The Best Christmas Morning Baskets For Your Holiday Homeschool

The best Christmas morning baskets are relaxed, cozy, and filled with holiday fun. We love diving into a good morning basket theme. During the holiday season, I think it’s easier for our holiday homeschool morning basket to be more focused on cozy activities, great books, and relaxing games.

Putting together a great Christmas morning basket is all about planning something easy to follow during a busy holiday season and ready to go when needed. While holiday homeschooling, we take a break from our traditional morning baskets and enjoy a special Christmas morning basket full of learning fun!

Ready to build your own cozy relaxing holiday homeschool basket for morning time? Keep reading to get the scoop on our favorite Christmas morning basket books, games, and activities.

Why Morning Baskets Work So Well In Our Homeschool

Morning baskets work so well in our homeschool because they’re filled with interest-led learning resources we can explore at our own pace. Our morning baskets are filled with resources to pique Emily’s unique interests and encourage her curiosity. She gets to choose the activities and books she wants to explore each morning.

Choosing what you want to learn about and when you want to learn it is powerful stuff! I get to fill the basket with themed activities, books, and games for her to explore and she gets to decide which ones we study first. It’s a win-win for a busy homeschool mom!

Another reason this approach works so well for us is because our morning baskets facilitate deeper conversations. We learn so much as we dive into new topics together with our morning basket activities. Sometimes discovering something new with Emily leads me to research a new topic or idea I never would have considered before.

For me, the best part of our morning basket routine is strengthening my bond with Emily. At the start of each day, we get to spend time together learning about something she’s interested in. Her day begins with this deep learning excitement and I get to experience it with her!

As we connect over books and games, we’re creating a family culture of lifelong learning. We get to start our day with important discussions about topics she’s interested in, bonding over new activities, games, and great books.

Choosing what goes in our morning baskets is another way we can strengthen our bond. Getting Emily involved in deciding what goes into each basket has helped her learn to make plans, place holds at the library, and manage a budget. It’s a real-world learning experience that begins before we put books in the basket.

Christmas Is The Perfect Season For Morning Baskets

Christmas is the perfect season for morning baskets to shine! At this time of year, we’re all looking for more ways to slow down and create memories together. A Christmas morning basket makes it easy for busy homeschooling families to dive into all kinds of fun activities and engaging books together.

Over the years, we have put together lots of thrilling holiday morning baskets for kids of varying ages, filled with games, picture books, crafts, and more! Check out some of our favorites below:

December Morning Basket for 2018

This December morning basket is ideal for early elementary students. It’s filled with fun holiday activities and books we did when Emily was in first grade. We started with scripture ornaments and The Jesus Storybook Bible.

We had fun with the Laugh Out Loud Christmas Joke book for kids and Spot It! Holiday game. Emily also memorized The Night Before Christmas to boost her memory skills and got to recite it for her grandparents at Christmas dinner. It’s one of our favorite holiday memories!

Speaking of holiday memories, Q&A a Day for Kids is another great holiday keepsake to add to your Christmas morning basket. Looking back on those memories is so special and it’s a great way to encourage handwriting practice.

We read lots of great books this year too. Check out Short Poems from the North Pole, Santa’s Short Suit Shrunk and The Family Under the Bridge for some fun holiday read-aloud books to add to your morning basket this December.

We also really loved A World of Cookies for Santa. It’s perfect for exploring other cultures and learning about world geography with your kids this Christmas. Dive deeper into this holiday learning adventure with our unit study, Santa’s Tasty Trip Around the World to learn even more about how different cultures around the world celebrate Christmas.

Easy Christmas Themed Morning Basket 2019

I adopted an easy peasy Christmas themed morning basket for our second-grade year in 2019. Some of our favorite morning basket activities for second graders include an Advent Nature Study Through the Holidays and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson.

We also really love Christmas Mad Libs. Mad Libs are a great addition to morning baskets year round, because they help kids practice parts of speech, they’re adabpable for a variety of ages, and they’re super creative. We also included a Christmas themed playdough set and the Fisher Price Little People Nativity in this year’s morning basket. They’re both excellent for keeping little hands busy while you read aloud.

Morning Basket for Holiday Homeschool 2020

In 2020, we needed extra jolly fun for the holiday season, so you’ll find lots of fun hands-on learning activities in the 2020 Christmas themed morning basket. These selections made Christmas school so exciting!

We started our Christmas morning basket with an interactive family celebration of Advent called, The Wonder of the Greatest Gift. Every day had a little book for us to read and a special keepsake ornament we could hang on the tree. I love that this resource is reusable so we can enjoy it year after year.

Another fun addition to this December basket is trivia. We love trivia because it’s a fun family activity and it’s also an easy way to incorporate learning while we travel. For trivia, we added National Geographic’s Weird But True Christmas: 300 Festive Facts to Light Up the Holidays.

Our read alouds this year include Nutcracked by Susan Adrian, The Girl Who Saved Christmas by Matt Haig, and Who Was Charles Dickens? We love the Who Was book series because it brings history to life in a way that’s engaging for kids of all ages. Don’t miss our Who Was Mini Unit Studies for more opportunities to learn about historic people, places, and events.

December Morning Basket for Christmas 2021

This year’s feastive Christmas themed morning basket started with our interactive Advent book again. We love it! We also added lots of new and exciting activities and books to our basket this December.

Christmas morning basket books in this year’s basket include How Winston Saved Christmas “in 24 ½ chapters” with hands-on activities and crafts. It’s the perfect way to incorporate festive holiday crafts into your December morning basket. Other books we loved for holiday homeschooling 2021 included: Father Christmas and Me and Christmas is Coming: Traditions Around the World.

I’m really excited about The History of Christmas: 2000 Years of Faith, Fable, and Festivity, because it’s filled with hands-on activities, recipes, and devotions for families to experience during the Advent season. We also added holiday puzzles to our Christmas morning basket this year and hands-on activities we can give away as gifts or use for random acts of kindness.

Our hands on activities include a holiday beeswax candle kit, Christmas suncatchers, and kindness rocks we can paint in a Holiday Hide and Seek Rock Painting activity kit. I’m also including lots of loose parts and wooden ornaments for making unique Christmas tree ornaments during morning basket time.

Christmas Themed Morning Basket 2022

Our 2022 Christmas themed morning basket is filled with fun ideas and activities for holiday homeschooling! It’s ideal for families who want to spend December cuddled up on the couch, enjoying Christmas tree lights, and learning with great books and games.

Each of our themed morning baskets includes four main categories: read alouds, madlibs and trivia, hands-on activities, and games. These are Emily’s favorite things and I love starting our day with the learning activities she loves best.

This year, we’ve included Would You Rather? Christmas Edition in our holiday morning basket. These engaging books spark some very cool discussions and encourage critical thinking skills.

Some of our favorite holiday books get added back into our Christmas morning basket every year. We love reading these titles over and over together. New read alouds for 2022 include, The Last Holiday Concert, How Winston Came Home for Christmas, and The Christmas Pig.

Hands-on activities give us cozy hygge exercises we can do together to foster connection. This year, we added Paint by Sticker: Holly Jolly Christmas, a perler Christmas fuse bead craft kit, and a latch hook kit for making adorable novelty Christmas stockings.

Games we’re excited to play during holiday homeschooling this year include the Chip ‘n’ Dale Christmas Treasures Game, Grinch Grow Your Heart Card Game, and Lumps Dice Game. Playing games together during our morning basket time is a great way to connect, ease into learning with a lot of fun, and rest my voice after all the reading out loud.

More Morning Basket Fun for Kids of All Ages

Every year, we add new holiday morning basket fun for kids of all ages to our themed baskets. I’m always searching for fun new games, trivia, and books to read. The past few years we have added a few new morning basket activities and books to keep our Christmas morning basket fresh and exciting.

More Holiday Homeschooling Favorites

Holiday homeschooling favorites blend seasonal joy, memory making opportunities, and learning together to create a homeschooling tradition we love. Christmas school gives us an opportunity to explore history, cultures, and traditions as a family.

With books, games, and crafts, we can slow down and focus on connection during the holidays while we learn together. If you’re searching for more holiday homeschooling fun, don’t miss these ideas, printables, and guides:

Are you planning Christmas school for your family this year? Which books and activities are you most excited about for holiday homeschooling? Tell me all about your favorite games, books, and crafts for December in the comments.