Christmas for kids

What's here

Twelve Christmas favorites that twinkle, prance, and jingle when tapped: Santa waves, the reindeer prances, the snow globe swirls when you shake it. Everything here is the warm family side of the season, decorating the tree, hanging stockings, sipping cocoa, wrapping presents. December hands toddlers a whole vocabulary that only shows up once a year, and they are extremely motivated to learn it, because a kid who can say "present" and "Santa" is a kid who can participate.

Meet these first

• Santa Claus, the jolly friend in a cozy red suit who loves giving presents and laughing ho ho ho.
• Reindeer, with big branching antlers, prancing through the sparkly winter snow.
• Christmas Tree, wearing twinkly lights and shiny balls that families hang together.
• Present, hiding a happy surprise under shiny paper and a bow.
• Stocking, the great big cozy sock families hang up to hold tiny treats and surprises.
• Gingerbread Man, a sweet spiced cookie with icing buttons and a big frosting smile.
• Hot Cocoa, a warm chocolatey drink with fluffy marshmallows on top, just right for snowy days.
• Snow Globe, give it a gentle shake and tiny snowflakes swirl around the little world inside.

Sleigh, Ornament, Wreath, and Candy Cane fill out the set.

How to play (60 seconds)

Do a ho-ho-ho contest first, tap Santa, then take turns doing your deepest belly laugh. Then act out the rest: prance around the room after the reindeer, shake an invisible snow globe with two hands, pretend to sip hot cocoa and warn each other it's hot. If your tree is up, walk over and match words to the real thing: ornament, lights, star on top. The screen version and the living-room version teaching each other is the good stuff.

Good to know

Holiday words come with the best practice schedule of the year. Your toddler taps "stocking" in the app, then sees the real stocking on the mantle fifty times a day for a month, and every glance is a free repetition. Seasonal words also carry big feelings, anticipation, surprise, giving, which makes them stickier than everyday vocabulary. Expect "Santa" to survive well into spring.

Keep exploring

There's a free Christmas coloring sample on the printables page, along with the Starter Pack's first-words cards and 50-word checklist.

The sweet-treats page has the gingerbread man's cousins year-round, arctic-animals keeps the snowy mood going after the decorations come down, feelings covers the Christmas-morning face, and bedtime is for the night before. The homepage has every theme.