This year’s World Book Day is on 6th March 2025!

This year, we are encouraging young readers to dive into exciting new reads, and harness their creativity to imagine their own new stories.

Dive in and imagine this World Book Day! Explore the magical underwater world of Emerald in Harriet Muncaster’s latest series. Design your own underwater landscape with our fun .

If you’re feeling inspired to create your own story, why not take a look at our ?

Costume Inspiration

Make this magical celebration of books and reading extra special with our no-sew World Book Day costume ideas. Our free guides and activity sheets will help you create the perfect costume for beloved characters like and .

You may also be interested in our activity videos for World Book Day and our top parent tips on sharing a story at home.

Make sure to take a look at our free eBook library too – it’s bursting with brilliant titles bound to inspire every young reader this World Book Day. We’ve even added some titles from our most popular young Fiction series – including Isadora Moon, Kitty and Marv.

Free costume guides

More from Oxford Owl

• Harriet Muncaster’s top magical books for children
• Matty Long’s favourite fantasy picture books for under 5s
• Tom McLaughlin’s top 10 hilarious books for children and teenagers
• Ben Davis’ favourite funny books for children and teenagers
• Author Ali Sparkes’ top tips for keeping kids engaged with books after World Book Day

Follow these instructions from Tom McLaughlin, author ofÌýThe Accidental Father ChristmasÌý, to draw your very own Father Christmas – from his hat to his shiny black boots!

Decorate your tree and impress your family with these yummy Christmas cookies!

Making woven heart baskets for Christmas is a tradition in Scandinavian countries. Learn how to make these lovely baskets to fill with sweets or hang on the Christmas tree, with .

Help your child make their own little knitted Polar pug from the hilarious and highly-illustrated book,ÌýPugs of the Frozen NorthÌýfrom Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre.

The Vikings were mischievous folk, who even had a god of mischief and mayhem called Loki – a cunning trickster and shapeshifter. Create your own mischief maker with this activity fromÌýRiddle of the RunesÌý.

This is the classic game ‘I Spy’ based on any Christmassy things, seen in or outside the car. It also is a great activity for practising those speech sounds. Someone says ‘I spy with my little eye, something beginning with… a, b, c…’. Then everyone else has to guess what it might be. For example, ‘S might be for ‘star’. You may need to give each other clues.

More from Oxford Owl

• More Christmas activities for kids
• Children’s books for Christmas

Looking for homemade gifts to make with your child? Try making your own Christmas cards or a swirling, glittery snow globe with our activity ideas for 7–9 year olds!

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Related book: Oxford Roald Dahl Thesaurus

Mrs Trunchbull likes nothing better than to insult her pupils, and she uses a number of techniques to make insults even more effective…

Lucy’s Magic Snow GlobeÌýis a magical Christmas story about a little girl who wishes on a snow globe. These easy-to-follow instructions will help your child to make their own swirling, glittery snow globe.

How many triangles can your child see in this Christmas-themed maths puzzle? This is a great puzzle for a range of ages.

Get some great comic-making tips and get started on your own comic with this fun activity sheet.

Kevin is an absolute legend. He’s a flying pony! He can talk! He has OPINIONS ON BISCUITS (custard creams are his favourites)! Have a go at creating your own legendary pet, just like Kevin.

From colouring in to making your own comic jam, via inventing an evil version of your favourite food, these activities fromÌýÌýwill get your creative juices flowing.

Do you have a long car journey at Christmas? It’s never long until you hear the fateful words ‘Are we nearly there yet?’ To pass the time, why not listen to an audiobook?Ìý,ÌýandÌýare all great choices. Or, you could take it in turns to tell a joke or riddle; tryÌýfor inspiration

In this game, someone thinks of something to do with Christmas – it doesn’t need to be anything seen from the car – and everyone else has 20 questions to guess what it is. The questions can only have the answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. For example, ‘Is it a person?’ ‘Is it an object?’ ‘Is it red?’ ‘Do we eat it?’. Can someone guess it in under 20 questions?

Work out the beginning, middle and end of your story with this creative writing activity sheet fromÌý. What problem does your lead character face, and what will change their world forever?

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• More Christmas activities for kids
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Whatever the weather this Christmas, you’ll find an activity here to suit your child. Wrap up warm and go out for a winter scavenger hunt, or stay inside and play party games with our range of festive activity ideas.

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Your child will love this Christmas version of the popular memory tray game. Find a selection of Christmas objects – for example, a bauble, a mince pie, a small parcel, a satsuma – and arrange them on a tray. Keep the tray covered with a tea-towel or a piece of wrapping paper until you are ready to play the game. Vary the number of objects according to the age of your child. Uncover the tray and give your child a minute to memorise the contents of the tray, then cover it up again. Take the tray away and remove one object. Bring the tray back and ask the child to write down the object that is missing. You could turn this into a competition – perhaps the winner can eat the mince pie!

Baking together is great fun and a good way to get children practicing their measuring and counting skills. These snow-covered gingerbread trees are easy to make and your child will love decorating them.

Can you find the 10 Christmas words hidden in the wordsearch? A fiendish test of your child’s word-spotting skills, the words can be written any way – forwards and backwards, top to bottom and bottom to top, left to right and right to left, and even diagonally.

We all know that sluggish feeling in the Christmas holidays when you have been in the house for days and have eaten one too many mince pies! This winter scavenger hunt is a great way to get everyone outside burning some energy. Give your child or children a bag and a list of things to collect. If you are in the woods, this could be a pine cone, a conker, a twig, a feather, a leaf, a stone. If you are at the beach, they could search for a shell, a piece of seaweed, a stone. Alternatively, you could just have a challenge to see who can find the most of a certain item – pine cones, shells, stones. Another idea is that you could give your child or children a bag each and challenge them to see what treasures they can find.

Follow these steps to make a super snack for the birds in your garden, inspired by theÌýÌýbooks.

Everybody loves pugs, and they’re easy to draw! These activity sheets from the creators ofÌýÌýwill help you draw your own completely unique pug, as well as making a comic, designing a sea monkey, and much more!

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• More Christmas activities for kids
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Practice early maths and letter recognition with some exciting Christmas colouring in and loads of car game ideas to keep all the little ones occupied on long journeys this Christmas time!

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Sometimes the simplest ideas really are the best! Rather than colour-by-numbers, in this clever craft activity from your child can decorate-by-letters, creating a Christmas tree picture and practising their letter recognition skills at the same time.

Bake some snow-covered gingerbread trees to share with your family, inspired by Nixie Wonky Winter Wonderland.

Set your child the Super Happy Magic ForestÌýepic colouring in quest! Described as ‘Tolkien for toddlers’, Matty Long’s incredibly detailed artwork is packed with lots to see and discuss. Your child will love these colouring in and spot the difference sheets from this popular illustrator.

Writing a letter to Santa can be even more fun with this Winnie and Wilbur template, inspired by Winnie and Wilbur’s festive adventures.

Everyone loves pin the tail on the donkey. Well, here it is with a Christmas twist! Using some old wrapping paper, draw a large snowman outline. Ask your child to give it eyes, a scarf, buttons and a mouth using coloured pencils or pens while you draw and cut out a carrot nose (or lump of coal if you feel inclined). You will need to put some blue tack or scrunched up sticky tape on the reverse of the carrot so it can be stuck on the snowman. Attach the snowman to the wall or side of a large box, grab a scarf to use as a blindfold and you are good to go!

Play this noisy version of the car game, Who can spot?ÌýIt’s great fun – but check with the driver before you launch into this one! Decide on a noise, or a word to call, when you spot the Christmassy things you’re looking out for. For example, yell ‘Bang!’ for a Christmas tree, ‘Buzzz!’ for Christmas lights, or ‘Wow!’ for someone in a Santa hat.

Think of your favourite songs for singing in the car and see if you can change the words to give them that Christmas spin! How about these?

Ten green bottles: Ten green Christmas trees hanging on the wall!
Ten in the bed: There were ten in the bed and Santa said ‘Roll over!’
Row your boat: Ride, ride, ride your sleigh, swiftly through the sky, / Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily… Santa Claus comes by!

Lolly sticks can be a great investment to keep your child busy making Christmas things! The is packed with ideas for Christmas popsicle crafts to try

Does your child have some excess Christmas energy to use up? Try this festive obstacle course from to get them moving about!

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• More Christmas activities for kids
• Children’s books for Christmas

Make a festive Christmas wreath with your child that is good enough to hang up! Visit the for lots of ideas of easy-to-make wreaths using everyday things you will have at home.

Cooking together is a great way to practice counting and measuring, and it’s fun to boot. These melting snowman cookies are very easy to make and look fantastic.

Mouse has decided that getting in the festive spirit is far too dangerous! Download this colouring in sheet from the warm and comical Christmas tale,Ìý.

If your child enjoys unwrapping presents, this Christmas challenge is for them! Look for objects around the house that are different shapes and sizes: a tin of beans, a satsuma, a lego figure, a hazelnut, a book, a pen, and so on. You will need two of each item. Wrap one from each pair. Put the wrapped items in a stocking and the unwrapped items on the table in front of it. Point to an item on the table and ask your child to feel in the stocking for the matching shape. Perhaps they can keep the items as they unwrap them!

This fun car game gets everyone looking out for Christmassy things. Decide on a particular thing to look out for – for example, Christmas lights in windows, Father Christmas decorations in gardens, or Christmas trees (double points if it’s in a car or lorry!). The winner is the person who can spot the most on their side of the car in an agreed time limit, or the first to get to an agreed total.

Choose a picture book or short story to read and every so often miss out a word and everyone has to guess what it is. Alternatively, you could play a funny, Christmas version of this game by agreeing a Christmas word to shout out every time there’s a gap in the story, such as ‘Christmas pudding’. ‘Little Red Riding Hood was carrying a basket of…ÌýChristmas pudding. Following her through the wood was a…ÌýChristmas pudding‘, and so on!

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• More Christmas activities for kids
• Children’s picture books