Christmas
Christmas is celebrated on 25 December. It is a holiday to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, who, according to the Christian religion, is the son of God.
The name is a joining of “Christ” and “mass” which means the holy mass (supper, celebration or festival) of Christ. Many things we do at Christmas come from earlier festivals, like exchanging presents, eating a lot of food and decorating a tree.
It is a time when we enjoy being with our families, making decorations and other crafts, singing Christmas carols, listening to some wonderful Christmas stories and cooking some yummy treats!
The library has lots of Christmas stuff. Search our catalogue for:
- Christmas cooking
- Christmas crafts and decorations
- Christmas DVDs
- Christmas music
- Christmas stories for children
Check our holiday hours and stock up on your Christmas reading!
Find out more about Christmas, local Christmas events, and see our photos of Christmas in Christchurch.
We’ve also selected some fun web sites to explore:
About Christmas
- Australian Christmas
- From the Australian Government Portal - includes explanations of Christmas symbols, dates and ceremonies in the Southern Hemisphere.
- Christmas Greetings around the world
- Christmas greetings in many languages.
- Why Christmas
- Explains the background to many Christmas traditions and different traditions around the world. Have a go at Christmas Karaoke! Access all the games, puzzles, colouring in, jokes and quizzes here.
Kiwi Christmas
- New Zealand Christmas Songs
- New Zealand Folk Song brings you New Zealand Christmas songs, with lyrics, chords and sound files.
- Xmas.co.nz
- A New Zealand site featuring Christmas carols that play to you, and a countdown to Christmas including how many hours, minutes and sleeps to go. From NZ City.
Christmas fun
- NORAD tracks Santa
- From December 1, you can find out where on earth Santa is. Every Christmas Eve since 1958 NORAD has tracked Santa’s journey around the world.
- Christmas Colouring In
- Print out and colour one of these great Christmas colouring in pictures, drawn by Elizabeth O. Dulemba, the lady who lets us use her amazing colouring in pictures at our Storytimes.
- Decorate a Tree with the Tweenies
- Help decorate a Christmas tree and then give the Tweenies some Christmas presents.
- Find the Christmas Star
- Find your way to the top of the Christmas tree in this printable maze. [75.7KB PDF]
- Jokes
- Have a laugh with these Christmas jokes. [848KB PDF]
- Let It Snow
- Help Nat or Pete to catch snowflakes and then pop a big Christmas cracker.
- Santa Claus and Christmas at the North Pole
- Explore Santa’s home, play some games, see if you are on the Naughty or Nice list, read and colour some Christmas stories and attend Elf Academy. Don’t miss the disco dancing Santa!
- Santa’s Christmas Village
- Santa’s Village is full of fun things to do for both kids and parents, including choosing your very own Elf Buddy, Elf School and holiday recipes. Visit the amazing Toy Workshop and follow Santa Claus in his sleigh on Christmas Eve.
- Santa’s Little Helper
- Help Santa’s Little Helper collect as many presents as they can.
- Whose Present?
- Can you find out who this present belongs to? [276KB PDF]
- Word Search
- Can you find all the Christmas words in this word search? [16KB PDF]
Christmas music
- New Zealand Christmas Songs
- New Zealand Folk Song brings you New Zealand Christmas songs, with lyrics, chords and sound files.
- Sing-Along-Christmas-Carols
- Sing along to all your favourite Christmas carols and find the sheet music for them.
- The Reindeer Orchestra
- Play your own Christmas carols with The Reindeer Orchestra.
- Xmas.co.nz
- A New Zealand site featuring Christmas carols that play to you, lots of games and a countdown to Christmas including how many hours, minutes and sleeps to go.
Christmas crafts
- Crayola Christmas Crafts
- The Crayola site has HEAPS of cool Christmas Crafts for you to print, colour and make.
- Enchanted Learning – Christmas
- Site packed full of crafts, colouring and lesson plans for kids of all ages.
Finger-Puppet Christmas Nativity- Make your own Christmas Nativity Scene with finger puppets.
- Gifts You Can Make
- Find some gifts that you can make!
- Make your own Christmas Decorations
- Colour and make some special Christmas decorations.
- Origami Christmas Tree
- Make a forest of origami Christmas trees. [1.3MB PDF].
- Origami Elf
- Make an origami elf with green paper, or an origami Santa with red paper. [1.26MB PDF].
- Pop-Up Cards
- Robert Sabuda, a pop-up book genius, shows you how to create some exciting pop-up cards for Christmas and other celebrations.
- The Toymaker Christmas Crafts
- The Toymaker has a wide range of Christmas cards, toys and containers for you to make. Some of them are quite difficult so might need an adult to help.
Christmas stories
- A Christmas Carol
- Read the story of A Christmas Carol and find out how Ebenezer Scrooge learned to LOVE Christmas.
Read Books About Christmas Online
The International Children’s Digital Library has a number of kids books about Christmas that you can read online for free! There are also stories in other languages.
- Baboushka
- Read the Russian Folk Tale of Baboushka, Santa isn’t the only person who hands out presents at Christmas.
- The Little Fir Tree
- Read the story of how a little fir tree became the most important tree at Christmas.