Why Use Holiday Books in Speech Therapy? 

Books are an incredibly versatile tool in speech therapy; they offer many opportunities to target a variety of goals while also being entertaining for clients. They also provide a natural context for working on language skills, such as learning new vocabulary, providing exposure to different sentence structures, and targeting comprehension skills. 

Books are also great for working on inferencing, predicting, emotions, and problem-solving skills. Asking questions such as, “What do you think will happen next?” or “How does [character] feel?” are great while reading books. 

To keep planning simple, I often read the same book in many different sessions but tailor what I emphasize and focus on to address specific speech therapy goals. For example, I might emphasize specific vocabulary words with one client while spending more time talking about the sequence of events with another client. I also love books for working on generalizing speech sounds; books often contain a lot of high frequency words (e.g., “the” for voiced /th/ versus “feather”). 

Themed books, such as those about different winter holidays, can also be used to target comparing and contrasting goals as you discuss similarities and differences. They can also be used to work on using conjunctions in sentences (e.g., "In X holiday, this happens but in Y holiday, this happens."). I might read 2-3 books across a few sessions and then bring it all together while we compare what happened in each book. 

Holiday Books for Speech Therapy

Here are some of our favorite holiday books for speech therapy with links and short descriptions. We hope you find some new ones!

Christmas Books

  • "The Polar Express" by Chris Van Allsburg – A magical train ride to the North Pole brings the spirit of Christmas alive.
  • "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" by Dr. Seuss – A grumpy Grinch learns the true meaning of Christmas.
  • "Olive, the Other Reindeer" by J. Otto Seibold and Vivian Walsh – Olive the dog thinks she’s a reindeer and helps Santa’s sleigh.
  • "Dream Snow" by Eric Carle – A farmer dreams of snow and prepares for Christmas.
  • "Santa’s Underwear" by Marty Rhodes Figley – Santa has a crisis when he can’t find his special holiday underwear!
  • "Bear Stays Up for Christmas" by Karma Wilson – Bear’s friends help him stay awake to experience Christmas joy.
  • "Turkey Claus" by Wendi Silvano – Turkey hatches a clever plan to avoid being Christmas dinner.
  • "Llama Llama Holiday Drama" by Anna Dewdney – Llama Llama learns patience during the holiday hustle.
  • "Pete the Cat Saves Christmas" by Eric Litwin – Pete steps in to save Christmas when Santa is unwell.
  • "Santa's Gotta Go" by Rob Raczka – A humorous tale of Santa needing a break after the busy holiday season.
  • "Little Blue Truck’s Christmas" by Alice Schertle – Little Blue Truck delivers Christmas cheer with twinkling lights.
  • "How to Catch a Reindeer" by Adam Wallace – A whimsical tale of kids trying to catch Santa’s elusive reindeer.
  • "Santa in the City" by Tiffany D. Jackson – A girl wonders if Santa can make it to her city neighborhood.

Hanukkah Books for Speech Therapy

Kwanzaa Books for Speech Therapy

  • "My First Kwanzaa" by Karen Katz – An introductory book about the seven principles of Kwanzaa for young children.
  • "Li’l Rabbit’s Kwanzaa" by Donna L. Washington – Li’l Rabbit finds a special way to celebrate Kwanzaa with his family.
  • "The Story of Kwanzaa" by Donna L. Washington – A beautifully illustrated overview of Kwanzaa’s origins and traditions.
  • "Happy Kwanzaa! (Sesame Street)" by Isabel Michaels - Introduces children to Kwanzaa as Elmo and his friends join a family to learn about the holiday's traditions, principles, and the joy of celebrating together.
  • "Together for Kwanzaa" by Juwanda G. Ford – A sister learns the importance of family and celebration during Kwanzaa.
  • "It’s Kwanzaa Time!" by Linda Goss – A collection of songs, stories, and games celebrating African culture and Kwanzaa.
  • "Seven Spools of Thread: A Kwanzaa Story" by Angela Shelf Medearis – A fable teaching the values of unity and cooperation.

Additional Winter Holiday Resources

  • Read about other holiday-themed speech therapy activities, including virtual field trips, videos, stories, songs, and arts & crafts!
  • Inside our Premium Community, we have over $1000 worth of no prep resources, including holiday resources. This includes more holiday Mad Libs stories, short stories for reading comprehension, and winter BINGO.
Learning more about our membership here!

Access ALL of our winter holiday resources plus hundreds more when you join our Community!

Affiliate Disclosure: Please note that some of the links provided within this blog post are affiliate links to Amazon. This means that, at no additional cost to you, we may earn a small commission if you decide to make a purchase through these links.