Christmas Traditions from Around the World - Host a Christmas Party: Activities and resources

We have devised the product to use with our own students in order to build on their excitement for "the most wonderful time of the year" identifying Christmas traditions, where they come from, how they developed over years and to also have a go at creating and tasting some of the traditions. The aim was to ensure that our students knew why we have and do the things we do at Christmas time, often bringing the learning back to the true meaning of Christmas, celebrating the Christmas story, and variations on a theme with cultural stories related to the giving of gifts.

The product included the following resources:

• Full instructions and resource list to support the activities
• PowerPoint introduction to the activity for the students
• Global chart for each student to have to record where in the world they have visited
• 11 Fact Cards - sharing traditions, their countries of origin and how the tradition developed

The resource can be used in one of two ways with your students:

• As a whole class looking at the 11 traditions one at a time or,
• As 11 stations set up and the children move around at their own speed and using their own choices of where they want to go and what they want to learn about (this is the far more exciting choice for students to engage in!)

The 11 traditions and their countries of origin are:

• Yule Log (Scandinavia)
• Chocolate Log (Belgium)
• Bells (Spain)
• Christmas Tree (United Kingdom)
• Poinsettia (Mexico)
• Candy Canes (Germany)
• Christmas Log Slices (Catalonia)
• Christingle (Germany 2)
• Christmas Star (Bethlehem)
• Shoes (Belgium 2)
• Christmas Crackers (Australia)

As the children move to each activity, a resource list has been created with ideas as to how the children can make/taste the 11 traditions. Most are inexpensive and ideas for how to make the most of resources have been included in the instruction booklet.

Our children loved this activity, and it was an exciting afternoon of activities in the build up to the Christmas break. We hope that your students love it too!

Best wishes to you

INSPIReducation