Christmas is one of the most beloved and widely celebrated holidays worldwide. It is a special time that brings joy and sparkle to our lives with feasting and special rituals, colorful decorations, and the exchanging of gifts. Traditions have developed around this holiday, celebrating the birth of Jesus and they have changed as they have crossed borders into other countries and over time.
Dive into Christmas Traditions in the United States below. Download Sonlight's Christmas Around the World ebook to explore Christmas traditions from 19 different countries around the world, including 6 of the 7 continents!
Explore Christmas Traditions in the United States while listening to this episode of the InquisiKids podcast.
Christmas Traditions in the United States
In the United States of America, traditions vary by region and by cultural heritage. In general, it is common to celebrate the season by decorating a Christmas tree—either artificial or live—with ornaments, lights, and a tree topper. A skirt covers the base and is where wrapped gifts are placed in anticipation of Christmas Eve or Christmas Day when the gifts are then opened.
Another tradition is to hang stockings on the fireplace mantle, or if there is no fireplace in the home, some other central location. Santa Claus, the traditional gift-bearer, visits the home and fills the stockings with small gifts and treats.
Many people will decorate the outside of their homes in colored or white lights, some even timed to flash to the beat of accompanying music!
Many Americans attend church services on either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day in celebration of the birth of Jesus. Some churches put on pageants, concerts, living nativities, or other special ceremonies.
There are many other ways that Christmas can be celebrated in the United States, some religious and some not, some traditional and some not. However, it is a national holiday when most stores and restaurants are closed in observance, regardless of religious beliefs.
Christmas Crafts in the United States
Popcorn garlands are a classic American Christmas decoration. This tradition of stringing popcorn and cranberries comes from a German tradition of putting fruit on trees. German-Americans brought the tradition to the United States in the mid-1800s. They dyed their popcorn different colors and added fruit, especially cranberries. Try your hand at stringing cranberries and decorate your tree this year using the instructions below.
Cranberry and Popcorn Garland
Add some homemade charm to your Christmas tree with this DIY Cranberry and Popcorn Garland craft! Click here for instructions.
Christmas Recipes in the United States
Food plays an important part of the Christmas holiday with the baking of various treats and sharing them with friends and neighbors. Christmas dinner includes special dishes reflecting the cultural heritage of the family. Enlist your kids with cookie baking this season and add a new recipe to your collection!
What is your favorite tradition to celebrate with your family around Christmastime?
From traditional festivities to unique customs, we hope these United States traditions add a rich diversity to your family celebrations during this joyous holiday. Download the complete Christmas Around the World ebook to infuse your holiday traditions with Christmas customs, recipes, and crafts from 19 countries around the world.
We'd love to hear more about the traditions you celebrate in your own home! Share your stories on your favorite social media outlet using #sonlightstories or comment below. Have a tradition you'd like to see added to this post? Let us know, by emailing us at main@sonlight.com.
Discover the enchanting world of Befanini cookies as you step into the sweet embrace of this sweet Italian tradition. As the Epiphany season approaches, these delightful little cookies take center stage in Italy's festive celebrations. Bake your own batch to infuse your own kitchen with the scents of an Italian holiday.
This PDF file is formatted to print the same size as Sonlight's Recipe Cards so you can easily add it to your recipe collection!
Befanini Cookies
Ingredients:
4 cups flour
1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened and cut into pieces
1.5 cup sugar
¼ cup milk
Zest of 1 lemon or orange
3 eggs
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch of salt
1 tablespoons rum (or sub 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract)
3 tablespoons milk (only add if needed to soften the dough)
1 egg yolk
Nonpareils
Instructions:
Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl. Make a well in the center and add the butter, sugar, and eggs.
Using your hands, mix everything together. Add the zest, the rum (or extract) and knead. If dough is stiff add milk, 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough is smooth.
Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 30 - 45 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350F/180C.
Roll out the dough with a rolling pin to about 1/3 inch (4mm) and cut into various shapes using cookie cutters.
Place the cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and brush them with egg yolk sprinkle with nonpareils.
Bake for about 12-15 minutes, not letting them get too dark.
Now is a great time to begin curating recipes to develop into your own Christmas traditions. Sonlight has some simple recipe cards where you can record your favorites and create your own Christmas Cookie Collection.
Growing up in a home influenced by German roots, I looked forward to Christmas treats that spoke of that heritage. Lebkuchen (“leben” - favorite food, very sweet and “kuchen” - cake) is a soft and chewy cookie that is reminiscent of gingerbread. The combination of warm spices, honey, and sometimes nuts, makes it perfect for an after-meal treat, or an accompaniment to morning coffee.
Lebkuchen goes back to 14th century Germany where Catholic monks prepared the treat in monastery bakeries. The cookie was valued both for its symbolic religious meaning and its healing properties. Over the years many variations on this cookie recipe have emerged. Feel free to play with the flavors to find your favorite combination.
This PDF file is formatted to print the same size as Sonlight's Recipe Cards so you can easily add it to your recipe collection!
Lebkuchen
Preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C). Put butter out to soften.
Ingredients:
For the Cookies
2 1/4 cups (280g) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (115g) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
1/2 cup (120ml) honey
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (75g) chopped candied citrus peel (optional)
1/2 cup (60g) chopped nuts (such as almonds or hazelnuts, optional)
For the Glaze
1 cup (120g) powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest (optional)
Instructions:
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together sifted flour, baking soda, the spices, and salt. Set aside.
In a separate large bowl, cream together the softened butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add in honey, egg, and vanilla extract, beating until well combined.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until a soft dough forms. If you’re using the optional candied citrus peel and nuts, fold them into the dough at this point.
Scoop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls and roll them into 1-inch balls, spacing them about 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Flatten each ball slightly using the bottom of a glass or with your fingers. (Note - I didn’t bother with rolling the dough into balls, I just dropped a tablespoon full at a time onto the cookie sheet and flattened the dough slightly with my fingers).
Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until they are just set and the edges start to turn golden brown. Don’t overbake; lebkuchen should remain slightly soft.
While the cookies are baking, prepare the glaze by mixing the powdered sugar, milk, and lemon zest (if using) in a small bowl until smooth. Feel free to add additional milk to make the glaze “spreading” consistency.
Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes. Then, using a pastry brush or a small spoon, glaze the tops of the cookies with the icing while they are still warm.
Allow the glazed lebkuchen to cool completely on a wire rack. Once the glaze has hardened, store them in an airtight container. Flavors will continue to develop over the next couple days.
This recipe will yield approximately 2 dozen cookies.
Now is a great time to begin curating recipes to develop into your own Christmas traditions. Sonlight has some simple recipe cards where you can record your favorites and create your own Christmas Cookie Collection.
These spiced Dutch cookies are a holiday favorite, with each bite carrying the aromatic essence of the season. Whether you're savoring these cookies with a warm cup of tea or sharing them with loved ones, Speculaas is more than a recipe–it's a heartwarming tradition waiting to be savored. With a warm, spicy flavor, they’re perfect for the holiday season, especially St. Nicholas Day, but can be enjoyed year-round.
In the Netherlands, these cookies are shaped with intricately carved molds. This is a simplified version that requires no mold.
This PDF file is formatted to print the same size as Sonlight's Recipe Cards so you can easily add it to your recipe collection!
Speculaas
Ingredients:
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions:
In a mixing bowl, combine the butter and brown sugar. Cream together until the mixture is smooth and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add egg and vanilla and beat until blended.
In a large bowl, sift together flour and cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom, cloves, and baking soda. Then whisk in the salt.
Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet mixture, one up at a time, until just incorporated and dough forms.
Lay out a large piece of plastic wrap on a work surface and scrape the dough onto it, shaping it into a log. Wrap the log in the plastic wrap, and using the palms of your hands flatten the log until it is about 15 inches long and 2.5 inches in diameter. Refrigerate it for a minimum of 30 minutes, but preferably overnight. Chilling the dough makes it easier to work with and helps the cookies hold their shape during baking.
Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Traditional speculaas cookies use molds that feature windmill or Sinterklaas designs. In order to simply things, you can simply cut the dough into ¼ inch think slices using a sharp knife.
Place the cookies on the baking sheets, spacing them evenly. If desired, drag the tines of a fork lengthwise to form lines.
Bake in the preheated oven for about 12-15 minutes, until firm to the touch and the cookies turn a golden brown.
Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Now is a great time to begin curating recipes to develop into your own Christmas traditions. Sonlight has some simple recipe cards where you can record your favorites and create your own Christmas Cookie Collection.
These cookies are the most traditional Christmas cookie in Sweden. They date back to the Middle Ages when spices such as cloves and pepper were rare and expensive. They were used for special occasions. It’s a spice cookie similar to other countries’ spice cookies such as Pfeffernüsse or Speculaas.
This PDF file is formatted to print the same size as Sonlight's Recipe Cards so you can easily add it to your recipe collection!
Pepparkakor
Ingredients:
4 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¾ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup golden syrup (or sub light corn syrup if you can’t find golden syrup)
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Instructions:
Sift together the flour, baking soda, ginger and cloves into a bowl. Whisk in the salt and pepper.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until soft and creamy, about 3 minutes.
Add the syrup and beat until combined, then add in the heavy cream and lemon juice and beat until blended.
Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, one cup at a time, beating until blended.
Divide dough into 4 equal sections, shaping each quarter into a ball, then flatten to form a disc. Wrap each disc with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a minimum of 12 hours or up to 2 days. (You can also freeze up to 3 months. Let thaw to room temperature before rolling out.)
When you’re ready to make the cookies, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Place one dough disk on a clean, floured work surface. Using a floured rolling pin, roll out the dough to 1/8 to ¼-inch thickness. (Since this is a sticky dough, leave the other discs in the refrigerator until you are ready for the next batch of cookies. Otherwise the dough can stick to the rolling pin, work surface, and cookie cutters.)
Using cookie cutters, cut out the cookies and place them one inch apart on the baking sheets.
Bake for about 6 minutes or until golden brown. You might need to switch the baking sheets between racks midway through. You may also need to refrigerate any prepared baking sheets you cannot bake right away.
Allow the cookies to cool slightly on the cookie sheet before moving them to wire racks. Let cool completely before storing them in an airtight container.
Now is a great time to begin curating recipes to develop into your own Christmas traditions. Sonlight has some simple recipe cards where you can record your favorites and create your own Christmas Cookie Collection.
Timelines are an essential part of teaching history. This valuable—yet simple— tool helps students understand the chronology of historical events and make connections between individual events and people. In addition to providing big-picture context to your history studies, here are 5 more benefits to using a Timeline in your homeschool.
Timelines offer children a visual representation of what they are studying in history. Students can quickly see how events and historical figures relate chronologically. Sonlight's Timeline Book paired with program-specific Timeline Figures make creating your own timeline easy and delightful.
1. Timelines help kids make connections.
Your kids might be surprised that Catherine the Great and George Washington lived during the same time period. Or that Christopher Columbus and Leonardo da Vinci were contemporaries.
Over the years using your Timeline, students will form connections between the events and people they’ve read about in past years and people they’re currently studying.
In addition, if you encourage them to research and plug-in dates related to family members from previous generations, they gain a whole new perspective on how their family fits into the flow of history.
2. Timelines help kids grasp the overlapping or concurrency of seemingly unrelated events or cultures.
A timeline acts to tie history together. As students add people, events, discoveries, and inventions to their timelines, they discover how these smaller puzzle pieces fit together into the bigger picture of history.
For example, a timeline can help students understand that the Holocaust was a progression of events, decisions, actions, and inactions, not a singular inescapable fate. The Timeline Book makes history a living subject.
3. Timelines help kids situate newly encountered events and figures in relation to those they've already studied.
For example, students may think that the only thing happening in the world in 1862 was the Emancipation Proclamation, but the U.S. Mint was established in Denver, CO that same year and the bowling ball was invented!
Use this as a prompt to have your students consider “How did people from around the world contribute to this event, idea, etc.? Does this event remind you of something else in history?"
4. Timelines enhance comprehension.
Every time you place a new timeline figure, you’re cementing the learning from your history reading and tying each character into the bigger picture of history. Instead of just memorizing dates and facts, your children now have context for the events they’ve studied.
BONUS: with a timeline, students have the opportunity to look back over what they have learned and review it. Adding a visual resource to what they’ve learned from a book further cements that knowledge and improves retention.
5. Timelines help kids develop critical thinking skills.
Timelines help students discover patterns in history. Rising tensions, war, times of economic depression, times of prosperity—these tend to cycle in almost every developed nation around the world. When students look back over their timelines, they can find specific types of events more easily and compare them to current events.
TIP: Instead of simply adding a person or event to your timeline, ask your student if they’ve noticed any patterns. For example, “Have you noticed any similarities about events before a war begins?”
You can order a Timeline Book (just once!) that you’ll use throughout your entire homeschool experience.
Timelines are such a valuable tool to make your study of history visual and cohesive that we schedule Timeline Activities in our History / Bible / Literature Instructor's Guides and include Timeline Figures in every History / Bible / Literature package.
"Already they are making connections when we add new stickers to our Timeline Book, and they notice what else is already on the page!" —Cynthia H. of Champaign, IL
Your Sonlight Instructor's Guides tell you exactly where to place your timeline figures and how to do the mapping activities. Learn more about Sonlight's guides here.
When you picture a positive homeschool day, how does it look in your imagination? Are you frantically searching for “the good” pencils, trying to remember which lesson you’re on, and not sure which book to read first? Or are you heading into your homeschool day, confident and ready?
