my website here. You might even decide to act out a holiday play together featuring a scene from the book your family is reading.

 

  • Library scavenger hunt. Make a game out of going to the library and searching for holiday books whose title begins with each letter of the alphabet. No computers to help. Just peruse the shelves and have fun!

 

  • Holiday book club! Pick a book to read as a group throughout the holiday season. On New Year’s Eve, you can discuss the book and pick some books to read in the coming year.

 

These are just a few ideas—you can bring reading more fully into the holiday season in many ways and I’d love to hear from you about the reading traditions that you create. I’m wishing you happy reading in the holiday season and beyond!