Looking for Christmas read-alouds for elementary students that make learning meaningful, engaging, and fun during the weeks before winter break?
December can be a busy time in elementary classrooms. Students are excited, schedules are changing, and teachers still need to teach important reading skills.
But here's the good news: Christmas picture books can help you teach reading comprehension while making room for creativity, critical thinking, and hands-on STEM.
During my years teaching first and second grade, I loved using stories as the starting point for meaningful learning. A good read-aloud gives children chances to predict, explore characters, discuss problems, and share their thinking.
And when a character faces an interesting problem, that story can become the inspiration for an engineering challenge.
Here are 10 Christmas story books to read aloud in the classroom, along with reading connections and STEM activities you can try with your students.
1. Bear's Christmas Star by Mireille d'Allance
Reading skills: Problem and solution, perseverance, character motivation.
Little Bear wants to help Papa Bear decorate the Christmas tree, but he's too small to reach the places he wants to decorate.
This sweet story gives children opportunities to discuss perseverance and how characters respond when something is difficult.
Try this reading activity: Ask students why decorating the tree matters to Little Bear. What problem does he face, and how does he respond?
STEM extension: Challenge students to design and build something that helps Little Bear reach every part of a tall Christmas tree.
Students might create a ladder, reaching tool, or an entirely different solution.
The important part is that children explain how their designs solve the problem.
2. Christmas Trolls by Jan Brett
Reading skills: Character motivation, cause and effect, character development.
Jan Brett's detailed illustrations provide wonderful opportunities for children to notice clues, make predictions, and develop a deeper understanding of the story.
In Christmas Trolls, Mig and Tig begin taking Treva's family's Christmas decorations and belongings.
Try this reading activity: Ask students why the trolls take the decorations and how their behavior changes throughout the story.
STEM extension: The trolls need help lifting their stolen goodies into their tree house.
Challenge students to design a device that lifts a heavy load from a lower platform to a higher one.
Their designs must include at least one simple machine, and they can use cardboard, paper, glue, and tape.
This is a wonderful opportunity to connect reading with simple machines and engineering.
3. Santa's Stuck by Rhonda Gowler Greene
Reading skills: Sequencing, predictions, problem and solution.
Santa has enjoyed a few too many Christmas treats and finds himself stuck in a chimney.
This humorous story is perfect for encouraging children to make predictions and think about possible solutions.
Try this reading activity: Pause during the story and ask students to predict how Santa might escape. What clues support their ideas?
STEM extension: Design a device that helps Santa escape from a tight chimney.
Give children an opportunity to sketch their ideas before building and explain how their inventions would work.
4. Are You Grumpy, Santa? by Gregg and Evan Spiridellis
Reading skills: Character feelings, cause and effect, social-emotional learning.
Even Santa has difficult days!
In this story, things aren't going particularly well, and Santa is feeling grumpy.
Try this reading activity: Have students identify events that contribute to Santa's mood. How do his feelings influence his actions?
This is also an opportunity to talk about emotions and ways we can support others when they're having a difficult day.
STEM extension: Challenge students to invent a device that helps solve Santa's problem or improves his mood.
Encourage creative thinking and invite children to explain why their inventions might help.
5. Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus
Reading skills: Central message, supporting details, perspective.
Inspired by a young girl's famous question about Santa Claus, this story offers opportunities to discuss hope, kindness, generosity, and the ideas people value.
Try this reading activity: Ask students what they believe the story's central message is. Which details support their thinking?
You can also explore how different characters understand the same question from different perspectives.
STEM extension: Invite students to create a prototype that represents Santa or qualities associated with him, such as kindness, generosity, or joy.
This challenge encourages children to think about how a physical design can represent an abstract idea.
6. Hurry, Santa! by Julie Sykes
Reading skills: Sequencing, cause and effect, problem-solving.
Santa is running late, and Christmas Eve isn't exactly a convenient time to fall behind schedule!
Try this reading activity: Have students sequence the events that contribute to Santa's problem and explain how one event leads to another.
STEM extension: Put students into small groups and challenge them to design a model of something that will help Santa hurry.
Encourage children to share ideas, make decisions together, and explain their solutions.
7. The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
Reading skills: Inference, symbolism, central message, character development.
The Polar Express is a Christmas classic that offers opportunities for thoughtful reading discussions.
A young boy takes a magical train ride to the North Pole and receives a silver bell from Santa's sleigh.
Try this reading activity: Discuss why the bell is important and what it might represent.
Ask students to support their thinking with details from the story.
STEM extension: The boy loses his special bell.
Challenge students to design a solution that helps keep the bell safe while allowing its sound to be heard.
This adds an interesting connection to sound and vibration.
8. The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett
Reading skills: Character development, conflict and resolution, cooperation.
Teeka has been given the responsibility of preparing Santa's eight reindeer for Christmas Eve.
But managing the reindeer is more difficult than she expected.
Try this reading activity: Discuss how Teeka's behavior changes throughout the story. What does she learn about patience, kindness, and leadership?
STEM extension: Design a device that helps organize all eight reindeer so they can work together.
Students may use cardboard or paper materials.
Encourage them to consider how their designs keep the reindeer organized and ready to work as a team.
9. Santa's Underwear by Marty Rhodes Figley
Reading skills: Problem and solution, sequencing, humor.
Santa can't find his favorite red underwear, and he has a big problem to solve before Christmas Eve!
This funny story gives children opportunities to think about different solutions and why some ideas might work better than others.
Try this reading activity: Ask students to identify the solutions Santa considers. Which ideas work? Which don't? Why?
STEM extension: Challenge students to design a model of a solution that helps Santa with his missing underwear problem.
Let children use scrap materials and explain how their inventions would help.
10. The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore
Reading skills: Rhyme, imagery, descriptive language, visualization.
This classic Christmas poem offers wonderful opportunities to explore language and imagination.
Try this reading activity: Read a section without showing the illustrations.
Ask students to describe or draw what they picture in their minds.
Then show the illustrations and compare their visualizations.
STEM extension: Challenge students to redesign an existing chimney so Santa can move up and down more easily.
Encourage children to consider whether a simple machine could improve their designs.
This is a wonderful opportunity to discuss how engineers improve things that already exist.
Bonus: Free Turkey Claus Christmas STEM Challenge
Want to try a Christmas story-inspired engineering challenge without creating everything yourself?
I've made a free STEM activity inspired by Turkey Claus by Wendi Silvano.
Turkey has a problem: he doesn't want to become Christmas dinner, and he needs to find a way to see Santa.
Your students become the engineers!
They'll imagine, plan, and build a solution to help Turkey.
The free resource includes:
A Christmas STEM challenge card.
Teacher directions.
Engineering design planning pages.
Student reflection and improvement pages.
[GRAB YOUR FREE TURKEY CLAUS STEM CHALLENGE]
It's an easy way to introduce storybook STEM during the Christmas season.
How to Use Christmas Read Alouds to Teach Reading and STEM
You don't have to turn every Christmas book into an elaborate project.
I recommend keeping it simple.
1. Choose a reading skill.
Start with what you're already teaching.
If you're working on problem and solution, try Santa's Stuck.
For character development, choose The Wild Christmas Reindeer.
And if you're teaching visualization, The Night Before Christmas is a wonderful choice.
2. Read and discuss the story.
Give children opportunities to ask questions, share ideas, make predictions, and support their thinking with details from the text.
3. Add a STEM challenge when it fits.
When a story presents an interesting problem, invite students to design a solution.
Encourage them to plan, build, test, and improve their ideas.
And remember, children don't have to get everything right the first time.
Learning how to revise a design is part of the engineering process.
Make Christmas Learning Meaningful Without Making It Complicated
During the weeks before winter break, it can feel like we're choosing between meaningful instruction and seasonal fun.
But we don't have to make that choice.
A Christmas read-aloud can help children practice comprehension, explore character motivation, make inferences, and think critically.
And when we add a hands-on engineering challenge, we're giving children opportunities to apply what they've learned through creativity and problem-solving.
Learning should be joyful. And meaningful learning doesn't have to mean complicated teaching.
Choose a few books that fit the skills you're already teaching.
Let children talk about the stories.
And when you have the time, invite them to solve a problem with their hands.
That's more than enough.
Christmas STEM Story Stations for Elementary Students
If you'd like the engineering challenges from these 10 Christmas books already organized for you, I've created Christmas STEM Story Stations with story-inspired task cards and engineering activities.
These challenges are designed to help children think, plan, build, and reflect while connecting their designs to the stories they love.
[EXPLORE CHRISTMAS STEM STORY STATIONS — INSERT PRODUCT LINK]
Listen to One Tired Teacher — Episode 320
Want to hear more about each Christmas book and its STEM connection?
In Episode 320 of One Tired Teacher, I walk through all 10 read alouds and share practical ideas for combining reading comprehension with hands-on engineering.
Click on the audio above.
Remember, 10 books are 10 possibilities—not 10 more things to add to your to-do list.
