Celebrating the Winter Solstice with Kids

I have to admit that winter makes my grumpy. I’m cold all the time (despite being covered in handknits most of the time) and the fact that it gets dark so early annoys me. I feel like there’s no evening, even though it’s the same length it always was, it’s just dark.

The good news is that the winter solstice is coming on Dec. 21. That day marks the shortest day and longest night of the year, meaning that starting after that we start, ever so slowly, to get our light back.

That’s something worth celebrating, right?

Check out this list of children’s books about the solstice from Rhythms of Play, as well as her great collection of winter solstice activities. I love the idea of having a special feast by candlelight to celebrate the impending return of the sun.

That second post also has some information about what the solstice is; if you want more information Wikipedia has a surprisingly good page on the winter solstice.

And if you happen to be in the Southern Hemisphere, looking to celebrate the summer solstice instead, Nell has got you covered there, too.

[Photo via Rhythms of Play.]

Next Plan Idea:

How to Build a Lego Night Light

Every year at my daughter’s school I think it’s the second or third graders do an activity where they have to disguise a turkey to keep it from being eaten at Thanksgiving. The kids draw the disguise and write a little bit about why they thing that would be an effective way for the turkey to hide. There were some really creative ideas, including one year one was dressed as an eraser for some reason?

If this is an activity you’d like to try with kids in the classroom or at home, check out these turkey in disguise printables to get you started.

If you want to keep it totally basic you can just print out a turkey in disguise coloring sheet like these from The Best Ideas for Kids. There are a few different options kids can use to decorate and they write in what their turkey is disguised as.

My Bored Toddler has a similar printable that just asks what the child will cover the turkey with to hide it. This one would be fun to use in a plastic sleeve or laminated, then you can use it with playdough, cover it with leaves or glass gems or draw on it and use it again.

Easy Peasy and Fun has a paper doll-inspired take on turkey disguises, with printable costumes you can take on and off to hide your turkey quickly. The disguise is attached to the regular turkey with a tab so you can flip it up and down to have a regular turkey or one disguised as a peacock, football player, astronaut and more. This one includes a writing activity so students can explain why they picked the disguise they did and why they think it will work.

Red Ted Art has a set of 12 disguises you can buy (or you can get six random costumes for free) that come in both color and black and white. Kids can just assemble the turkeys or they can color them and then put them together. The set includes a basketball player, pirate, chef, unicorn, mermaid, robot and more. It doesn’t include a writing activity but you could also have kids write about which character they picked and why.

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