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On Christmas morning, boys and girls around the world will waken early and run excitedly downstairs to see what Santa Claus has left for them...
Well, that's not exactly how it goes -- for around the world children celebrate the Christmas holidays in many different ways.
In Germany, the 6th of December is a special day:
...There's a special tradition all over Germany on December 6th. [On] the evening of December 5th you put your cleaned (big) boots outside the house in front of the door (or inside). Some people also put a plate there or on the windowsill. The bread in the plate is for the white horse of Santa Claus ... In the morning you see that Santa Claus really was at your house and put nice things into the boots or plates, e.g., all kinds of nuts, oranges, apples, sweets, chocolate, small presents ... But if you [weren't] well behaved the whole year you only get a switch so that your parents can punish you, but they don't!Kristine and Wiebke, Germany
And in Italy, January 6th is a day long-awaited by many children:
The 6th of January is the day on which the three Wise Men arrive at the Bethlehem cave in which kid Jesus is and give him gold, incense and myrrh and for this reason in Italy children receive presents traditionally brought by the "Befana," a good old witch who comes into their homes through the chimney. This is the last day to the Christmas holiday in Italy.Elisbetta, Italy
In Sweden, December 13th is a special day that children look forward to all year long:
Saint Lucia [Day] is celebrated all over Sweden on December 13th. The custom with the girl dressed in white with candles on her head has a complicated background ... In our school we celebrate Saint Lucia Day outside very early in the morning while it's still dark. Our Saint Lucia is coming in a carriage pulled by a very small horse. She is followed by Santa Claus on a big horse and a lot of girls and boys in white gowns and a lot of candles. They all sing traditional Christmas songs and read poems. After the ceremony we all eat ginger cookies and bread with saffron. To celebrate is very important to Swedish people.Class 4c in Nasbyparksskolan
Want to read explanations of a few more December celebrations around the world? Click here to read about Christmas celebrations in Mexico, Denmark, and Australia. Then visit the Multicultural Calendar Web site for many more. On the site you can view holiday entries from around the world organized by month, by holiday, or by country.
Other places to go for a multicultural view of Christmas
Christmas traditions around the world (Santas.net)
Christmas around the world (TheHolidaySpot.com)
Christmas around the world (The-North-Pole.com)
Christmas around the world (Christmas.com, an archived site)
Celebrate Christmas around the globe with a "world" of Christmas activities!
Art/Writing. If you could give any gift to the people of the world, what would that gift be? Draw a picture of your gift and write a sentence to explain what your gift is and why you chose it.
Geography. Hang a world map in the center of a bulletin board. Invite each student to write on a card the expression "Merry Christmas" in a different language. (For a source, see How "Merry Christmas" Is Said Around the World. Or try this alternate source.) Attach yarn to each card. Invite students to post the cards around the map on the bulletin and to extend each strand of yarn from a "Merry Christmas" card to the appropriate country.
Table reading. Provide table reading practice using one of two Teaching Masters provided. The TMs provide tables showing the ten most popular holiday greeting cards mailed in the United States. Choose the Primary TM (practice for younger students) or the Upper grade TM (for upper elementary students and above).Answer key for primary TM:1. Christmas, 2. 1 billion, 3. Mother's Day; 4. Halloween; 5. Thanksgiving; 6. 250 million, 7. Jewish New Year.Answer key for upper grade TM:1. Christmas, 2. 1 billion; 3. 50 million; 4, Halloween; 5. 75 million; 6. 1 million; 7. 250 million; 8. February, because many more cards are mailed for Valentine's Day than are mailed for St. Patrick's Day; 9. 2,700,011,000; THINK ABOUT IT! Accept reasoned responses (probably not as many as are mailed at Christmas, but more than are mailed at Easter).
Gift ideas. Sometimes students don't have the money to buy a small gift for another family member. Giving of themselves is a great gift idea. Students might:
Create a simple "coupon" or "gift certificate" form that children can fill in and give as a gift. The form should provide spaces labeled TO:, FROM:, and MY GIFT TO YOU:. Students might want to brainstorm gift ideas (ie., raking the yard, babysitting, serving breakfast in bed) before filling out their gift certificates.
Create a "job jar" by decorating a large jar and putting inside it small folded slips of paper with odd jobs written on each. A few blank slips might be included so parents can write on them a preferred "job" for the student to do.
Math/Cooking. Use one of the recipes from Christmas Recipes. Ask students to make a list of the ingredients they'll need to buy to make double the quantity called for in the recipe. If you teach older students, challenge them to list the ingredients required to make 10 dozen snowball cookies, enough spiced cider to serve 30 people, or large quantities of other recipes. These Web sites offer many recipes, so you could pair off students and give each pair a different recipe to double. If you can, prepare one of the recipes.
Writing. Ask students to pretend they have pen pals in foreign countries. Their pen pals celebrate Christmas (or other holidays) in a way very different than they might do. Invite students to write letters to their pen pals to explain how their families celebrate the holidays.
Research. Invite students brainstorm different symbols of Christmas or other December holiday celebrations. Christmas symbols, for example, might include the Christmas card, the star, mistletoe, the poinsettia, holly, the Christmas tree, and Christmas carols. Also students might research the different faces of Santa Claus, including St. Nicholas, Father Christmas, and Santa Claus. Students might use as their research starting point some of the "Other Places to Go for a Multicultural View of Christmas" that are listed above.
More Christmas fun on the Internet
Christmas tongue twisters
"Seven Santas sang silly songs," "Running reindeer romp 'round red wreaths," "Ten tiny tin trains toot ten times," and many more!
Christmas crafts and activities
You'll find a recipe for Christmas play dough, instructions for creating recycled Christmas card garland, and tons of other arts and crafts ideas.
The Christmas trivia quiz
Learn all about the Christmas holiday while having fun with this self-correcting quiz.
From the Education World archives
Don't miss Education World's December holidays archive page. There you will find dozens of ideas for teaching about the holidays as well as craft activities, resources, and more.
Article by Gary Hopkins
Education World® Editor-in-Chief
Copyright © 2016 Education World
Education World® Copyright © 2011, 2016
December: A Month of Multicultural Holiday Celebrations
Do your students celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Three Kings Day? Maybe they celebrate St. Lucia Day. Chances are your class includes students who observe more than one of those events. Whether that is the case or not, December offers great opportunities for teaching about our multicultural world. Included: Handfuls of great teaching lessons and resources!
Few months present the multicultural "teachable moments" that December does! The following multicultural events and celebrations are among those that will happen this year:
Saint Nicholas Day (Christian)
Fiesta of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Mexican)
St. Lucia Day (Swedish)
Hanukkah (Jewish)
Christmas Day (Christian)
Three Kings Day/Epiphany (Christian)
Boxing Day (Australian, Canadian, English, Irish)
Kwanzaa (African American)
Omisoka (Japanese)
Yule (Pagan)
Saturnalia (Pagan)
At Education World, we've searched our archive for links to lessons and other activities to help you teach about December's "world of holidays." We've updated all the lesson plans to ensure that you won't find any dead links among them! You'll find the following articles full of lesson ideas.
Holidays around the world: A festival of lessons
'Tis the season! Education World offers nine lessons about December celebrations, observances, and activities from several cultures. Included:
Benne cakes and other holiday recipes
How many ways can you say "Merry Christmas"?
Christmas in other countries: A Venn diagramming activity
Christmas-tree-shaped poems
True or False? A Quiz About Four December Celebrations
plus four more lessons!
Christmas around the world
A world of activities focused on the traditions and spirit of Christmas! Among the lessons you will find are the following:
Christmas around the world map
Greeting card graphing
Christmas tongue twisters
"Job jar" gift idea
My gift to the world
plus more lessons!
Habari Gani? -- What's the news?
Learn about Kwanzaa, the world's fastest growing holiday, with activities that include the following:
Label an Africa map
Make a Kwanzaa game
Colorful flags
Kwanzaa word search
Weave a Kwanzaa mat
plus more lessons!
Hanukkah: The Festival of Lights
Read aloud a simple telling of the Hanukkah story and follow up with a handful of across-the-curriculum activities, including the following:
Hanukkah story listening activity
Noah's Ark Hanukkah card
Play the cassic Dreidel game
Write a Hanukkah radio show
Read aloud a Hanukkah book
The history of Christmas trees
In this lesson plan, students can read an article about Winter Solstice celebrations and "consider the symbolism of evergreens in winter and how different cultures have used evergreens in winter celebrations throughout history."
Saturnalia
The History Girls daily blog provides an overview of an Ancient Roman Christmas. This overview will allow students to:
Discover which modern day Christmas traditions are linked to ancient Rome
Discuss what holiday customs can teach us about about cultural values, both in ancient times and today
Provide a starting point for further research into types of traditional food eaten during Saturnalia
Complete extension activities with the suggested reading materials
Updated: 10/30/2017
One of my favorite teaching memes depicts a bright-eyed child with the words, “I love worksheets! Said no kid, ever.” The contrast of the child’s happy face with what the meme communicates really hits home. I doubt very many of us would argue that worksheets have encouraged higher-order thinking in student learning processes. Still, we keep them in the rotation, probably owing at least in part to ease of use. After all, we don’t have to worry quite so much about putting our content out there if we just hand it to kids on a one-sheet document. Still, there are better ways to check for understanding than a worksheet. Here are a few:
Create a culture of inquiry.
Instead of using worksheets to determine what students know, place the responsibility of asking questions on them. Early in my teaching career, I remember a student complaining to me about class discussions. “It’s always the same,” he said. “We read something, and then we look at a handout about the pages and discuss it.” His feedback illuminated the need to foster more curiosity about learning. Every time I taught a concept after that, I would try to facilitate open-ended question processes, which had the added benefit of upping language production. For instance, students might sit in a circle with index cards, write a thoughtful question about the content on the card (a question that could not be answered with “yes” or “no”), and throw it into the middle of the circle. When students picked up someone else’s question, they had to share it and we explored answers together. Strategies that place ownership for questioning the learning process on students results in higher engagement as well as classrooms that are safe spaces for healthy inquiry.
Provide meaning through discourse.
Instead of asking students to share their knowledge with a worksheet, get them talking so that their thinking is visible. One of my favorite teachers to observe has a classroom that appears chaotic, but if I listen to the conversations, students are focused on class topics. One day, students took turns impersonating notable historical figures while their partners interviewed them and recorded their responses. It was such an engaging way to see what each student knew about their assigned person of note, and the classroom was alight with enthusiasm. When I conduct class observations, chief among my typical recommendations is to include more discourse into planning with intention, rather than waiting for conversations (not the same as discourse) to occur haphazardly. Worksheets have the effect of shutting down student conversation, not encouraging it. Discourse that reflects equitable sharing and doesn’t put students on the spot is ideal.
Learn through narrative.
The power of storytelling is significant, and connects people to ideas on a level that is profound. One all-time student favorite text is Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime, which is a series of stories about his childhood in South Africa during apartheid. Rather than give students a handout about the book, I ask them to tell their own stories from childhood that connect to themes from Noah’s book. That way, they engage with the reading on a personal level, and the words come alive even more, as does their understanding of the text. Instead of giving students a handout, engage them in the inductive and connective process of narrative.
Let students take over.
Why should adults get to create all the materials that determine student understanding? Let them take control of the process. A student once approached me and asked if, instead of the assigned project on memoir, she could create a graphic novel-esque depiction of her own experiences (complete with thematic components) that highlighted her skills as an artist. Her project was stellar, coming from a place of passion. Her language use and the skills she demonstrated were exactly in line with what the assessment standards indicated. In my experience, letting students decide how they want to make meaning of their learning almost always results in gains that cannot be met with more rigid structures. The truth is, teachers are inventive, but we don’t harness all the creativity. When we let students work with us to make learning happen, the whole classroom community benefits.
Are worksheets ever necessary? Maybe, but it’s doubtful. Think about how they are typically used: to get a class focused (which is about managing behavior, not learning), to demonstrate understanding, or to be efficient. Then, think about how engaging worksheets are, and whether some of the strategies above might be a better option. When we let go of controlling every detail of how we see our course content, even a little bit, the results can be rewarding in the long term, ultimately creating a classroom climate of mutual respect and trust.
Written by Miriam Plotinsky, Education World Contributing Writer
Miriam is a Learning and Achievement Specialist with Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, where she has worked for nearly 20 years as an English teacher, staff developer and department chair. She is a National Board Certified Teacher, and recently earned her certification in Education Administration and Supervision. She can be followed on Twitter: @MirPloMCPS
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