Book Review: The Littlest Solstice Tree

I shared some ideas about celebrating the winter solstice with kids, but I wanted to share a cute book on the subject as well. The Littlest Solstice Tree by Lisa Varchol Perron and illustrated by Ahya Kim talks about the tradition of going into the woods to decorate a tree on the solstice rather than bringing a tree home to decorate in your house.

Young Sapling hopes it will be the chosen tree to be decorated, though Ancient reminds it the tall and lush trees are usually the ones selected.

But the power of hope, friendship and the wisdom of children gives this solstice celebration a different ending.

It’s a short, sweet (not ashamed to admit it made me tear up a little) story with lovely illustrations that include people, trees and forest animals. It can serve as a gentle introduction to solstice traditions and a way to contrast solstice and Christmas celebrations.

The author’s note at the end of the book tells a little bit about the winter solstice, which happens in the northern hemisphere around Dec. 21 each year and in the south on or around June 21. It notes that people have celebrated to solstice for nearly 12,000 years and that traditionally greenery might be brought into the house but trees weren’t typically cut down and brought home for Christmas until the 1500s. (Still a long tradition!)

Winter solstice is a great time to bundle up and go for a walk in nature and think and talk about the returning of the light and hopes for the new year to come.

This would be a nice book to add to a classroom collection of winter holiday themed books or to read at home if you already celebrate solstice or want to incorporate a celebration into your family traditions.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover, published 2025 by Beaming Books. Suggested retail price $18.99.

[Photo: Beaming Books]

Check out the kids craft section on Craftbits.com

When my daughter was younger she had a ton of LEGO bricks, and I’m honestly a little sad we got rid of most of them because there are so many fun things to do with LEGOs outside of the kits you bought them in.

I love seeing all the ideas people have for LEGO building challenges, and I have shared some ideas for LEGO games before, but I saw one on Pinterest the other day that I felt was worth a mention.

This one is for those ’80s and ’90s kids who spent sick days home from school watching “The Price is Right”: LEGO Plinko!

For those who don’t know about Plinko, the original was a giant peg board set up at an angle and the contestant would drop a flat disc at the top of the board. As it moved down the board it would hit the pegs and change the way it moved, and there would be different prizes in the slots at the bottom where the piece would land.

This version from Play Party Game works on the same principle, using LEGO bricks to make the game board and marbles in place of the Plinko disc since your game board isn’t flat.

You can really use whatever bricks you have for this build, and while it shows all the pegs the same size and evenly spaced, you can play with different configurations and see what happens. It’s engineering and a game!

And while you’re playing with your LEGOs, make sure to check out this post from Kids Craft Room that includes minute to win it style games you can do with LEGO. From speed sorting to tower building as fast as you can, these ideas are sure to get you thinking about different ways to play with LEGO.

And if you need even more ideas, check out my post with LEGO building challenges you can print out for kids (and adults!) to try.

Have you read?

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