Christmas can be an interesting moment for the students to share a little bit of what this holiday means to them.

Plus, they can learn new fun words.

I’ve already written a post about some of the reasons why it is important to celebrate fun and important days of the year in ESL.

Nevertheless, never forget to…

set the context to discuss students’ experiences with Christmas – beginners will probably just say some words they associate with this season.
ask simple questions and then compare them with the entire class.
finish with a follow-up activity.
choose something fun and use your imagination!

Have a look at the activities I have created for different age groups to explore the topic of Christmas.

Try them out with your students and let me know the outcome!

Are you ready?

So let’s get to the top 7 activities I’ve prepared for you to celebrate Christmas in the classroom or online!

Adapt them to different levels, use them when teaching in social distancing or at school. They are good for keeping social distancing inside the classroom! Or just assign them as holiday homework.

Christmas ESL Ideas: My Top 7

#1 Christmas Brainstorming ESL Ideas

#2 Christmas Picture-Related Activities

Consider using picture prompt activities such as:

Remember-All-Or-Nothing
Captions’ Factory
Set The Scene
Daytime Stories

For more information about these activities check out my post 9 Unexpected Things That Suddenly Happen When Pictures Aren’t Good

Find interesting Christmas pictures with lots of interesting things happening.

Then, depending on the level of the students, they may shout out the words they know; talk about what’s happening; talk about how people are feeling; predict what will happen next; or make a story based on what they see, for example.

You can find the 8-page PDF right HERE.

#3 Christmas Bingo

Everyone loves a good Bingo game! And this is why this can make quite a fun ESL Christmas game.

After pre-teaching your students some vocabulary or, even better, eliciting Christmas words with #1 Christmas Brainstorming ESL Activities, give them the template and make them choose the words they want to include and where to put them.

Get students to cross off each word with an X (instead of scribbling it out entirely) so that you can check answers at the end.

#4 Christmas ESL Charades

Consider charades if you’re looking for some fun in your classroom at the end of this term! However, for this activity students need to know some vocabulary related to this topic. Of course, it also works well with other holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving. You can divide the class up into two or more teams, have some students acting out and the others guessing.

This can be done as a Pictionary by drawing too.

Learn more about charades in ESL with this link: eslspeaking.org/charades-esl-game

#5 A to Z Word Race

If the students have a good knowledge of Christmas vocabulary, then you might like to try the A to Z Word Race.

It’s great to trigger students’ previous knowledge about a topic.

Divide the class into 2 big groups: each student works on their own, keeping social distancing, but collaboratively, contributing to the results of his/her team.

Then, they write the alphabet down on a piece of paper and have to think of as many Christmas words as possible.

The team with the most words at the end of the activity is the winning team!

For example:

A= ANGEL

B= BELLS

C=CAROLS…

#6 Reading Or Listening Marathon With A Christmas Themed Story

You might want to consider carrying out one of these activities if you want your Christmas lessons to have some educational value and not just be pure fun and games.

They are great to be carried out throughout the year too, trust me!

#7 Christmas Storytime

In my opinion, this will always be a fun activity to carry out!

It’s our job to lighten up the spirit of this year’s Christmas even though the pandemic around the world gives us no rest…

If they are good at writing, make them write; if they are younger, build up a class story together; or simply use the given titles to encourage and stimulate their creativity and collaborative work!

Sign up to receive PDF documents not posted but ready to print and to use during the school year!

SUBSCRIBE TO GET THEM AND TO SUPPORT MY WORK.

THANKS!

Christmas ESL Ideas: Vocabulary

Now I’ll leave you with the most common Christmas-related words.

Advent	Christmas Eve	Holly	Noel	Star
Angel	Christmas tree	Jesus	North Pole	Snowman
Artificial tree	Cracker	Jingle bells	Ornament	Snowflake
Bells	December 25th	Joseph	Pine tree	Stocking
Boxing Day	Elf	Lights	Presents	Tinsel
Candy cane	Father Christmas	Mary	Reindeer	Toy
Chimney	Family reunion	Mistletoe	Rudolph	Turkey
Christ	Fireplace	Myrrh	Santa Claus	Unwrap
Christmas Card	Gift-giving	Nativity	Santa’s helpers	Wrapping paper
Christmas Carol	Gingerbread	New Year’s Eve	Santa’s list	Xmas
Christmas Day	Holiday	New Years Day	Sleigh	Wreath

If you need more ideas about exploring vocabulary in the ESL classroom, read my related posts:

ISL Collective is also a great website to find some help and ideas!

Besides these posts, you can find here on my website several FREE downloadable resources which are vocabulary and picture-based too – Free Downloads, Free Templates and Vocabulary Resources For ESL.

Also, be sure to give this article a share on Facebook or Pinterest.

For more ideas from other sites and teachers, please visit my Pinterest account and follow me there!

Wishing you all the best for the coming year!

Here Are Easy Christmas ESL Ideas You Need Today