The twinkling lights are up, cookies are baking, and your eager young reader wants to dive into every holiday book on the shelf. But here’s the wonderful secret many parents don’t realize: some holiday books do double duty as excellent phonics practice. These festive favorites engage children with seasonal themes while reinforcing the letter-sound relationships and decoding skills they’re building through systematic phonics instruction.
Alphabet and Letter-Sound Foundation Books
“The ABCs of Christmas” by Jill Howarth
This alphabet book systematically introduces each letter of the alphabet within a holiday context—A for Angels, B for Bells, C for Candles, and so on through Z. For pre-readers and beginning kindergarteners, this book provides essential letter recognition practice while building holiday vocabulary.
Phonics Components: Each page focuses on a single letter and its corresponding sound, helping children build the foundational alphabetic knowledge required before systematic phonics instruction begins. The holiday context makes letter learning memorable and meaningful. Parents can extend learning by asking children to identify the target letter on each page and generate additional words that start with that sound.
“ABCs of Kindness at Christmas” by Patricia Hegarty, illustrated by Summer Macon
Similar in structure to the previous title but with an added dimension, this alphabet book connects each letter to acts of kindness during the Christmas season. This dual focus reinforces letter recognition while building character and vocabulary simultaneously.
Phonics Components: Beyond simple letter identification, this book supports early phonemic awareness by linking letters to meaningful holiday words and beautiful illustrations. Children practice the critical skill of connecting visual letter symbols to speech sounds—the foundation of all phonics instruction. The kindness theme provides natural conversation starters that reinforce vocabulary and comprehension alongside decoding skills.
“First 100 Christmas Words” by Roger Priddy
While not a traditional decodable reader, this vocabulary-building book serves an important role in emergent literacy by labeling numerous Christmas-themed objects with clear text and photographs. Each labeled item helps children connect written words to familiar concepts.
Phonics Components: This book supports the critical bridging between oral language and print. When children see written labels for objects they already know—”tree,” “star,” “gift”—they begin understanding that spoken words can be represented in print. Parents can point to individual letters, model their sounds, and help children start recognizing high-frequency words that will appear in their reading. The clear photographs provide concrete connections between words and meanings, supporting the vocabulary knowledge essential for reading comprehension.
Books for Phonemic Awareness and Early Pattern Recognition
“Christmas Cookie Day!” by Tara Knudson, illustrated by Pauline Siewert
This delightful story about holiday baking uses rhyming text and repetitive patterns that support phonemic awareness, the ability to hear and manipulate sounds in words. The cookie-making theme provides a familiar context that helps children predict words and focus on sound patterns.
Phonics Components: Rhyming supports phonemic awareness by drawing attention to word endings and sound patterns. When children hear “bake” and “make” or “mix” and “fix,” they’re developing sensitivity to phonemes, the individual sounds that make up words. This auditory skill is essential before children can successfully connect sounds to letters in phonics instruction. The repetitive structure (“We mix, we roll, we cut, we bake”) allows children to join in reading, building confidence and fluency.
“Who Said Merry Christmas?” (Lift-the-Flap Board Book)
This interactive board book engages beginning readers with predictable text, repetitive phrasing, and lift-the-flap features that maintain attention and motivation. The question-and-answer structure provides natural opportunities for children to predict and participate.
Phonics Components: Predictable text with repeated phrases helps emergent readers match spoken words to printed words, a critical early literacy skill. The interactive elements keep young learners engaged through multiple readings, providing the repetition necessary for word recognition to develop. While not explicitly decodable, the controlled vocabulary and repetitive structure support the early reading behaviors that prepare children for systematic phonics instruction.
Explicitly Decodable Holiday Readers
“5 Christmas Mini Books! Printable Winter Decodable Readers” by UseTheVillage
This printable collection offers five separate decodable readers specifically designed for preschool and kindergarten students. Each mini-book features simple, predictable text that follows phonics patterns students are learning, combined with engaging holiday themes.
Phonics Components: These readers are explicitly designed as decodable text, meaning the words follow specific phonics patterns children have been taught. The product description notes they include “trace simple sentences for handwriting practice and use phonics to read these printable decodable readers.” This multi-sensory approach (reading, tracing, and writing) reinforces letter-sound connections through multiple pathways. The holiday theme increases motivation while the controlled text ensures success. Teachers and parents can select mini-books that match the specific phonics skills their students are currently learning, providing perfectly aligned practice.
“Christmas Decodable Reader: Winter Decodable Texts” by Mrs. Wills Kindergarten
Designed specifically for emergent readers, this collection focuses on controlled decodable text with holiday themes. According to the product description, each book focuses on a specific phonics pattern (short vowels, consonant blends, or digraphs) within a winter or Christmas context.
Phonics Components: This is true decodable text where children can apply their phonics knowledge to read independently. If students have learned short vowel sounds and simple CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) patterns, they can decode words like “sled,” “gift,” and “bell” on their own. The systematic focus on specific patterns allows teachers to assign books that perfectly match where students are in their phonics scope and sequence. Success with decodable text builds the confidence and automaticity students need to become fluent readers.
Books with Phonics Support and Picture Cues
“Which Holiday Is It?” by Yolanda Watson
This book uses a clever combination of easy-to-read text with phonics instruction and rebus pictures (where pictures substitute for some words). This approach supports emergent readers who are building decoding skills but may not yet have complete independence.
Phonics Components: The intentional incorporation of phonics instruction within the text means children practice specific letter-sound patterns while reading about different holiday celebrations. The rebus format, where pictures replace some words, provides support that allows children to maintain comprehension and momentum even while working on decoding. This scaffolded approach honors where children are developmentally: they’re learning phonics patterns but may not yet decode every word independently. The picture clues prevent frustration while the phonics-focused text provides essential decoding practice.
Complete Early Reader Series
“Learn to Read Holiday Series (Variety Pack)” by Kimberly Jordano & Trisha Callella (Creative Teaching Press)
This comprehensive series is specifically written for emergent and early-fluency readers, designed to support multiple literacy components, including phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension. The holiday themes span various celebrations, making the series culturally inclusive.
Phonics Components: As part of a Learn to Read series aligned with Reading First principles, these books follow a systematic approach to phonics instruction. The controlled vocabulary ensures that children encounter words they can decode using patterns they’ve been taught, while the engaging holiday contexts maintain interest through multiple readings. The series structure allows progression. Children can start with simpler books featuring basic CVC words and short vowels, then advance to texts with blends, digraphs, and more complex patterns as their skills develop.
“Holiday Easy Readers for Kindergarten” by The Kindergarten Connection
This emergent reader set covers multiple holidays, including Christmas, Kwanzaa, and others, providing culturally diverse content at appropriate reading levels for beginning readers. Easy readers typically feature controlled vocabulary, repetitive sentence patterns, and supportive illustrations.
Phonics Components: These books use predictable text patterns and controlled vocabulary that support independent reading by kindergarten students. The repetition allows children to practice high-frequency words until they achieve automaticity, while the decodable or semi-decodable words provide phonics practice. For example, a book might repeat the pattern “I see ___” throughout, allowing children to focus their decoding energy on the final word in each sentence. The holiday themes across different cultural celebrations provide engaging contexts while building cultural awareness alongside literacy skills.
Celebrate Reading Success This Season
Holiday books offer perfect opportunities to combine festive family traditions with essential literacy skill development. The books listed here provide varying levels of phonics support, from foundational alphabet knowledge through controlled decodable text, all within engaging seasonal contexts that motivate repeated readings.
Remember that explicit, systematic phonics instruction remains the foundation of reading development. These holiday books supplement that instruction by providing engaging practice opportunities and building motivation. The goal isn’t to replace comprehensive phonics programs but to extend practice into the joyful context of holiday traditions.
When children successfully decode “I see the tree” or “We make cookies” using the phonics skills they’ve been taught, they experience reading as both achievable and meaningful. That combination—skill mastery plus emotional engagement—creates readers who not only can read but choose to read.
For more guidance on supporting your emerging reader, including reviews of comprehensive phonics programs and evidence-based literacy strategies, visit Phonics.org, where we provide research-backed resources for families committed to reading success.
