A Christmas Reading Comprehension Passage for the Holidays

Have you ever heard of the Christmas pickle? Yes, you read that right… the Christmas pickle! This festive season, why not teach your students about one of the quirkiest and most delightful holiday traditions via a Christmas reading comprehension passage? 

Here’s a little snippet from the text to pique your interest:

The Christmas pickle tradition begins on Christmas Eve once your tree is fully decorated. Before going to bed on Christmas Eve, parents hide a green, pickle-shaped ornament inside the tree. The tree’s camouflage makes it very hard to find.

This Christmas Reading Comprehension passage is accompanied by a series of comprehension questions that encourage critical thinking and various reading skills to gain meaning from the text. Some of these reading skills include:

• Inferencing
• Summarizing
• Identifying author’s purpose
• And more!

Further Extend These Christmas Reading Passages

The Christmas pickle is an unusual tradition that certainly warrants further investigation! Here are some ways you can extend what your students have learned in these Christmas reading passages across multiple areas of the curriculum:

• Cultural Studies – Research Christmas traditions around the world. Students can locate the countries on a map, identify where various traditions are believed to have originated, and present their findings in a mini report or slide show.
• Art and Design – Have students create a Christmas ornament that pays homage to the humble Christmas pickle using clay, paper or recycled materials, then write a short description to display alongside it.
• Math/Graphing – Conduct a class survey to discover which Christmas traditions students celebrate. Create bar graphs or pie charts to show the results, then have the students write a paragraph to analyze the findings.

Download Christmas Reading Comprehension Passages with Questions

Use the dropdown icon on the Download button to access either the Google Slides or printable PDF version of our Christmas reading comprehension passages with questions resource. 

As this resource contains answers, we recommend printing one copy of the entire file, removing the answer pages, then making copies for students.

Complement These Christmas Comprehension Sheets

Before you go, make sure you check out our other printable Christmas comprehension sheets and activities for Reading and Language Arts lessons.

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3rd Grade English Worksheets - Christmas Printables

Add some Christmas spirit to your December grammar lessons with a printable pack of Christmas-themed 3rd-grade English worksheets.

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Christmas Picture Inferencing Task Cards

Use this festive image of Santa to engage your students with picture inferencing this Christmas, helping them build critical thinking skills through fun, visual clues.

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Christmas Traditions in France - Mini Book for Kids

Learn about Christmas traditions in France with a printable Christmas Around the World Mini Book for kids.