Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa

This week we've been getting ready for several winter holidays.  We talked about solstice and how it's the shortest day of the year.  We played dreidel and talked about Hanukkah.  We practiced some weaving and talked about Kwanzaa.  Genevieve helped stitch up a snowman ornament and color Christmas pictures.  We were hoping to make a wreath out of handprints, but some people were working on the house this week so we went to the park instead.

We read lots of great books this week.  The Christmas Mouse was a cute story of a mouse getting ready for Christmas, illustrated by one of Genevieve's favorites - Anne Mortimer.  The Little Reindeer  was a story of a reindeer who ends up in the care of a little boy in a big city.  My Christmas Safari was set to the Twelve Days of Christmas, and tells the story of a girl on safari with her father.  At the end, you see she got a safari playset for Christmas.  Bear Noel is one of my favorites, the story of Bear Noel bringing gifts to the animals.  I always want to go decorate a tree for the animals with carrots and birdseed pinecones.  Father Christmas and the Donkey was a bit wordy, but told the story of a lonely donkey that helps Santa finish his deliveries and receives the gift of a new home.  A Doll for Navidades introduces some Spanish words while reminding us we won't always get the gift we want.  How Do Dinosaurs Say Happy Hanukkah is one in a series of books that remind us of good behavior while introducing dinosaurs.  Another book in this series deals with Christmas.  The Legend of the Christmas Rose is the story of the little sister of the shepherds called at Jesus' birth.  She wants to give a gift to the baby as well and finds an armful of small flowers.  Little Bear's Sparkly Christmas is the story of a bear looking for a present for its mom.  Maple and Willow's Christmas Tree is the story of a small girl who discovers she's allergic to her Christmas tree.

Christmas Traditions in Holland

In Holland, the Christmas season begins in November.  The last Saturday of November, Sinterklaas arrives to meet with the children.  He is dressed in traditional bishop’s robes.  His assistant Black Peter is dressed in Spanish attire as they have both traveled from Spain, where they have been watching the children and preparing presents.  Sinterklaas and Black Peter are greeted by the mayor and lead a parade through the streets with Sinterklaas riding a snowy white horse.  The children are given the chance to account for their actions from the last year.

St. Nicholas Day
The main festivities of the Christmas season take place on St. Nicholas Eve and St. Nicholas Day.  St. Nicholas Day is December 6.  On St. Nicholas Eve, families may throw a party with food, hot chocolate and a special letter cake made in the shape of the family’s initial or the initials of all the family members.  That evening the family also exchanges presents, called surprises.  Surprises are often hidden or disguised and are accompanied by verse.  All the gifts are listed as from Sinterklaas.  At the end of the evening, the children place their shoes by the fireplace, filled with food for Sinterklaas’s horse, like hay and carrots.  Children account for their actions to their parents, and go to sleep.  The next morning, well-behaved children will awake to find their shoes filled with nuts and candy.  The family then spends the day in celebration.

Advent and Christmas
Beginning with the first Sunday of Advent, farmers in Holland blow long horns at sunset.  The horns are usually made from hollow elder-tree branches, often from one-year old saplings.  The horns are blown over wells, creating a deep, eerie noise.  This announces the coming of Christmas and help to chase away the evil spirits to prepare for the birth of Christ.  Families decorate the home with candles, evergreens, holly and a Christmas tree.  Some children hang stockings from the fireplace.
On Christmas Eve, families often attend church together.  Santa Claus, not to be confused with Sinterklaas, might deliver a few presents that night, but Sinterklaas is more important in this holiday season.  If Santa Claus does deliver gifts, they are usually small gifts, like biscuits, fruit or books.  Families may also attend church on Christmas Day.  Christmas is a religious time.  After church, families gather around the Christmas tree, telling stories and singing carols.  They finish the evening with a fancy family dinner of hare, venison, goose or turkey.  They drink eggnog and mulled drinks.
The following day, December 26, is called Second Christmas Day.  This is another day to celebrate with family and relax.  Families may go out to eat and attend holiday concerts or recitals.
Prettige Kerstfeest to all the families celebrating in Holland this year.

http://www.whychristmas.com/cultures/holland.shtml
http://www.thehistoryofchristmas.com/traditions/holland.htm
http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/christmas-traditions-around-the-world-ga7.htm
http://www.santas.net/dutchchristmas.htm
http://www.santas.net/netherlandschristmas.htm

St. Lucia Day and the Sky at Night

This week is St. Lucia Day.  When the weather has allowed, we also took our telescope out to explore the night sky and the full moon.  We also talked about Bodhi Day, a little late.

Bodhi Day is celebrated on December 8th.  For Buddhists, it is a celebration of the day when Buddha found enlightenment.  Siddhartha Gautama was born into a wealthy family, but left everything behind to search for understanding of the suffering in the world.  He spoke with many people and decided to fast and meditate under a tree.  Under this tree, he discovered the eight-fold path that would lead to enlightenment.  This includes the right view, intention, action, speech, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration.  This is one of the four noble truths.  To celebrate this discovery, people decorate ficus trees with lights and meditate.  They may take a moment to honor those who have helped them learn along their path.  Genevieve practiced some yoga poses and we talked about people in our lives who serve as teachers.

St. Lucia's Day is the 13th of December, which is one week after St. Nick's Day.  This commemorates a young Christian girl who was martyred in Rome.  Lucia, or Lucy, is often depicted with a wreath of candles around her head.  In her honor, girls dress in white gown with red sashes and wear lingonberry or evergreen wreaths with candles.  Boys often dress as "star boys." Traditionally, the oldest daughter in a family wakes up early and serves breakfast to the family.  Breakfast is usually Lussekatters.  Genevieve helped me to make these breakfast breads.

When the weather has allowed, we've been watching the night sky and enjoying the full moon.  I have the sky map app, which helps identify constellations and other night sky objects you might see like the International Space Station.  We read Snow Moon, which is actually more about a snowy owl than the moon, and a favorite, Little Owl's Night.  We also read the beautifully illustrated Twinkle Twinkle Little Star by Jerry Pinkney.  One Winter's Night is the story of a pregnant cow looking for a place to give birth, ending in the barn with Mary and Joseph.

We read several other Christmas books this week.  Santa Duck was a big hit with both of them, especially when he sings "Jingle quack.". We read the classic, How the Grinch stole Christmas and watched the animated movie.  Apple Tree Christmas tells the story of a pioneer family surviving a blizzard before Christmas but losing their favorite apple tree.  The Third Gift follows a young boy helping his father harvest myrrh, and is an interesting view of the story of the three wise men.  Genevieve loves the Disney Storybook collections, so we read the Christmas collection.  Auntie Claus was the story of the Kringle family and what might happen if Santa's nephew stopped believing.  Since Genevieve loves animals, we read McDuff's Christmas and the beautifully photographed Christmas Wish.  We read the Christmas Harold book, Harold at the North Pole, and an alphabet book, B is for Bethlehem.

St. Nick's Day and Snow

This week is Saint Nicholas Day.  When we haven't been celebrating that, we have been studying snow.

The feast day of Saint Nicholas falls on December 6th.  In much of the world, Saint Nicholas is responsible for delivering gifts.  Saint Nicholas was a bishop of Myra, in Turkey, during the fourth-century.  He was well known as a generous being who loved children.  One story tells us how he threw gold coins in the window of a poor girl so that she might get married.  Today those coins have become small presents left in stockings and shoes.  Saint Nicholas might be seen riding a donkey or a white horse.  He may also be accompanied by someone who punishes naughty children while he gives gifts to the good children.  Often, he recognizes that children are both good and bad, so leaves both good and bad presents like sweets or small toys and potatoes or coal.

Because of her favorite Amazon special, If You Give a Mouse a Christmas Cookie, Genevieve decided to make snowflake cookies to leave out with some carrots and hot cocoa Monday night.  We made sugar cookies and she decorated them with blue and white sugar.  So we opened our stockings Tuesday evening.  They both got pajamas, musical instruments like a slide whistle and tambourine, snow globe-like bouncy balls and matching games.  He also got a light up ball and she got slippers, which she loves.  

We've been reading about snow this week, which tied in perfectly with storytime this week.  Mr. Dan read a book in which a young child celebrates the snow one flake at a time.  He read Frosty the Snowman, set to the familiar song and Sneezy the Snowman which tells of a snowman who keeps trying to warm up.  Froggy Gets Dressed is a humorous book in which Froggy decides he doesn't want to sleep through the winter and tries to get dressed for the snow.  Sadly, he keeps forgetting things like his snow pants, sweater, or his long underwear.  He also read Dream Snow, which we read last week.  She loves the button to make the music play.  We read The Snowflake Sisters, which follows two snowflakes on a magical ride with Santa and through New York City for the new year.  Michelangelo's Surprise tells the true story of Michelangelo creating snow sculptures for the Medici family from the point of view of a young page.  Toys Meet Snow tells of three toys that go out to explore the snow: one full of questions, one poetic, and one scientific.  The Snowy Day is the classic book by Ezra Jack Keats following Peter's adventures in the snow.  She keeps correcting the book though because of the Amazon special.  Snowflakes Fall is illustrated by Steven Kellogg and is about the uniqueness of snowflakes and children, written respectfully in light of the tragic school shootings our country has faced.  The Hat and The Mitten are both by Jan Brett and involve animals experiences with winter clothing.

To celebrate snow, we made snow globes with friends.  We used stickers to decorate an insert, but you could color the paper or use your own photo inside to create a background.  They don't seem to leak, but the plastic can break and leave a wet, glittery mess.  The glitter will take some time to disconnect from the base as well.  Our friends also decorated some of the ornaments we've been decorating.  We made paper snowflakes, cutting into the folds we made.  Instead of simply folding paper in half though, we fold once in half and then bring the sides together to create a wide v.  Then this is again folded to create snowflakes with six-sided symmetry like snowflakes actually have.  We mixed a little glue with shaving cream and used this mixture and some cotton balls to create snow pictures.  Finally, we played with some Insta-snow as well, adding water and watching what happened.

We read some holiday books this week as well.  Hanukkah Mice tells of a mouse family watching a little girl get different items for a dollhouse on each night of Hanukkah.  Seven Spools of Thread was written specifically for Kwanzaa, and tells the story of seven brothers that are always fighting and a tale of how the traditional Ashanti cloth, known as Kente cloth, originated.  We read two of her favorite character books- Pete the Cat Saves Christmas and Merry Christmas Daniel Tiger.  We read another Tomie dePaola book, this one telling The Legend of the Poinsettia.  We've been slowly working our way through a longer Christmas story of an orphan girl and a doll, The Story of Holly and Ivy.

There was a fun Christmas puppet show at the library this week which she enjoyed.  This has inspired many puppet shows this week.  She's been decorating for Christmas and coloring a large Christmas picture.  We also read another book, off-topic, but one we've enjoyed called The Three Questions which was inspired by the story of the same name by Leo Tolstoy.

Getting Ready for Winter (and the Holidays)

This week we are beginning to decorate for Christmas and learning about what animals and plants do to get ready for winter.

We read The Sparkle Box, which is a great reminder or introduction to kids about giving to others during the holidays.  The back of the book has a sparkle box you can make, so we made ours and have started filling it with good deeds.  The Night of Las Posadas is a Tomie dePaola Christmas story, talking about the tradition of Los Posadas or the reenactment of Mary and Joseph's search for a place to stay the night.  In his story, the people chosen to be Mary and Joseph become snowed in but luckily replacements show up.  Merry Christmas Strega Nona is another in Tomie dePaola's Strega Nona series.  Big Anthony is tired of all the work Strega Nona is tasking him with to get ready for the big Christmas feast she prepares for the town.  But when Big Anthony gets distracted and forgets the shopping, she worries everything is ruined.  Instead, Big Anthony surprises her.  Dream Snow is an Eric Carle classic with counting to 5, farm animals and a farmer that resembles Santa Claus.  Bear Stays Up for Christmas is another book in the bear series.  It has a catchy rhythm, can be a reminder about hibernation, and demonstrates the wonder of giving.  Runaway Dreidel is a cute Hanukkah story set to T'was the Night Before Christmas.  It includes some typical traditions and reminds readers of the letters on the dreidel.  Llama Llama Holiday Drama is a reminder of how difficult it can be to be patient and wait for the holidays when there are so many reminders.  It also reinforces that the important thing is to spend time with family and friends.  The Clown of God is a story by Tomie dePaola that may bring a tear to your eye as a juggler performs his beautiful act as a Christmas present to the statue of Mary and a young Jesus.

We are still working on making Christmas presents and getting ready to send them out this week.  We decorated reusable bags with glitter glue in Christmas shapes like trees, presents, snowmen and more.  We also decorated plastic ornaments in different ways.  We filled them with pom pom or tissue paper and painted some with tempera paints and glitter glue.

The Busy Little Squirrel was a fun book.  All the animals wanted to spend time with squirrel, but he was too busy gathering food for the winter.  Baby Animals in the Snow is a short introduction to some animals that live in cold places like penguins, polar bears, snow leopards and Arctic foxes.  When Will it be Spring is the story of Alfie bear who is too excited about springtime to hibernate through the winter.  Chaucer's First Winter follows Chaucer the bear as he ignores the fact bears are supposed to hibernate and instead discovers some of the fun things to do in the snow.  Bear Snores On is the first of the bear books in Karma Wilson's series.  It follows a predictable word pattern which is great for early readers and examines several animals who stop in bear's cave to warm up while he sleeps.  We also read a National Geographic book about penguins to explore another cold weather animal.

We've been to the zoo and a petting zoo this week and have noted differences in animal behavior as well as thicker winter coats.  For instance, the lion and tiger were sleeping but the snow leopard was really active, which we don't often see.  We also have been talking a lot about the changes we see in plants, and how trees have list their leaves so they can sleep for the winter.  We created a hibernation cave, setting up a comfy place to sleep.  We also demonstrated migration, talking about the butterfly episode of Wild Kratts.  Under Frozen Pond is another great Wild Kratts episode for this topic.

On a side note, Tobias has really been demonstrating his sense of rhythm this week, dancing or bouncing to all sorts of tunes.  Genevieve keeps reminding me that I told her the myth from Ovid's Metamorphosis about Narcissus and Echo as we walk through the tunnel under the train tracks near our house.  She likes to say echo as we walk through the tunnel so I shared the myth and now she likes to remind me "turned to flower.". She's also really been enjoying the holiday specials on Amazon Prime.  Snowy Day has been changed from Keats' original story of a snow day into Peter getting ready for Christmas and meeting friends along the way who share their holiday traditions.  She prefers If You Give a Mouse a Christmas Cookie, based on the Laura Numerous books with mouse, moose, dog, cat and pig all working together to save the holiday play.