Christmas Around the World

Inside the case file

Same holiday, a hundred different ways to celebrate it — and a clue hiding in the details. This printable Christmas Around the World Reading Mystery turns a nonfiction passage about holiday traditions across the globe into a reading-detective investigation for Grades 3–6 classroom teachers, homeschoolers, and tutors. It drops straight into a December literacy or culture lesson and keeps every student reading with purpose.

Students turn close reading into deductions, eliminating suspects with each text-based answer until only one is left. Ready to print, nothing to set up.

Quick Details

Grade Levels: Grades 3–6
Format: Printable PDF
Resource Type: Reading Mystery worksheets
Reading Skills: Nonfiction comprehension, text evidence, compare and contrast, main idea, and inference
Tech Needed: None — no apps, locks, passwords, or student logins required

The Case

A festive mystery has the holidays on hold, and a line-up of suspects is waiting. The only way to crack the case is to read closely about how Christmas is celebrated in different countries around the world — every comprehension answer is a clue that rules another suspect out, until just one remains.

How the Reading Mystery Works

Acting as Reading Detectives, students read about Christmas around the world, then use each correct answer to rule a suspect out until only the culprit remains.

What's Included

• A "You are a detective" case-file page that sets the scene and the mission
• An engaging nonfiction passage on Christmas traditions around the world
• Multiple-choice comprehension questions (all answers found in the text)
• Open-ended comprehension questions
• A suspect line-up page for eliminating suspects one clue at a time
• Vocabulary support and extension activities for early finishers
• A full answer key
• Color and black-and-white versions
• Print-and-go PDF format

Skills Covered

• Reading and understanding nonfiction informational text
• Finding and using text evidence
• Comparing and contrasting across a text
• Identifying main idea and supporting details
• Vocabulary in context
• Logic, reasoning, and critical thinking

Best Used For

• December and Christmas literacy lessons
• Cultures and world geography studies
• Nonfiction reading comprehension practice
• Reading centers, early finishers, sub plans, and small groups
• Homeschool reading