Christmas Around the World

My students have always adored learning about Christmas traditions around the world. We try to learn about Christmas in other countries throughout the month of December. It’s a great unit for our Social Studies class! I usually introduce the unit with a power point presentation. It is a super way to encourage class discussion.

The presentation covers Christmas traditions in 10 different countries. The countries include:

·         United States

·         Mexico

·         Australia

·         Sweden

·         France

·         Germany

·         Italy

·         Japan

·         Greece

·         Spain

For each country, the presentation allows us to discuss:

·         The country’s location in relation to the United States

·         Their country’s flag

·         When they celebrate the holiday

·         Special traditions that are unique to the country

·         Figures that they have that are similar to Santa Claus

We then cut out fact cards for each country that reiterates the information from the presentation. We put them into pockets in our Social Studies interactive notebooks. The cards help us with our activities throughout the unit.

Teaching Christmas around the world, allows us to also practice our map skills that we learned earlier in the year. This unit has activities that reinforce what we’ve learned about the seven continents and allows us to locate countries and capitals on maps.

This unit is full of activities that help students to use nonfiction information!

You can find the complete unit at:

Christmas Around the World No-Prep Unit

You can find the presentation at:

Christmas Around the World Presentation

OR, you can buy the BUNDLE that includes the unit and the presentation!

Christmas Around the World BUNDLE

Painless Classroom Gift Exchange

For years I struggled through the classroom gift exchange at Christmas. You know how it goes – everyone draws someone’s name to buy a gift for them. This inevitably follows:

·         Someone dislikes what they are given and lets the giver know, tears follow

·         Someone breaks their gift before the party is over, tears follow

·         Someone (usually several) doesn’t bring a gift and you are left buying a handful of spare presents

After suffering through this for years, I came across the idea of Christmas stockings. Rather than exchange presents, students simply bring small things for the stockings (one small thing for each student). This idea works because:

·         Everyone receives the same gifts

·         Most parents don’t have to spend more than $5 unless they choose to

·         No one knows who the gifts are from

·         No one knows if someone didn’t bring anything

The “stockings” that I use are simply brown lunch bags. I have found that the larger ones work the best. I have had a fellow teacher use the large brown grocery bags before too.  I like the lunch size because it seems like a stuffed full stocking. We usually decorate our “stockings” a few days before our Christmas party and I line them up along a back counter.

Prior to our Christmas party, I let the students fill the stockings with the goodies that they have brought. The highlight of the party is opening the stockings! I pass them all out and then let all of the students open their stockings at the same time. You may want to have extra grocery sacks handy to help students carry home all of their goodies!

Thanksgiving Spelling FUN!