Celebrating Christmas in the TEFL classroom

If you find yourself teaching in a country that celebrates Christmas, or you work with students online who can’t wait for the 25th of December, then you have two choices. One, you can totally embrace the season, the vernacular that goes with it, and the excitement that the festive season brings to so many. Or, like Scrooge, you can forget all about it, and pretend it isn’t happening.

Given that the latter is a very boring option and, let’s face it, would make this week’s blog extremely short, we’re going to tell you this: Christmas is a fantastic learning opportunity for TEFL students. It doesn’t even have to be about the religious aspect of the season - depending where you are or who you’re teaching, that might not be appropriate. However, the pageantry, the opportunities for cultural exchange and the creative tasks you can do with a class aren’t to be missed.

How can you make the most out of the Christmas season as a teacher? Well, rather than offering you Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh (all of which are expensive), we’re going to give you three ways to really get your students excited about the holidays.

Songs

For those of you that have worked in hospitality, including the jolliest and most festivity-friendly: we’re sorry, but we’re going to talk about Christmas songs for a bit. 

There have long been studies about the effectiveness of music in the foreign language classroom. If you’ve learned French, German, Spanish or another language at school, chances are you’ll remember a song or two. Can your writer ask for directions in French? No, but can he remember how to sing about a mouse going down the stairs? Oui. That’s because of a song.

Songs are great ways to teach phrases, especially when it comes to Christmas. Traditional songs, like “O Christmas Tree” lays out how to describe something lovely, which sounds trite, but gives students the vocabulary to give characteristics to objects. Even Christmas pop songs (Mariah Carey warning) are a fantastic guide to the cultural aspects of Christmas (“I don’t want a lot for Christmas…”. We told you), or even the use of double-negatives, plurals and so on.

Why getting students to sing is so helpful

Songs of any kind can be super useful in the classroom, but Christmas songs are particularly simple. They describe fairly basic ideas: wanting it to snow, heartbreak, driving home and so on, but the most famous Christmas songs are famous for a reason. The simple fact is, they’re the biggest earworms in music, and if you can attach something useful to them? You’ve got yourself a really effective lesson.

If talk around Christmas songs distressed you, then we can only apologise. We’ve all been there.

Create festive posters and banners

This one is fairly self-explanatory, but what’s better than a good poster-making session? Or, sparkling up your classroom with some lovely festive banners?

Whether you’re teaching young learners - who love to use paper, scissors, glue and tinsel - or you’re trying to coax some moody teenagers into participation, there’s nothing wrong with turning the lesson into something of an arts and crafts session. There are a litany of phrases for both Christmas and the New Year which can make for excellent banners or signs to put in your classroom. Or, if you’re teaching English online , you can work with your student so that they’ll have some decorations for their home.

Greetings are important. They’re one of the first things you learn in any language, but they’re especially crucial. Phrases like “Happy new year”, “Happy holidays”, “Merry Christmas” and so on are going to be really useful long-term for any English learner.

Here’s another tip: if your class can get into groups and make posters or banners together, all the better! Aiding socialisation, helping to establish friendships and getting students talking to each other creates a better atmosphere. A happy class is an attentive class , and they’ll soon start to associate you and your lessons with an enjoyable time. 

Letters to Santa

Now, let’s be 100% clear: you may be teaching students who don’t celebrate Christmas, or celebrate New Year at a different time. This activity, as we’ll explain, can absolutely be modified based on your learners!

So, first of all: those who celebrate Christmas are very likely aware of Santa Claus. As jolly as it gets, he might even make an appearance at your school, or the local shopping centre, because that’s the kind of fellow he is. As tradition, kids write letters to Santa, asking for presents. Herein lies the opportunity.

If you promise to get these letters sent to Mr. S Claus, then your students will happily write - in English - to the burly Saint asking for all sorts. The key thing here, though, is that letter writing can absolutely boost proficiency , so if you have young learners getting excited for Christmas, they’ll have no issue trying out this exercise.

Alternatively, if your students are a little older, why not get them to write a cover letter and job application to work with Santa? He’s always looking for elves, you see, and he’ll have no issue reading through the letters!

Does that not sound like an option? Try this!

If your students aren’t going to indulge any Santa chat whatsoever (Bah, humbug etc), then how about letting your students write letters to themselves? By using English phrases they’ve learned with you, students can express what’s happened in the year just past, or what they intend to achieve in the year ahead.

Reflective writing is a great way to introduce more phrases into a learner’s vocabulary, and in many cases, it’ll also help to motivate for the future. If you have the same class, or the same students for more than a year, they can see their progress in real time, and that’s so exciting. By comparing this winter’s letter to the year before, they can get an idea of how they’ve improved, and see what they need to work on for next winter.

Whether it’s to Santa or to themselves, getting your students writing letters is a great idea!

Happy Holidays from The TEFL Org!

These activities can be adapted to any winter festival. If you’re celebrating Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, for example, the potential for arts, crafts and music-related activities should be exciting to any teacher. If you celebrate different festivals from your students, use it as a learning opportunity for yourself, and really immerse yourself in the culture.

The festive season is a great time to introduce loads of new words into a student’s vocabulary. Let’s face it, you won’t have to use the word “Frankincense” a lot during the rest of the year, just for one example. Additionally, with the creative tasks we’ve listed above, these new words and phrases can really stick, and be adapted to other situations and conversations.

It’s easy to make this time of year a fun and creative one for your students. All you have to do is be prepared to let loose, and not lose sight of the goal - learning and keeping your students engaged.

From all of us here at The TEFL Org, have a wonderful holiday season.

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