A Silver Packages Book Activity for Christmas Homeschooling

Enjoy the magic of Christmas with this precious literature-based lesson, which includes a special service project for your family to do together. You’ll love the Silver Packages book activity so much that it might even become a Christmas tradition.

Traditions help families build relationships and give children peace and security. Because they are so meaningful, they hold memories for a lifetime and span generations. Some traditions, like the one I’m sharing today, can even benefit people outside of your family, making them even more special.

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About Silver Packages by Cynthia Rylant

Cynthia Rylant is one of my favorite authors. She’s from my state of Kentucky, which gives her books for kids a headstart in my mind, but many of them are incredible. You may already be familiar with When I Was Young in the Mountains, The Relatives Came, The Old Woman Who Named Things, and the Henry and Mudge series. Those are just a handful of the excellent books in her collection.

Silver Packages: An Appalachian Christmas Story is another of her excellent books. It is perfect for reading during the Christmas season!

 

Some areas of the Appalachian Mountains in the Eastern U.S. experience extreme poverty due to a lack of job opportunities in rural, often coal-mining towns. Only a few hours from my house, the Appalachian region runs through Eastern Kentucky, making this Silver Packages story close to home.

The book tells the true story of a man who delivered a train full of Christmas gifts to Appalachian towns each year from 1943 to 2019. As you can imagine, the “Santa Train” was a highlight for the children, many of whom may not have received any other gifts.

Silver Packages Book Activity for Homeschoolers

The first time we read the book, I loosely used this unit from Homeschool Share to do a mini-unit study. We covered geography, history, social studies, some language arts, a little science, and a lot of Bible. It brought us back to our cozy Five In A Row days. What good memories!

However, the main activity is simple and requires nothing more than reading the book and making a whole-hearted decision to purchase a gift for a needy child this Christmas. That first time reading the book, my children decided on their own to buy a gift to give with their own money, and the yearly tradition was set in motion.

Places to Donate Christmas Gifts

Plenty of opportunities to share gifts at Christmas in your local community. Our first responders do Toys For Tots, there are Angel Trees located in various businesses, shelters host Christmas parties, and our church even has a yearly toy drive. I bet you can also find plenty of donation places in your community.

It’s so heartwarming to see children giving. When kids give from the heart, you can rest assured that you are also doing a good job with character-building. (Even if they aren’t ready to joyfully provide this year, be a good example yourself, and you’ll soon see generosity flourish in them.)

Other Children’s Books About Giving

While not all of these are Christmas-themed, they are all about the beautiful gift of generosity. You can read a few of them to support the Silver Packages activity further or stockpile them to read here and there to reinforce a heart for giving to those in need.

This list includes a few of my favorite picture books of all time. I hope several books also find a special place in your heart and home!

 

Every year, we reread Silver Packages just before heading out the door to buy our special gifts for needy kids. It’s one of our favorite activities each December, and I hope it will be one of your favorites, too.

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