There are all kinds of language and literacy activities you can do with your child during the Christmas season. Writing a Christmas list, making Christmas cards, and writing a letter to Santa are all good literacy activities. A game that you can play with your children during the Christmas season to practice vocabulary, memory and articulation skills is an adaptation of the "I'm going on a trip . . . " game. The first person starts by saying, "All I want for Christmas is an apple." (something that starts with A). Then the next person says "All I want for Christmas is an apple and a box of chocolates." (something that starts with B) and so it goes through the alphabet. I like to use the Discovery Toys A to Z Jr. green board with the red tokens when we do this - very Chrismasy! We put the tokens on the letters we have used to keep our place.
To practice a certain articulation sound, you just give names of things that start with that sound instead of going through the alphabet, e.g. "All I want for Christmas is a rabbit, a rocket, a race car," etc. (For younger children, I might put pictures of the items in a paper bag and have them pull one out and place it on a chart.) If someone gets stuck and can't remember, we give them hints (being able to give clues about something is a good skill to practice), and then at the end, we see who can remember everything without any hints!
