Christmas is an excellent opportunity to introduce a unique atmosphere to your classes. A holiday language lesson not only engages students but also diversifies learning during a period when motivation often declines. With the following ideas, your classes will be full of joy and effectiveness.
What will you find in this article?
- How to organize a Christmas lesson?
- 9 ideas for a Christmas lesson
- Summary – creative ideas for a Christmas lesson
How to organize a Christmas lesson?
Christmas is approaching, and the magic of this time can inspire not only in daily life but also in language lessons. If you’re wondering how to organize a Christmas lesson at your school, this guide will help you step by step to prepare classes that will introduce students to a unique atmosphere and simultaneously support their learning.
Step 1: Preparing the lesson plan
Start by developing a plan for the Christmas lesson. Choose topics and activities that will be tailored to the language level of your students. Decide whether the lesson will be more entertaining or if you’ll focus on developing specific skills such as speaking, writing, or vocabulary.
Step 2: Inform the students
It’s a good idea to inform students about the Christmas-themed lesson in advance. You can do this during previous classes or by sending an email.
Step 3: Create the right atmosphere
To get students into the holiday spirit, it’s worth taking care of decorations in the classroom. You can bring Christmas lights, small ornaments, or play Christmas music in the background.
Step 4: Prepare materials and tools
Before you begin the lesson, make sure all materials are ready. Prepare flashcards, worksheets, dictionaries, or holiday quizzes.
Step 5: Incorporate collaborative elements
A Christmas language lesson is a great opportunity to strengthen group bonds. Introduce group tasks, such as joint story creation, solving quizzes, or preparing holiday poems.
Step 6: Arrange for additional attractions
Offer students Christmas surprises, such as small rewards for participation or a quiz on Christmas traditions.
9 creative ideas for a Christmas lesson
1. Christmas stories
An idea that supports your students’ writing and reading skills is having them write a holiday story in a few sentences. You can choose words that need to be used, for example, Christmas, wisemen, star, stable, manger, bells, gift, Merry Christmas, Santa Claus, Frosty the Snowman.
An additional attraction could be creating such a story on Storybird or reading what peers from abroad have come up with, e.g., How to Survive Those Last Few Days~A Guide to Not Going Crazy Before the Holidays.
2. The Holiday stocking game
Another idea is a game that supports speaking skills in a foreign language. Initially, you create 50 flashcards with holiday/winter words—naturally, the difficulty level is adjusted to the group—which you then place into a holiday stocking. On 5-10 of them, you draw a lump of coal—the older the students, the more lumps of coal there are.
Students sit in a circle, each one draws a word individually, and then reads it aloud (for an added challenge, they can translate it). If they do it correctly, they keep the card; if not, they put it back into the stocking. The lumps of coal serve to spice up the atmosphere because if a student draws one, they must return all the cards they have collected so far. The game continues for a predetermined amount of time or until all coal cards are drawn from the stocking—you can decide this within the group.
Fun fact: in Italy, naughty children receive „coal,” a sugar cube painted black, instead of a stocking full of sweets!
3. Vertical poem
More advanced students can write their own poem, where the lines begin with specific letters. A student chooses a word related to winter, e.g., ANGELS, and writes it vertically. You can use the names of December holidays from different parts of the world (e.g., Kwanzaa, Hanukkah), allowing students to learn about other cultures.
Example:
Above the
Night sky
Gathered
Each of the heavenly host to
Loudly proclaim the
Savior’s birth
4. Christmas taboo
It’s worthwhile to use the game Taboo, which supports the skill of speaking in a foreign language and also expands vocabulary knowledge. The student selects a card with words related to Christmas. Their task is to describe the bolded word in such a way that they do not use any forms of the other five words listed at the bottom of the card.
You can use sample cards: click to download the PDF.
5. Finish the story
This game works best in larger groups. It involves telling a joint story related to Christmas. The first person starts the story for 30 seconds, and then it is continued by the next student (if they do not start speaking within 5 seconds, they are out of the game). It is important that each participant’s stories are at least slightly connected.
For the more advanced: you can record part of each student’s story on a voice recorder. After finishing, the group listens to it again, and if someone hears a mistake, they raise their hand. The first chance to correct it goes to the student who told the story, and then to the student who raised their hand first. The person who corrects the mistake gets a point.
6. Play Ebenezer Scrooge
The main character of A Christmas Carol did not like people, disliked the whole world, especially Christmas. Take on this character to write in a foreign language as many reasons as possible why this year’s Christmas should be canceled. Then the students will discuss whether they agree with the invented arguments.
Interesting idea: to diversify the task, divide the group into two parts – one will play the character of Santa Claus, and the other the character from the story.
7. Lesson with a native speaker
Meeting a native speaker is a great opportunity to learn about the holiday customs of another country. It’s worth preparing questions about the specific country that you can ask students after the presentation.
- Are there special foods eaten at holiday time? If so, what are they?
- What do people wear for Christmas?
- Do people exchange gifts? If so, what kinds of gifts are given and received?
- Are specific rituals performed at holiday time?
Valuable tip: start a discussion about whether anyone has celebrated Christmas in another country and what are the differences in spending holiday time.
8. Songs alternatively
Probably every year, when you want to make the time more attractive for your students, you play Last Christmas, All I Want for Christmas Is You or We Wish You A Merry Christmas. What do you think about writing your own versions of top holiday songs?
Students will definitely enjoy singing when they can let their imagination run wild and change the traditional lyrics, for example, Jingle bells, Batman smells, / Robin laid an egg … This humorous approach will be a training in writing skills and creativity for the students.
You can use holiday karaoke for this lesson!
9. Movies and cartoons
It’s worth familiarizing students with a foreign language through their favorite movies, series, and cartoons. Translate any incomprehensible words on the spot. An attractive task for children might be arranging events in chronological order—first, list the most important moments of the cartoon on sticky notes, of course in the foreign language.
Children’s Cartoons (on YouTube):
Summary – creative ideas for a Christmas lesson
I have presented just a small fraction of what you can use during a holiday language lesson. All the ideas will not only bring you a lot of joy but also enhance the valuable language skills of your students. And maybe you’ll also discover new cultures, customs, or learn a bit more about your students. Use the holiday season to diversify your classes and increase the engagement of students who are thinking about gifts.
If you’re curious about other ideas for language lessons, check out our post: Halloween English Lesson: 10 ideas!