Interactive Christmas Sites for Kids

Turkey Day is almost here, which means it’s time to start looking at interactive Christmas sites for kids. There aren’t as many good sites for Christmas as there are for Thanksgiving, but let’s take a look at what I have found so far:

CELEBRATE WINTER HOLIDAYS by SCHOLASTIC

Celebrate winter holidays by Scholastic features Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa all on page complete with a teacher’s guide and holiday clip art for teachers to use. There are holiday articles to download on each holiday, as well as a section on printable crafts, recipes, and thinking questions. Clearly this is my favorite among all of the sites listed here. Check it out!


TRIM A TREE with JAN BRETT

Trim a tree with Jan Brett at her homepage! Using the tree template, kids click and drag the ornaments onto the tree. When they are finished, kids can print their creation and give it to a friend. Jan Brett, a popular children’s book author, has written several holiday books for kids including The Christmas Trolls and The Gingerbread Baby. Her illustrations are gorgeous, and she has newsletters available for teachers to incorporate her books into lesson plans. Her website is also full of interactive activities to match each of her books. In addition, there is a whole page full of Christmas related activities besides “trim the tree“.

CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS AROUND THE WORLD

At Santa’s Net there is an extensive list of how Christmas is celebrated around the world. There is also a list of multicultural Christmas recipes and a list of how to say “Merry Christmas” in different languages. There are Christmas songs, too, but they only are comprised of the lyrics - you can’t hear the music. Bummer.

NORTH POLE.COM

North Pole has several different activities all in one place! I have not had time to explore the site since it is so big. Here is just a small list of what you can do here:

• Send a letter to Santa
• Send a holiday postcard
• Stories to read and color
• Games to play
• Recipes to bake
• Puzzles and Activities
• Sing Christmas Karaoke
• Visit the toy shop (disclaimer, this takes kids to Amazon.com)
  

If you have a favorite holiday site, feel free to let me know about it in the comments section!

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Make your own snowflake online

Make Your Own Snowflake Online!

What happens when you mix winter and Web 2.0? You get the Snowflake Generator, of course! The website folds the paper for you, and provides you with a virtual pair of scissors. Just start cutting along the edge of the paper, work your way in, and end at an edge when cutting your shapes. You can preview your snowflake along the way to see if you like the cuts you have made. How fun is this?

Also, the website gives you an opportunity to view the Snowflake Gallery, where you can print snowflakes made on the site, save the snowflake as a .jpg, or share one with a friend. If it could only produce a real SNOW DAY to get you out of school, this site would be perfect.

Office Max Elf Yourself

Office Max now has interactive holiday greetings that you can send to your friends and family. They call it “Elfing Yourself". All you need to do is upload a digital picture of yourself or a friend and place your face in the template. Once the picture is saved, Office Max places your head on an elf’s body and BEHOLD! You now have the cheesiest dancing elf ever! I amused myself for quite sometime by placing different friends on the template and watching them dance. Very clever, Office Max, very clever indeed. Office Max used to have a version called "Scrooge Yourself", but the link seems to default back to "Elf Yourself" this year.