We are so excited to be heading into December, and really excited to have a fun Christmas bundle to share.
Last month, we shared individual poems, scriptures, and hymns to memorize with your family. This year, we are sharing some new resources!
Christmas Poetry Bundle
This bundle was a real labor of love, so we hope you use it as much as we will! This bundle is 30 pages, and includes over 70 poems about Christmas.
And we think they're all really amazing. In fact, we've included poems from great poets like Robert Frost, EE Cummings, JRR Tolkien, and William Wordsworth (and so, so many more), as well as poems from less well-known poets, so we are 100% sure that you've never read all of these poems before- but we are also sure you'll love them.
Aren't sure how to incorporate these poems into your home?
Here's what we recommend:
1. Read one poem together every day, as part of your Daily Devotional, bedtime routine, or scripture study.
2. Instead of analyzing each poem, or discussing its syntax or cadence, ask questions like
+ What is the spirit of this poem?
+ How did this poem make you feel?
+ How do you think the poet felt when s/he wrote this poem?
+ Were there any parts of this poem that you didn't understand?
+ Can you draw a picture of the story this poem tells?
3. Encourage your family to write their own poems about their favorite part of Christmas, your traditions, your faith, or the Christmas Story. Most of the poems in our bundle are Christ-centric, but there are some about Santa, snow, Christmas trees, etc. Maybe you could each write a poem about a specific Christmas object. If you live somewhere warm, encourage your kids to write Christmas poems about your own surroundings. Christmas Cacti? Rain? Palm Trees or ocean spray?
4. Hold a Christmas Poetry Teatime. We know you're making gingerbread cookies anyway. You're drinking cocoa and stringing garlands- add some poetry to your tradition. Take turns reading poems aloud when you're already having fun. Let these poems be fun and magical and not confusing school work.
A tip for printing: only the cover of this book is in color, but it also looks nice in black and white. We recommend printing this book double-sided and having it spiral bound. That should cost less than $5 at any shipping or print shop.
Christmas Hymn Books
It was impossible to narrow down which Christmas songs we wanted to include as music in this bundle, so instead- we created a little caroling book. Our hymn booklet has the words (but not the music) to 24 traditional or religious Christmas songs. If you're not sure of the tune or any of the music, we recommend listening to Sufjan Steven's Christmas album- he sings almost all of these songs in a traditional arrangement. You can also visit ChurchofJesusChrist.org to listen to versions of less-well known children's Christmas songs, like "When Joseph Went to Bethlehem"
A tip for printing: If your printer has difficulty in printing this double-sided (sometimes it flips it horizontally, making half your pages upside down), we recommend just printing the first 7 pages, single sided. Then set aside the cover and print the last 6 pages on the backs of the first 6. (Sorry if this is confusing!) Fold each piece in half and staple or sew to make a booklet for each member of your family.
Christmas Scripture Verses:
We have included another 4 scripture verses for your family memory work this month. (Just a reminder that you can buy the whole set of Scripture cards from our shop!)
We included:
Isaiah 9:6 "For unto us a child is born"
Matthew 2:1-2: "We have seen His star in the East"
Luke 2:7-11 "She brought forth her firstborn son"
Luke 2:52 "Jesus increased in wisdom, stature and favor"
A tip for printing: We recommend printing the cards on either thick cardstock, or regular paper- and then laminating. In fact, if you choose to laminate, you can punch a hole in the corner of each card and keep them on a key ring to flip through easily.
Christmas Poetry Pages:
We included full-page printables for 3 of the poems from our bundle. These are poems that we think would be especially good for memorization. Print the pages to include in a Morning Time binder or menu, or hang one on the kitchen fridge where every one can see it.
All of the poems we included are short- but we hope you'll consider learning a longer one, too! Some, like "In the Bleak Midwinter" have been turned into songs, making them even easier to learn! Choose whichever poem you're most excited by, and try to write it in your heart.
Now that you're (hopefully, SUUUPER excited): download our Christmas Bundle here.
If this bundle is useful to you, we hope you'll tell your family and friends and send them our way! Merry Christmas!
Becky + Graceann