Christmas Activities

What is Christmas?

In the classroom make a big Christmas tree and in the star write: Christmas is… .
The children put ornaments (e.g. a bauble, candle or a bell) on it with their ideas about Christmas. To save time the teacher can just draw the Christmas tree on the board and have the students to write their ideas about Christmas inside it. More advanced students can be asked to write poems starting with the words Christmas is….

A Letter to Santa Claus

Children write a letter to Santa to tell him what they would like for Christmas. With very young learners you may have to use real toys or flashcards to teach or revise names of toys. First practice recognizing and saying the toys, then write the words for the toys on the board and have the kids draw pictures or put flashcards of the toys next to the words. Write a model letter and ask the children to copy it, writing in the toys they would like and sign their names at the bottom. Also ask them to draw pictures of the toys they would like underneath.

A Model Letter Dear Santa Claus, Please can I have some toys for Christmas. I'd like: …………………………………………………………………………………. . Thank you Love, (your name)

Santa Claus’ Sack
Draw a big sack and have the kids draw and write what Santa might have inside it.

Christmas In Britain (text and activities)

The most important festival in Britain is Christmas. It is a time when friends and families get together. Before Christmas people put up lots of decorations. They hang up brightly coloured balloons, paper chains and paper lanterns and other decorations. One of the oldest Christmas customs in Britain is decorating houses with holy and mistletoe. The English custom is to hang mistletoe over the door and any couple that meets underneath must kiss. In many houses there is a Christmas tree. British people decorate it with tinsel, baubles, chocolate and small coloured lights called fairy lights and on the top of the tree they put a fairy or a star.

On Christmas Eve (24th December) young people have parties and older people go to special shows in the theatre. Kids love Christmas Eve because they believe that on this day father Christmas (who can also be called Santa Claus) flies through the sky in a sleigh pulled by reindeer and brings presents at night when everybody is asleep. He comes down the chimney and puts the presents into a special Christmas stocking.

Christmas Day (25th December) is the most important day of the Christmas festival. People open their presents in the morning, a lot of families go to church and then they get ready for a big traditional Christmas dinner of roast turkey, roast potatoes, Brussels sprouts and other vegetables. At the table they pull Christmas crackers, which explode and there is a paper hat, a joke and small gift inside them. Almost everyone wears a paper hat at the dinner table. For desert they eat the traditional Christmas pudding (made of dried fruits about two months before Christmas) or mince pies and cream. People often watch TV on Christmas Day. At 3 o’clock there is the Queen’s speech in which the Queen wishes everybody a happy Christmas.

The 26th December is called Boxing Day because in the past rich people gave their servants boxes full of presents on this day. Today British people usually relax or visits their friends and relatives on Boxing Day.

Activities

1. True or False?
   
   1. People in Britain have a special meal on Christmas Eve.
   2. They open their presents on Christmas Day.
   3. They watch a film about the queen on 3 o’clock on Christmas Day.
   4. They eat crackers for Christmas dinner.
   5. People must kiss the mistletoe which hangs over the door when they come to visit their friends or relatives.
   
   
   
2. Quiz
   
   1. What do people put on top of their Christmas tree?
   2. When do they pull crackers?
   3. What is inside the Christmas cracker?
   4. What do people eat for dessert on Christmas Day?
   5. How does Santa Clause get into the house?
   6. When do people open their presents?
   7. Why is the 26th of December called Boxing Day?
   8. What do people usually do on Boxing Day?
   9. Who gave servants boxes?
   10. How do people decorate the Christmas tree?
   11. What do people eat for Christmas dinner?
   12. How pulls Father Christmas’s sleigh?
   13. What is the other name for Father Christmas?
   14. What do the English call the 25th of December?
   15. What must you do under the mistletoe?
   16. What do the English often do on Christmas Eve?
   17. What does Father Christmas put the presents in?
   
   
   Christmas Team Game
   
   Divide the class into groups. The groups take turns to choose a question from the quiz above (they name a letter from a to r). The teacher reads out the question and if the group answers correctly they get a point. The group with the most correct answers win.
   
   Christmas Reading Race
   
   Hang up the text Christmas in Britain on the walls around the classroom (you may divide the text into four parts). Divide the class into pairs. Each pair gets a set of questions from the quiz. One of the pair reads the first question and runs around the classroom to look for the answer. When he or she finds the answer he runs back to his desk and dictates the answer to his partner. Then they swap and the secretary becomes the races who runs to find the answer to the second question. The first pair to find all the answers are the winners.