Wonder Days

Epiphany celebrates the Twelfth Night after Christmas. Epiphany, or Three Kings' Day, on January 6, celebrates the visit of the Magi or Wisemen. Here are free printable Epiphany games and crafts to celebrate Three Kings Day. Epiphany is the gift-giving holiday in many countries. Many cultures and traditions have parties to celebrate the coming of the Wisemen to visit and honor baby Jesus. Print and enjoy these holiday crafts for Epiphany.
Nickjr.com (click here) has a complete free printable Dora the Explorer Three Kings Day party planner. There is a free printable king's crown craft, Epiphany lights crafts, party invitations and goody bag printables. There are free printable recipes and games to complete your Dora the Explorer Three Kings Day party.
Family Fun (click here) has a free printable cut and paste 3D angel tree topper for children to assemble. The angel is not precisely an Epiphany element, but as part of the nativity and Christmas story, it's appropriate. This four page craft print in color, but set your printer color properties to 'print in grayscale' if you want to make a coloring activity.
Family Fun (click here) has a complete free printable Christmas train to cut and paste. Again, not specifically a Three Kings Day activity, the three wisemen are patron saints of travel and children will love making this charming holiday train. For even more fun, print the Family Fun (click here) vintage holiday village. Three little cut and paste holiday houses make a great table decoration.
First-school.ws has a complete collection of free printable Christmas, Epiphany, Three Kings Daycoloring pages featuring nativity characters, wisemen, camels, donkeys and gifts for baby Jesus. There are writing activities and crafts to print as well.
ABCteach.com (click here) has a free printable Three Kings Day rebus picture story for children to read and color.It tells the story of the Epiphany and visit of the Magi. The rebus prints in color, but set your printer properties to 'print in grayscale' to make the rebus story a coloring page activity. This activity makes an excellent lesson plan activity for Sunday School, Christian and Catholic schools, religious education and homeschooling.
teacherhelp.org (click here) has a free printable banner for your Three Kings Day decorations. The banner is written in Spanish 'El Dia de los Reyes'.
Thecoloringspot.com (click here) has eight free printable Christmas coloring pages, including three for Epiphany: two of the wisemen and one star coloring pages.
Coloring-Page.com (click here) has an free printable coloring page featuring gothic images of the three wisemen. There is also a free printable star coloring page (click here)

Most students will return to school shortly, whether they are home-schooled or if they attend a traditional school. Epiphany, the holiday celebrated in the Roman Catholic church and the eastern orthodox churches on January 6 is right around the corner. Why not combine celebrate this lovely holiday feast day with a party?
Round out the winter vacation and holiday break and make the return to studies a positive time by celebrating Epiphany.
Epiphany marks the visit of the wisemen to the stable in Bethlehem. Many people mistakenly assume that the wisemen arrived at the manger scene with the shepherds, angels and holy family. The wisemen or Magi did not arrive until some time later. We celebrate it as January 6 or Twelfth Night. Here is a celebration for your family, friends, church group or students to help understand and honor this holy day.
Use a nativity scene or 'creche' or 'preseppio' to tell the story. St Francis of Assisi, in the mid 13th century began using this object lesson in his homilies to spread the good news. In our home, we do not place the kings in our manger scene until Epiphany. The figures 'travel' around the room until Twelfth Night. This provided hours and fun and imagination for our children when they were younger, visualizing the woes, dangers and adventures the Magi may have encountered. One year, we wrote a play and created a living nativity scene. We used Luke's gospel, but we added some details from other reading we'd done and our own thoughts about the event.
Read aloud each evening from Henry Vandyke's The Fourth Wiseman. Use this link to print it off or read it online. You might also wish to rent and view the movie version of the story. This story describes the story of Arteban, the wiseman who was not able to complete his journey to the Christ Child, but who lived the message of the gospel just the same.
The opening chapters of Ben Hur by General Lew Wallace gives a good impression of the lives and the meeting of the Magi. This link will take you to an online reader of the text which you can save or print free.
Print off some games and activities from my article on Free Epiphany Printables. Make a nativity set by dressing paper towel and toilet paper tubes in fabric scraps.
Since Epiphany also commemorates the baptism of Jesus, light your children's' baptismal candles. If they did not receive one, you can light any candle and pray a special blessing for them.
Make a Twelfth Night cake. traditionally these were often a fruit cake, and contained a hidden treasure such as a coin or bean. The person finding the treasure was the king for the day. You can make any type of cake you like. Place a small prize in the cake before you bake it . You can also place several little prizes in the cake. For safety sake, I would use a little candy such as a mint or a small candy cane. You can decorate the cake with little prizes or presents also.
Make crowns from recycled boxes. Cut it to fit and paint the crown with metallic paint or cover with aluminum foil. Glue on faux gems or stickers, fur trim, etc.
Lastly, and this is an ancient tradition, ask the three kings to watch over your home. Write the their initials over the door that you enter and exit the house. Caspar (or Gaspar) C (G) - Balthazar (B) - Melchior - (M). We have done this for several years now.
Remember 'Wise men still follow Him.'

In many nations, especially southern and eastern Europe and South America Christian religions celebrate January 6, or Epiphany as the main gift-giving holiday. In the Catholic faith, Epiphany, or the Feast of the Three Kings, is a feast day of the Church. It is not a holy day of obligation, but it an important feast in the Octave of Christmas or Christmastide. It is the celebration of the visit of the Magi to the Christ child in Bethlehem.
If you celebrate this day or would like to begin observing it, here are some websites to explore with free printables to get you started on your journey. This sites include lesson plans, crafts, activities, games and puzzles.

ABC teach is a huge teachers' clearinghouse of resources for public, private, parochial and home-schools, as well as Sunday school, catechism and religious education. Look for the Epiphany printables under 'Seasonal holidays' and Christmas. There are coloring pages, picture reading or Rebus stories, math, fill-in-the -blank, connect the dots, literature units, nativity scene crafts, ornaments, photo frames, and a whole lot more. There must be at over 100 links to pdfs that you may save or print.
Fun Social Studies at Learning Haven offers activities based around the religious observances of countries and religions around the world. This site provides safe, well-researched material for children to use for studies. It is the most complete site I have found for children, parents and teachers on the religious observances of all religions. The material is well-written, user-friendly for children of all ages but does not patronize or talk down to anyone.
First School has a large assortment of free printable lessons and activity plus links to other resources in literature, crafts, songs, information, recipes. This site follows the holidays in an interactive calendar format.
Catholic Mom offers a nice array of activities based upon the Liturgical year of the church, with the daily readings, feast observances, intentions, saints feast days and links to keep the family focused on the church year. Because this is a Catholic website, there are many activities to involve children of all ages in the daily devotion experience. you'll find activities geared to all ages and pages based on the Missal. This would be a great link for any home-school-er, teacher or religious education instructor to access daily.
These links should provide you with enough information, ideas, craft projects and lessons to provide students or children with a nice celebration of Epiphany. Epiphany, in a secular way provides a nice ending to the Christmas holiday. Celebrating Epiphany is a good way to ease back into the school year also.