Welcome to the Storytime at Home series! Every other week, we share a list of book options tied to a kid-approved theme, a craft you can set up to go along with the theme, songs/rhymes you can do during storytime, and additional enrichment activities. All books are available at Richmond Public Library, and crafts will involve items you likely have at home already! Our hope is that we can make it easy for you to share stories with your little ones and create a little bit of library magic at home.
P.S. Love library storytimes? Take a look at all in-library storytime options here. There is a storytime for your child every morning at our various branches!
Okay, now to the fun stuff…
Today’s storytime theme is HOLIDAYS!
December brings a new holiday season each year. Families all across our city celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and more. Reading books that showcase different holidays help us learn more about our traditions and customs, while also teaching us about how others in our community may celebrate. There’s beauty in teaching your kids to appreciate and uplift things that are different, and this holiday season is a great opportunity for that. Moreover, holiday books often touch on themes of family and togetherness, which creates nice bonding opportunities via reading. Get ready to get a little festive with this theme. Whether you’re feeling holly jolly, celebrating light, relishing in unity and connectedness, or a little bit of everything, we’ve got a book for you to dive deeper into your own celebrations or learn more about someone else’s! The library has some wonderful books about winter holidays, and we’ve included some of our favorites below. When you visit, you can also search in our catalog or ask a librarian to help you find the perfect book for you and your child.
Books
Reading to your kiddos turns them into confident thinkers. Making books a regular part of your daily routine is a great way to build children’s love of reading and learning. Storytimes also help build excitement around reading to support their literacy development.
Here are a few book options you can choose from for your holiday-themed storytime.
Preschool
- The Story of Hanukkah by David Adler
- Tamales for Christmas by Stephen Briseño
- My Family Celebrates Kwanzaa by Lisa Bullard
- The Queen of Hanukkah Dosas by Pamela Ehrenberg
- The House Without Lights by Reem Faruqi
- Countdown for Nochebuena by Adriana Bergstrom Hernández
- The Eight Knights of Hanukkah by Leslie Kimmelman
- A Stickler Christmas by Lane Smith
- Dasher Can’t Wait for Christmas by Matt Tavares
- Li’l Rabbit’s Kwanzaa by Donna Washington
- Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive The Sleigh! by Mo Willems
- One Foggy Christmas Eve by Kerilynn Wilson
- We Celebrate the Light by Jane Yolen
- Hanukkah Haiku by Harriet Ziefert
Toddler/Baby
- Snow, Snow, Snow! A Christmastime Song by Sandra Boynton
- Happy Hanukkah, Biscuit! by Alyssa Capucilli
- Kwanzaa by Hannah Eliot
- Merry Christmas, Spot! by Eric Hill
- My First Kwanzaa by Karen Katz
- Hanukkah Bear by Eric Kimmel
- Brown Sugar Baby Christmas Joy by Kevin Lewis
- Happy Kwanzaa! by Isabel Michaels
- Bluey Jingle Bells by Penguin Young Readers Group
There are many ways to make reading fun and engaging for your little one!
Click here to see some of our favorite tips for bringing stories to life at home.
- Point at the pictures and ask your child what they see. Help build their vocabulary by pointing to pictures and saying the word aloud.
- Ask your child questions about the story: What do you think will happen next? How do you think this character is feeling?
- Read with expression and enthusiasm, and use different voices for different characters.
- Act out what’s happening in the story.
- As your child gets older, count objects in a book, discuss the different colors they see, point out shapes in the story, etc.
- Snuggle up and be patient. Reading is great bonding time for you and your child. Take your time walking them through the story. If your child wants to turn the page or be finished with reading, that’s OK too. You don’t have to read every word or even every page for reading with your little one to be beneficial for their development.
Songs and Rhymes
We love adding songs and rhymes to our storytimes. This is a great way to practice language with your child and support their physical (motor) development through movement.
Here are two songs and rhymes you can use for this themed storytime.
Sing: Twinkle, Twinkle Hanukkah Lights
Tune: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Do actions in italics as you sing
Starting by holding up eight fingers
Twinkle, twinkle, Hanukkah lights (wiggle fingers)
Shining brightly for eight nights (hold hands above head)
Spin the dreidel round and round (point down and move hand in circle)
Eat some latkes crisp and brown (mime eating)
Twinkle, twinkle, Hanukkah lights (wiggle fingers)
Shining brightly for eight nights
Source: Miss Nina
Sing: It Is Kwanzaa
Tune: Frere Jacques
It is Kwanzaa, it is Kwanzaa
Seven days of light, seven days of light
Candles in the kinara, candles in the kinara
They shine so bright, they shine so bright.
It is Kwanzaa, it is Kwanzaa
Seven days of light, seven days of light
Corn for all the children, corn for all the children
On the straw mat, on the straw mat
It is Kwanzaa, it is Kwanzaa
Seven days of light, seven days of light
Lots of fruits and veggies, lots of fruit and veggies
For our feast, for our feast
It is Kwanzaa, it is Kwanzaa
Seven days of light, seven days of light
Pass around the unity cup, pass around the unity cup
We are all together, we are all together
It is Kwanzaa, it is Kwanzaa
Seven days of light, seven days of light
Gifts for friends and family, gifts for friends and family
Let’s celebrate, let’s celebrate
Source: Flannel Board Fun
Arts and Crafts
Adding a craft along with a book is a great way to continue allowing your child to learn, explore, and grow. Crafts are a nice supplement as they encourage motor development, creativity, self-confidence, and more.
In fact, art and craft activities:
- Build fine motor skills. Actions such as painting, coloring, gluing, and cutting develop small muscles in small hands and improve coordination skills as children learn to use both hands at the same time.
- Support early literacy. When children make art, they learn vocabulary and how to follow directions when getting verbal instructions from parents and caregivers. They also boost their communication skills via talking about their work!
- Teach early math concepts. Math skills are used frequently in arts and crafts. Kids learn about and recognize different shapes, count and sort art supplies, and even measure out materials.
- Encourage creativity. Art helps develop creativity, self-expression, problem-solving, and curiosity.
- Boost self-esteem. Doing arts and crafts can give children a sense of achievement and allow them to take pride in their work, which builds confidence.
- Offer bonding time. Kids love spending quality time with parents and caregivers, and arts and crafts are a great opportunity for this.
Here is a craft activity you can do along with the holiday theme.
Kinara Shape Craft
Materials Needed
- Cardstock or construction paper in brown, red, black, green and yellow
- Glue
- Scissors
- Optional: Kwanzaa stickers
Source: Crafting A Fun Life
Directions
- Create the base by cutting the short side of the brown paper to make a large rectangle. Then cut a medium sized triangle from the remaining piece of the brown paper.
- Make the candles by cutting 3 small rectangles from red and green paper. Then cut a medium-length rectangle from black paper.
- Create the candle flames by cutting small circles from the yellow paper.
- Help your child glue the brown rectangle on top of the edge of the brown triangle.
- Have them glue the candles on the base (brown rectangle) starting with red, black then green. Then, glue the flames (yellow circles) to the candles.
- Optional: Add stickers for decoration
Additional Enrichment Ideas
The fun doesn’t have to end at books, songs, and a craft. There are many ways to enrich a storytime with additional activities and lessons. Here are a few ideas for you and your child:
- Do Christmas and Hanukkah crafts together as well! You can find great ideas here and here.
- Watch short videos together to learn more about winter holidays. Need ideas on where to start? This Sesame Street song teaches the 7 principles of Kwanzaa and Elmo and friends teach us about Hanukkah here. This Peacock Jr video teaches young children about Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and Diwali.
- Visit The Jefferson Hotel to see their gigantic Christmas tree and holiday decor!
- Join us in the library for some festive activities like ornament making, holiday suncatchers, gingerbread cookie decorating, homemade snow globes, and reindeer balloon races.
- Head to Art Factory in Midlothian for their 7th Annual Hanukkah Party or experience the Capital City Kwanzaa Festival downtown!
- Enjoy holiday-themed treats! Here’s some inspiration for Christmas, Hanukkah, and more.
- Create a holiday-themed sensory bin to learn and explore further.
We share these Storytime at Home posts twice a month, so be sure to check back soon for more. You can also search “#storytimeathome” to see all past posts.
Have a suggestion for the next theme we cover? Email Sarah at sarah.fenninger@rva.gov and let us know!
