Christmas Activity Books

A good activity book can be an ideal way to keep over-excited children busy in the run up to Christmas.

Pocket Money Christmas
(b small publishing)
Clear instructions tell you how to make party hats, decorations, biscuits and simple presents. To fit in with the pocket money title, all the projects use only simple materials that can be bought cheaply or easily found around the house.
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How to be Brilliant at Christmas Time
How to Sparkle at Christmas Time
Christmas Activities for the Early Years
by Val Edgar
(Brilliant Publications)
The photocopiable activity sheets in these books are imaginative and fun. For example, rescuing a letter to Santa that's been chewed by Rudolph is much more interesting than a standard "fill the gaps in the sentence" exercise and calculations are more enjoyable when they provide the key for colouring by numbers. Each of the books is targeted at a different age range - Brilliant is for 7-11 year olds, Sparkle for 5-7's and Christmas Activities for 3-5's. The wide selection of sheets they contain includes numeracy and literacy activities as well as more general ones.
A great choice for primary teachers looking for ideas for excited children.
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Buy How to Sparkle at Christmas Time from Amazon     
Buy Christmas Activities for the Early Years from Amazon

Christmas Fairy Things to Make and Do
by Rebecca Gilpin
(Usborne)
The clear step-by-step instructions in this book take the reader through a wide range of art activities with a fairy theme. Although there is a strong Christmas theme, some of the activities could also please fairy enthusiasts at other times of year. With illustrations for each step of the instructions and a good, clear font, this book is accessible to weaker readers without seeming too easy for the more confident. Includes two pages of shiny, silver stickers.
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The Christmas Craft Book
by Thomas Berger
(Floris Books)
Aimed at older children and adults, the beautiful decorations in this book include decorated candles, advent calendars, angels, cribs and a dazzling selection of stars. The Christmas tree decorations are based on mathematical shapes and the book includes the patterns (or nets) for making them. Useful for older children and teenagers and as a source of ideas for parents and teachers.
Ages 10+
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Make and Colour Christmas Cards
by Clare Beaton
(b small publishing)
12 pull out cards to colour and instructions for making your own cards should keep small fingers busy. It also has templates for gift tags and, most importantly, a template for making envelopes.
Ages 5-9
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Christmas Activity Book
by Clare Beaton
(b small publishing)
Includes puzzles, a board game, step by step instructions for making decorations and an Advent calendar ready to pull out and assemble. If you have a budding linguist in the family, you may like to buy it in French.
Ages 6-10
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Christmas Cooking
by Rebecca Gilpin and Catherine Atkinson
(Usborne)
A selection of recipes for Christmas with drawings illustrating each stage of the making process. These cover a good range of difficulty from simple sweets that require no cooking to more complicated biscuits and tarts so there's something for all age groups and abilities. There's also a useful section on wrapping the results to turn them into attractive gifts for friends and relatives.
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Crafty Christmas Stars
by Clare Beaton
(b small publishing)
The cover of this small book has a star-shaped hole to use as a stencil for the various activities described inside. These all have a star theme and include baking biscuits as well as making cards, decorations, wrapping paper, Christmas stockings and a fairy wand. The instructions are clear and easy to follow but weak readers may need help.
Ages 8-12+
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Make and Colour Christmas Decorations
by Clare Beaton
(b small publishing)
There are two types of activities in this book. The first involve colouring line drawings, cutting them out and folding them or slotting them together to make decorations. For the others, you use the stencils or templates provided to create your own shapes to colour and fold. All the activities are within the capabilities of quite small children provided they have help with the cutting and the good selection of decorations includes a nativity set.
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Christmas Puzzles
(Usborne)
Each double page spread in this book has a different puzzle to test your powers of observation. There are also stickers to fill in gaps in the pictures plus extra "I solved the puzzle" stickers to reward success. The answers are at the back.
Ages 6-12 (younger children will need help with the instructions)
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Christmas Activities
Things to make and do for Christmas
by Ray Gibson and Fiona Watt
(Usborne)
The wide range of activities in each of these books make them suitable for the whole family and a useful resource for primary teachers. Very young children make handprint angels or card stockings with help while older ones may enjoy making gift tags and pop up cards by themselves. The clear instructions have illustrations for each step which help make them accessible to weak readers. But it's important to note that many of the activities in these two books are identical so, although either one of them is fun, you don't want to buy them both.
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Buy Things to make and do from Amazon

For more Christmas titles, see
Nativity Stories     
Stories with Father Christmas     
Christmas Film Tie-ins and Videos    
Christmas poetry    
Nativity Plays