What to Do in Your Homeschool the Week Before Christmas (Instead of Schoolwork!)
By: Knowledge Crates
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The week before Christmas is a nebulous little pocket of time in a homeschool.
The kids are HYPED. Mom is yearning for merry but mired in to-do lists. Routines are frayed. Attention spans are short. You might still have curriculum plans on the shelf, but realistically? They’re not calling to anyone.
And that’s okay.
This is the perfect moment for what many homeschool families lovingly call Christmas school — not as something extra, but as a conscious decision to put the regular schoolwork away for the rest of the year and finish strong in a different way.
Christmas school isn’t about squeezing festive activities on top of math and language arts. It’s about closing the books, shifting gears, and letting learning happen through real life, creativity, and connection.
Christmas school is a short, intentional pause from traditional lessons during the final days before Christmas.
It is:
A replacement for regular schoolwork, not an addition
A way to honor seasonal rhythms and tired brains
A chance to learn through experiences instead of assignments
It is not:
Falling behind
Giving up on learning
Something you have to justify
If your homeschool year has been full, this is permission to exhale.
What to Do Instead of Schoolwork the Week Before Christmas
These ideas are meant to replace your normal lessons for the week. Pick a handful. Follow your family’s energy. Let go of the rest!
Cozy Kitchen Learning (Math Without a Workbook)
Bake your favorite Christmas cookies together. Reading the recipe, measuring ingredients, working with fractions, and sequencing steps all happen naturally.
Create a family hot chocolate recipe and test different versions. Compare amounts, record favorites, and talk about why one worked better than another.
Bake something to share with a neighbor or friend. Planning, time management, and generosity wrapped into one meaningful activity.
Plan a simple Christmas breakfast or brunch menu. Kids can help choose dishes, count servings, and estimate quantities.
Festive Writing & Communication
Write a letter to Santa or a holiday wish list. This can be handwritten, typed, dictated, or illustrated — all of it counts.
Send a homemade Christmas card to a friend, neighbor, or relative. Art, writing, and fine motor skills all in one cozy project.
Make gift tags for family presents. Short writing tasks feel approachable when attention spans are low.
Write thank-you notes for early gifts or acts of kindness. A meaningful way to practice gratitude and written expression.
Cozy, No-Pressure Reading
Spend an entire afternoon reading Christmas books on the couch. No reading logs. No timers. Just stories.
Welcome big kids to reread old favorites—even board books. Fluency and building a personal relationship with a beloved book matter just as much as novelty.
Set up a Christmas book basket (or three!) for independent browsing. Fill a basket with holiday books and let kids read, flip through, or revisit favorites at their own pace throughout the day. Consider having a basket in the living room, another in the kitchen, etc.
Movies, Stories & Critical Thinking
Watch multiple versions of How the Grinch Stole Christmas and vote on a favorite. Compare tone, animation style, storytelling choices, and music.
Do the same with A Christmas Carol.There are SO many film and TV versions! How many can you watch? Talk about costumes, characters, and how different adaptations interpret the story.
Compare a Christmas book to its movie version. What stayed the same? What changed? Which worked better?
Create a family Christmas movie Top 10 list. As a family, brainstorm favorite Christmas movies from this year or past years and work together to narrow the list down to a shared Top 10. Talk through why certain movies make the cut and what bumps others off the list. This encourages discussion, reasoning, and respectful disagreement without turning it into a competition.
Music, Culture & Traditions
Create a family Christmas Song Hall of Fame. Everyone gets picks. Talk about what makes a song memorable—lyrics, melody, memories, or how it makes you feel. This builds music appreciation and thoughtful discussion without needing to rank everything.
Listen to different versions of the same carol. Notice tempo, instruments, mood, and interpretation. Which is your favorite?
Learn the story behind a favorite Christmas song. History, literacy, and cultural context woven together.
Create holiday playlists for different moods. Calm, cozy, upbeat, instrumental — sorting and categorizing included.
Art & Creative Play
Make paper snowflakes and decorate your windows. Fine motor skills, symmetry, and geometry show up quietly.
Set aside an afternoon for open-ended Christmas art. Paint, markers, collage, or an air-dry clay project all work beautifully here.
Try a beginner crochet or amigurumi project for older kids. Patience, sequencing, and perseverance wrapped in creativity.
Design wrapping paper or reusable gift bags. Patterns, planning, and artistic expression without pressure.
Hands-On Play & Building
Build winter or Christmas scenes with blocks. Spatial reasoning and problem-solving disguised as play.
Use an Arctic-themed MAGNA-TILES set to build polar habitats. Geography, storytelling, and design thinking come together naturally.
Create a building challenge inspired by a favorite Christmas story. How would you design Whoville? Scrooge’s office? Santa’s workshop?
Connection & Life Skills
Make a list of simple acts of kindness to do before Christmas. Character education that feels meaningful, not forced.
Declutter toys together to make space for new ones. Responsibility, decision-making, and gratitude rolled into one task.
Spend a day (or all week!) doing no school-related activities at all. Rest is part of learning, too.
Why This Works (and Why It’s Enough)
Christmas school works because it meets everyone where they are.
Kids are still reading, writing, thinking critically, creating, problem-solving, and learning how to be part of a family and community. It just doesn’t look like school — and that’s the point.
Putting the schoolbooks away for the rest of the year isn’t falling behind. It’s finishing with intention.
A Final Word of Permission
If your homeschool feels lighter this week, that’s not a problem to fix—it’s a sign you’re paying attention.
The week before Christmas is allowed to look different. In fact, it probably should!
If learning looks like cookies, music, books, movies, and long conversations on the couch, you’re doing it right.
If formal lessons are packed away and no one misses them, you’re doing it right.
If your kids are still thinking, talking, creating, and connecting—even without worksheets—you’re doing it right.
If the pace slows and the joy shows up again, you’re doing it right.
The week before Christmas doesn’t need lesson plans or checklists.
It needs breathing room.
It needs space for rest, connection, and memories.
Elizabeth is a former classroom teacher turned homeschool mom with a Master of Science in Education. She's been homeschooling for six years with her kiddos who are currently in kindergarten and third grade. At Knowledge Crates, Elizabeth develops the elementary unit studies and test-runs activities with her kids.
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