The holiday season is a magical time for children. Keep them busy during this hectic time of year with projects that help them celebrate and learn more about their family heritage:
- Create crafts that help celebrate the season in traditional ways. Make clay candleholders and wax candles for a menorah, weave a Kwanzaa mat or design an Advent calendar.
- Older children can be entrusted to make special holiday recipes. Offer your help in the kitchen and pass on yummy traditions.
- Collect holiday recipes from relatives and compile them to create family cookbooks for gifts.
- Learn holiday-related games such as the dreidel, or perform songs from your family's countries of origin.
- Read books about the history and tradition of your holidays, such as The Story of Hanukkah by Norma Simon (HarperCollins Juvenile Books), Celebrations (from the Children Just Like Me series) by Anabel and Barnabas Kindersley (DK Publishing), Las Posadas: An Hispanic Christmas Celebration by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith (Holiday House) or Seven Candles for Kwanzaa by Andreas Davis Pinkney (Dial Books for Young Readers).
Experience an Old World Swedish Christmas with the charming, old-fashioned holiday postcards in God Jul by Anders Neumuller
(Skyhorse Publishing), available in ShopFamilyTree.com.