A couple of years ago our homeschool year centered around world geography and cultures. We spent the year “traveling” from continent to continent, learning about one country at a time and diving into its geography, food, climate, culture, and belief systems. As Christmas approached that year I began dreaming up a curriculum that would introduce my children to various cultural traditions and festivities and how Christmas is celebrated around the world. I began sketching out a plan, gathering books, and researching cultures. I wasn’t able to complete it in time that year, so I am so excited to publish and share A Connected Christmas: Around the World with you this year.

A Connected Christmas: Around the World is a guide to introduce you and your children to cultures around the world while weaving in carols, scripture, beauty subjects, living books, and the Biblical Christmas story. 

What is A Connected Christmas: Around the World?

A Connected Christmas: Around the World is a three-week curriculum designed to celebrate the Christmas season in the weeks leading up to Christmas. This study focuses on recounting the nativity story and connects the holiday in our homes to the way the season is celebrated around the world. I hope this study will broaden and expand the way you understand Christmastime, while enriching the hearts of you and your children together.

Each week your family will memorize a passage of scripture, worship together with a Christmas carol, enjoy a festive poem, and study a nativity-themed piece of art. Each lesson also features a different country, with an overview of how the season is celebrated in this part of the world. Your family will read holiday picture books showing how the season looks in different countries, and enjoy a coordinating craft or baking project.

A Connected Christmas: Around the World is a three-week study with five lessons every week. It is designed to be used five days a week, but it can easily be adapted to fit into a four-day schedule or be used as your Morning Time plan.

Related: A Connected Christmas: Around the World Booklist

The foundation of the lesson time includes reading a passage of scripture aloud. These passages are studied in chronological order to complete the Biblical Christmas story by the end of the curriculum. Children will orally narrate the passage and then complete a written narration in their "Christmas Story Narration Notebook." Then they illustrate the day's passage, completing a 15-page keepsake by the end of the season.

 

How is A Connected Christmas: Around the World different from A Connected Christmas? 

My main intention during Christmastime is to share and celebrate the story of Jesus coming to earth in our homes. While the world celebrates the season, my goal is to instill the story of Jesus Christ in the hearts of my children as the focal point in our homes and in our lives. For me, this means revisiting the truths found in the nativity story, building connection as a family, and creating traditions and memories.

I am so excited to expand our holiday curriculum with A Connected Christmas: Around the World. Both of our Christmas guides can be used independently from one another. A Connected Christmas draws from the joy of warmth of this time of year, focusing on heart-warming classic Christmas stories and traditional holiday crafts and baking. A Connected Christmas: Around the World is designed to be a window into other communities so that we can see and feel the presence of this worldwide celebration. Both guides are centered in learning and celebrating the Biblical Christmas story.

Related: Introducing A Connected Christmas

If you used A Connected Christmas in previous years, I hope that A Connected Christmas: Around the World will be a natural follow up to how you celebrate the season in your home. If you’ve never used A Connected Christmas, but want to study the diversity of the season across the world, A Connected Christmas: Around the World would be a great option.

A Connected Christmas: Around the World focuses not just on the traditions within our own homes, but the way the season is celebrated across the globe in different languages, climates, and cultures. We learn and experience what this season means in different communities with the unique traditions of  people all over the world. 

We hope that by studying Christmas and its variations in other places, your family will be able to grow and expand your understanding of the season, while honing in on the truth of  Jesus – His coming to earth to seek and save the lost. Perhaps learning about other areas will deepen your appreciation for your own foundation, or it will spark ideas for new traditions to add to the holiday season in your home.

Related: How to Use A Connected Christmas with All Ages

Heartwarming activities in A Connected Christmas: Around the World

During A Connected Christmas: Around the World, you will bring new traditions to life with a selection of baking recipes and holiday crafts inspired by different cultures. You will share in the flavors, heritages, and history of other countries while you make new and special memories in your own family.

Each day of the study includes a summary of how Christmas is celebrated in different countries. You will learn how the holiday season is celebrated in Mexico, France, Japan, and so many more places! I have selected baking projects and crafts to go along with the curriculum as a way to make memories together and invite your children to feel and taste the traditions of other places around the world.

Adding A Connected Christmas: Around the World to your daily rhythm

Many families take the month of December to pause their regular homeschool lessons, slow down, and enjoy traditions and togetherness. A Connected Christmas: Around the World is a perfect guide to help you do just that. It could be a great fit for your Morning Time or even done in the evenings with the entire family. Many families, including ourselves, just add math to their days and pause all other subjects for the weeks leading up to Christmas. Throughout the study children have the opportunity to copy scripture and poetry, narrate, listen to read alouds, write narrations, draw and paint, study art, learn world geography, study Biblical history, and learn through baking and projects! We have found that it is more than enough to be considered our homeschool lessons for the month of December!

Related: Christmas Schooling Daily Rhythm

How will you be making the holiday time special in your own home? Let me know in the comments below!