How to use these Christmas worksheets
December is busy, so plan on one or two pages a day rather than the whole set at once. You'll need a pencil, crayons and somewhere calm to sit for 10 to 15 minutes.
- Warm up with the tracing page. Say each word together (bell, bow, sock, milk) and point to the picture. Trace the dotted letters, starting each one at the top, then color the picture.
- Count & Write. Touch each ornament or mitten as you count out loud, then write the number in the box.
- I Spy Christmas. Your child looks for every snowman, poinsettia, tree and present in the big scene and writes the totals in the boxes along the bottom.
- Add It Up. Count the first group, count the second, and write how many altogether. Small toys or cereal on top of the pictures make it concrete.
- Word search and patterns make a good finish. Show that words only go across or down, and read each pattern row out loud so your child hears the repeat.
Tips by age
Age 4: Start with I spy, patterns and counting. Help with the word search by pointing to the row a word is in. For tracing, praise starting at the dot rather than neat lines.
Age 5: Ask them to read the four tracing words back to you. On Add It Up, encourage counting on from the first number instead of starting at one.
Age 6: Let them do the word search alone, then write a short sentence using one of the words ("I see a bell."). Ask them to make up a sum of their own with real ornaments.
Games to play with the pages
- Tree I spy: after the worksheet, count real ornaments on your tree by color.
- Present patterns: line up wrapped gifts or bows in a pattern and ask what comes next.
- Cookie math: use the Add It Up page as a model and make sums with real cookies before eating the answer.
- Word search hunt: see how many of the word search words (tree, bell, lights, cookie) you can find around the house.
For crafts, a countdown and quiet activities for busy days, see our list of Christmas activities for kids. If your child likes cutting and gluing, these Christmas crafts for preschoolers pair well with the pages.
When your child is ready for more
After counting and simple adding, the next steps are counting to 20, taking away, and reading and writing short sentences. The full book covers all of these with the same friendly Christmas pictures.
Christmas Math & Reading Fun has 30 pages for ages 4 to 6. As well as the pages in this sample, it has math pages where children add presents and take away cookies, counting and number pages to 20, reading and writing pages, cut-out cards, a maze, a dot-to-dot, a compare and order page, an odd-one-out page and Christmas coloring pages. That's roughly a page a day from the start of December to the holidays, and you can print favorites again.
Questions parents ask
They are made for children aged 4 to 6: pre-K, older preschoolers and kindergarten. Younger children can enjoy the I spy and pattern pages with you. The Add It Up page suits children who can already count a small group of objects reliably and are ready to put two groups together.
Yes. These 6 pages are a free sample from our Christmas Math & Reading Fun book. Pick color or black and white in US Letter or A4 and the PDF downloads right away. No sign-up and no email address are needed, and you can print the pages as often as you like at home.
The color version is bright and festive and helps younger children tell the I spy pictures apart. The black and white version uses far less ink and doubles as a coloring page once the counting is done. The activities are identical in both, so choose what suits your printer.
Ask your child to count the first group, then keep counting on through the second group, touching each picture. Write the total in the box. If that feels hard, let them put a small toy or cereal piece on each picture first, then push the two piles together and count them all.
The full book has 30 pages: math pages for counting ornaments to 20, adding presents and taking away cookies, tracing, reading and writing pages, cut-out cards, a maze, a dot-to-dot, compare and order, an odd-one-out page, a draw and write page and Christmas coloring pages.
