Christmas Around the World Activities for Kids

Bring the Magic of Christmas Around the World to Your Classroom!

As the holiday season approaches, your may be looking for unique ways to celebrate and teach about Christmas and other winter holidays around the world. Exploring traditions from different cultures can broaden students’ understanding, foster inclusion, and keep classroom energy high as winter break draws near. This “Christmas Around the World” blog post is packed with free activities, a printable vocabulary packet for engaging word-based exercises, and plenty of options for easy differentiation.

Whether you need ideas for lesson planning, holiday fun, or emergency sub plans, this blog post has you covered!

Why Teach Christmas Around the World?

Learning about global holiday traditions isn’t just fun for students; it helps them develop empathy and curiosity about other cultures. When students see how people in other countries celebrate, they gain new perspectives and are exposed to traditions that may be similar or different from their own. This topic is also a perfect cross-curricular fit, incorporating geography, vocabulary, social studies, and more!

Christmas Around the World Vocabulary Activities

Before you continue reading the 10 Christmas Around the World activity ideas described below, you may wish to have your students begin with this no prep vocabulary packet from my TPT store. It is no prep and ready to use today!

Click HERE.

Christmas Around the World Activity Ideas

1. World Map Ornament Activity

Students can create paper ornaments representing different countries' holiday symbols. For example, they might make a poinsettia for Mexico or a Christmas nisse for Norway. Hang these on a classroom tree or on a world map to show the diverse ways people celebrate!

2. Interactive Holiday Timeline

Make a classroom timeline with dates marking holiday celebrations around the world, like St. Lucia Day (December 13 in Sweden) or Epiphany (January 6 in Italy). This visual helps students connect celebrations across cultures to the same season.

3. Holiday Word of the Day Booklet

Challenge students to expand their holiday vocabulary by introducing a new festive word each day, like "wassail" or "yuletide." For each word, students write a definition, its origin, and a sentence using it.

4. Festive Greeting Cards in Multiple Languages

Students can create holiday cards with greetings in different languages, such as "Feliz Navidad" or "Buon Natale." It’s a great way for them to practice new vocabulary and connect with how children in other countries celebrate.

5. Christmas Traditions Research Journal

This journal activity encourages students to "dig deeper" into holiday traditions, similar to the “dig deeper” graphic organizer in the vocabulary packet. They can write short entries about La Befana in Italy or the Winter Solstice in Norway, learning facts about each culture.

6. DIY Holiday Passport

Students can “travel” from country to country, recording facts about each location’s holiday traditions. Each page features a different country's tradition and students can add stamps or stickers for each place they visit.

7. Holiday Traditions Flipbook

Create a flipbook where students can record facts about each country’s holiday traditions and illustrate a symbol or write a fun fact on each tab.

8. Christmas Around the World Quiz or Trivia Game

After covering the unit, test students’ knowledge with a fun quiz game! Use vocabulary from the packet as review questions or let students create questions based on what they’ve learned.

9. Holiday Music Exploration

Share holiday music from different cultures, like carols from England, “Feliz Navidad” from Spain, or traditional folk songs. Let students write a sentence describing how each song sounds or makes them feel.

10. Holiday Tradition Bingo

Bingo boards are filled with words and symbols associated with holiday traditions, like "dreidel," "mistletoe," or "menorah." Students mark off squares as they learn about each symbol.

Shelly Anton is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. ** This means there are Amazon affiliate links in these blog posts. This does not mean you pay a dime more when you purchase a product through the link. It just means I am trying to save you valuable teacher time by making it easier for you to find valuable resources for your students, and I earn a few cents for my research and time. Thank you for all you do for kids!r kids!

Honoring Veterans Day Activities for Kids

We can begin honoring Veterans Day in our classrooms by teaching kids facts and history of the holiday. This video is approximately two minutes long and gives students a nice overview of the holiday.

Activity 1:

After the video, ask students to summarize the video in 20 words or less on their paper and/or draw a picture that represents Veterans Day.

You may guide the students in a discussion with the following questions:

Activity 2: 

(Scroll down for 30 printable task cards, which include these questions and more.)

Questions:

1. When is Veterans Day?
2. Who are we honoring?
3. What was this holiday originally called?
4. What did the holiday commemorate?
5. When was Armistice Day first celebrated?
6. What were some ways in which it was celebrated?
7. What happens at 11 AM every Veterans Day?
8. When was the name changed?
9. Has Veterans Day always been in November?
10. What is the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day?
11. Approximately how many living Veterans are there in the US?
12. What fact or event stood out to you from this video?

Answers:

1. November 11
2. Men and women who have served or are serving in the US Armed Forces, including unknown soldiers
3. Armistice Day
4. Truce between the Allies and Germany in WWI on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.
5. On November 11, 1919
6. Businesses closed, parades, gatherings
7. A Color Guard ceremony for all branches of the military and Tomb of Unknown Soldiers in Arlington National Cemetery
8. 1954 to honoring all veterans, not just those in WWI
9. No, for a short time 1968-1975 it was moved to October for more vacation time
10. Memorial Day is for those who have died, and Veterans Day is for all those who have or currently are serving.
11. Approximately 21 million
12. Answers vary

Activity 3:

Students may complete a free printable Veterans Day puzzle activity. 

Click HERE to download and print it.

Activity 4:

Have students read classroom resources or conduct their own research to write their own "Top 5 Facts about Veterans Day". This free printable sign is an example.

Click HERE to download and print the sign:

Activity 5:

Veterans Day Assembly: Organize a school-wide assembly where veterans can share their experiences with students.

Activity 6:

Thank You Cards: Have students create handmade thank you cards for veterans in the community. Encourage students to write letters of support to troops serving overseas.

Activity 7:

Veterans Day Art: Encourage students to create patriotic artwork, such as flags, eagles, and stars.

Activity 8:

Veterans Day Poetry: Have students write poems about veterans and their contributions.

Activity 9:

History Lesson: Teach students about the history and significance of Veterans Day. Read books about veterans and their experiences, followed by discussions.

Activity 10:

Guest Speakers: Invite veterans to speak to the class and answer students' questions.

Activity 11:

Service Project: Organize a service project, like collecting items for care packages to send to active-duty troops.

Activity 12:

Storytelling: Have students interview family members who are veterans and share their stories. Record video interviews with veterans and watch them in class.

Activity 13:

Musical Performance: Practice and perform patriotic songs or have a musical assembly.

Activity 14:

Flag Coloring Contest: Hold a flag coloring contest, with prizes for the most creative designs.

Activity 15:

Community Parade: Participate in or watch a local Veterans Day parade.

Activity 16:

Soldier Silhouettes: Create life-sized soldier silhouettes for a hallway display.

Activity 17:

Flag Ceremony: Conduct a flag-raising or flag-lowering ceremony with the Pledge of Allegiance. Teach students about proper flag folding, etiquette, and display.

Activity 18:

Veterans Day Quizzes: Organize fun quizzes or trivia games related to Veterans Day.

Activity 19:

Collage of Heroes: Create a classroom collage featuring photos and information about different veterans. Display with pictures and stories of family members who are veterans.

Activity 20:

Soldier's Care Packages: As a class, assemble care packages for deployed troops.

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You may also like the following paid resources from our TpT store:

Foldable Veterans Day Thank You Card for Kids to Make

Click HERE to purchase and print today.

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Veterans Day No Prep Worksheets

Click HERE to purchase and print today.

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Veterans Day Facts Task Cards

Click HERE to purchase and print today.

(Includes the questions listed above and more!)

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Veterans Day Crossword Puzzle

Click HERE to purchase and print today.

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You may also like these resources from our Amazon Associate store:

Veterans: Heroes in Our Neighborhood Hardcover 
by Valerie Pfundstein

Borang 48 Bulk Patriotic Ribbon with Gold Star (Red, White, and Blue)
by Borang

SunsOut Guardians of Freedom 550 pc Jigsaw Puzzle
by SunsOut

Shelly Anton is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. ** This means there are Amazon affiliate links in these blog posts. This does not mean you pay a dime more when you purchase a product through the link. It just means I am trying to save you valuable teacher time by making it easier for you to find valuable resources for your students, and I earn a few cents for my research and time. Thank you for all you do for kids!

Winter Sports Activities for the Classroom

The National Endowment for the Humanities is a government website that has a nice write up about the first modern Olympics. 

What is super interesting is that you can also find first-hand reports from years of Olympic events through over 5 million digitized pages of U.S. historical newspapers. 

Photo from Pixabay.com

Fascinating!

Click HERE to read more from this website.

You may also like this free download for your students:

Free Research Project to Compare Ancient Greece with Modern Day Olympics

Students will need to use classroom resources or conduct their own research.

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For a list of all the winter sports played in the Olympics, visit the official Olympics website HERE.

For example, if students wanted to learn more about curling, they could find the definition, equipment needed, the latest news, and featured athletes.

Photo from Pixabay.com

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If your students have a new inspiration to play some winter sports, they may play online.  Don't worry, you can make it educational as well.

For example, your students could play a ski jumping game HERE.

Activity Ideas:

1. Research ski jumping. When did it begin in competition? How do the athletes train? How fast to they go? How are they judged.

2. Create math word problems using ski jumping stats.

3.  Research and conduct experiments on how snow is made.

4. Engineer your own miniature ski (car) jump. Who can make the car go the farthest?

5. Plan an online game with ski jumping. When you are finished, write a creative story about your adventures. Add details to make it more real and interesting.

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Free Winter Sports Writing Papers

These writing papers may be used for note-taking, creative writing, letters to Olympians and more!

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Pyeongchang is a county in Gangwon Province, South Korea. It’s known for Odaesan National Park. What else can your students learn about South Korea?

Research Paper for Any Country

This is a great activity to research the country in which the Olympics are being held.

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The New York Times also identified ways to use winter sports, specifically the Olympics, to teach across the curriculum.

Some ideas included writing activities, global politics, design and fashion, geography, physics, and more. For detailed ways to integrate these ideas into your curriculum, visit the article HERE.

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Here are some Amazon associate resources you may like as well:

Tacky and the Winter Games (Tacky the Penguin) by Helen Lester



PLAYMOBIL Winter Sports Trio Building Set

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Shelly Anton is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. ** This means there are Amazon affiliate links in these blog posts. This does not mean you pay a dime more when you purchase a product through the link. It just means I am trying to save you valuable teacher time by making it easier for you to find valuable resources for your students, and I earn a few cents for my research and time. Thank you for all you do for kids!