Christmas Themed Math Activities

If we can do Christmas themed language arts activities, we can do Christmas math, too.

Kindergarten Worksheets and Games has a bunch of printable math worksheets for younger kids, including skip counting, greater than/less than, I-spy with counting and more, all with a winter/holiday theme.

Mashup Math has some Christmas-themed math riddles for kids to try. Think logic puzzles where kids have to figure out how many there are of something or how much something costs based on the clues in the word problem.

Little Bins for Little Hands has a great collection of free printable Christmas related math activities. You’ll find Grinch themed graphic, a Santa dice rolling game, playdough mats with counting activities, secret word math puzzles and more.

Older kids can use these ideas from Make Sense of Math for some holiday-themed math learning. Solve problems with a snowball fight, plan a holiday meal or use problem solving on holiday themed puzzles. Some of these ideas involved paid products you can find here.

Speaking of paid resources, this holidays around the world math pack from Amanda Stitt at Teachers Pay Teachers looks like a lot of fun for middle schoolers. It includes information about different winter holidays (such as Christmas, Kwanzaa, Diwali and Los Posadas) and how they are celebrated around the world, with math skills integrated into the lessons. For example kids can determine the average temperature around Christmas in Australia, which country has the most people who celebrate Kwanzaa, or solve a word problem to discover how much money the children were gifted for Lunar New Year.

Teaching with Kaylee B has more paid printable math activities good for elementary school kids. I love the “Don’t Eat Pete” game, which is a way to practice math facts (and eat a little candy) you can do throughout the year, but this one has holiday themed clip art to make it a fun Christmas math game.

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Christmas Language Arts Activities

The celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is important throughout Mexico and other parts of the world. Her feast day is Dec. 12, and the celebrations honoring her appearance to Juan Diego in 1531 begin a few days before that.

Whether you celebrate yourself or just want to share about the celebration at home or in your classroom, Las Mañanitas: The Beautiful Celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a good place to start. The book, by Ernesto Joel Vega Rosales and Jeanette Gonzalez Seneviratne, with illustrations by Dana Sanmar, tells the story of a family’s celebration of the feast day in both English and Spanish.

They prepare with a novena, which is nine days of prayers and preparations. The children, Lucia and Pablo, are given special outfits made by their grandmother that look like what Juan Diego might have worn when he saw Our Lady. The book describes the prayers that are made each day, such as a prayer for respect for life, for families and for the indigenous people of the Americas, to name a few.

As told in the book, Juan Diego was a native Mexican born near modern day Mexico City. His given name was Cuaauhtlatoatzin, which means “He who speaks like an eagle.” When he converted to Christianity his name was changed to Juan Diego, and as he walked to church he passed a hill called Tepeyac. One day he heard the birds singing especially beautifully and a voice called him to go to the top of the hill.

There he saw Our Lady of Guadalupe, who asked him to tell the bishop she wanted a chapel built in her name at the foot of the hill. The bishop asked for a sign that Juan Diego really saw her, and later she had him collect flowers that she blessed and take them to the bishop. When Juan Diego dropped the flowers, an image of Our Lady could be seen on his cloak, which is still on display in her basilica to this day.

The feast day is celebrated as mañanitas, which includes singing, indigenous music and dancing, and children presenting flowers to Our Lady. Juan Diego is remembered today as being humble, brave and faithful, and was the first indigenous American made a saint.

The book is colorful and tells the story in a clear way, and it’s fun to have it both in English and Spanish if you teach Spanish or speak Spanish at home or in the classroom. It’s a great way to learn the basics of the celebration and the story of Juan Diego and why he is still remembered today.

About the book: 40 pages, paperback, published 2024 by Loyola Press. Suggested retail price $14.99.

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