My Favorite Christmas Read Aloud Books

Tomorrow starts the 24 day countdown to Christmas! Last year I created the Play Your Way to Christmas book, and my family is excited to participate in all the sensory and play activities again. Last year, I loved seeing teachers and families participating. You can get your copy here!

One of the things I loved about creating this was revisiting some of our favorite Christmas stories. If you don't have these stories at home, don't worry! I have read alouds posted below for many of the stories. I am also including the affiliate links if you want to purchase these Christmas books for your home.

The First Christmas

Watch me read this book here!

The Christmas Baby board book

If the book above is a little too long, this board book is a great option!

The Gingerbread Man

Run, run as fast as you can!

Watch me read this here!

Dream Snow

You know I LOVE Eric Carle! This book is great because it has these amazing transparent pages. Pairs wonderfully with Day 5-9 activities in the Play Your Way to Christmas book.

Watch me read this book here!

The Littlest Elf

This is a precious book about an elf who seems to be too small for most of the jobs in the North Pole. This story reminds us that everyone can do SOMETHING.

Watch me read this here!

The Polar Express

There is just something about this book's beautiful illustrations! This is a long book, so if you are reading this with younger children you can tell them a condensed version.

Watch me read the full version here!

Or the condensed version here!

Five Busy Elves

Lots of cute rhyming practice in this book!

Watch me read it here!

And last, but not least....

The Night Before Christmas

Yes, this was my book as a kid! Ever time I crack open that metallic, golden spine I am instantly snuggled up in bed with my little sister. We could always swear we heard jingle bells on Christmas Eve night!

Watch me read this here!

What books would you add to this list?

Turkey Story: Timmy's Feathers

Join me for a fun retelling of an easy reader book!

This activity combines a little scientific cause and effect with pre-literacy skills. This is the best way to prepare for Thanksgiving!

What you need:

* The printable story

*Picture of the turkey body cut out

* Paper plate

*Food coloring set (red, yellow, blue, green)

*baking soda

*Dropper

*Small cup of vinegar

*Crayons, markers, or colored pencils

How to Set Up the Story:

1. Put a few drops of red food coloring in a line on the paper plate.

2. Do the same with yellow, green, and blue (in this order).

3. Cover the color with sprinkled baking soda. These will be your feathers.

4. Place the vinegar and dropper close to your paperplate.

5. Begin telling the story. When Timmy begins to eat items, drip the vinegar onto the appropriate feather.

You can watch the retelling here:

Go HERE to get the printable story. Have children read the story and color the appropriate feather.

The story has lots of sight words!

Stocking Stuffers for Babies

This post contains affiliate links.

Reusable Gallon Ziplock Bags

These are great for reusable sensory bags! These bags are so fun for babies. It is a great way to explore things that might be too small for them.

Baby Snacks

If your baby is ready for these, they are always a crowd pleaser. Goodness, my kids all still love these :)

Boats for the Bath

These can be used in the bath and in the sensory table when they get older. There are no holes for water to get trapped and mold. Gross!

Personalized Pacifier: MAM style

We had these for Zaven when he was going to childcare and still used a pacifier. So cute! You can search for the style your child uses.

Wubbanub Infant Pacifier

Brickston always loved these Wubbanubs! This reindeer is so cute and would look adorable peeking over the top of the stocking.

Baby PhD Disposable Placemats

Great for messy play or IF we ever get to eat in a restaurant again. I like to use disposable placemats when I'm at friends' houses so I don't mess up their table!

Socks

Can you ever really have too many socks? I always struggled to find matches back in the day. I still struggle with big kid socks.

Angel Dear Lovey

These bring back so many sweet memories. Both of my boys had Angel Dear Lovies. Zaven had this leopard and called it "Spotty." They wash up so well. If you child falls in love with these, do yourself a favor and buy back-ups.

Letter Sounds with Chick-fil-A Toys

My family may have a problem. We may eat at Chick-fil-A quite a bit. The app just makes it so convenient! We have accumulated a few sets of these Discover Color cards. This is a cute game to throw in your purse for when you are waiting at a restaurant or waiting on a sibling to get finished with practice.

But as I was looking at it today, I thought this would be an easy DIY Letter Sound Game.

What you need:

*Color Cards from Chick-fil-A

*Clothespins

*Permanent Marker

Write letters onto the clothespins.

I already had these clothespins created from the snowman activity I made. I prefer to use lowercase letters, because children need practice recognizing these in print. For this set of cards you really only need: f, l, b, c, r, p, t, f.

You can add other letters just to practice letter discrimination.

Ask your child to match the letter to the first sound of the picture.

"What beginning sound do you hear?"

Have you gotten this toy from Chick-fil-A?

Best Board Games: Gift Guide for Game Nights

My children love to play board games and we have accumulated quite a few over the years. This guide will show you the ones that actually get played with.

Board games are great because it gives children the opportunity to follow directions and take turns.

The links in this post are affiliate links. I do get commission from any purchases you make using these links at no extra charge to you!

Go Go Gelato

This is an adorable fine motor and visual spatial recognition game. It is tricky! You draw a card and have to match the color combo by transferring the gelato from cone to cone. It is a race to see who can do it the fastest. Spoiler alert: Zaven is never the fastest :)

Pop the Pig

This is a preschool favorite. This teaches colors and counting.

Pancake Pile-Up

This is actually in my gift closet for Quinlan for Christmas THIS year. It is a sequencing game where you race to stack your pancakes like the ones in the card. I like that this incorporates a gross motor concept, too!

Skip-Bo and UNO

Our family goes through phases where we play Skip-Bo or UNO every night. The games can get vicious :) But in all seriousness, we love to play these two. Brickston is now able to play on his own. He is in kindergarten. Before that, the two youngest children would "team up" with a player to help.

Qwirkle

This reminds me a lot of dominoes, but with shapes and colors. So much fun!

Classic Games

Can you even have a game guide without these classic childhood games?

Candy Land

My children love to play this game. Teaches one-to-one correspondence and color identification.

Chutes and Ladders

More counting practice!

Hi Ho Cherry-O

And more counting practice!!! This one uses fine motor skills to pick up those oh so tiny cherries!

Hungry Hungry Hippos

If you don't have a headache, and do not mind picking up marbles...your kids will love this game. I loved it as a kid, and dread it now when my kids get it out. So loud!

Classic Dominoes

We play dominoes at my in-laws. Grammie taught the children early how to play. Dominoes are also fun to line up and build towers with!

Games My Big Kids Love (10 year old-13 year old)

Okay, I cannot tell you a thing about any of the following games. I do know that my big kids love them and enjoy playing with their uncles when we visit. If you have a tween in your life, these are a safe bet!

Exploding Kittens