10 Simple Holiday Classroom Decorations and Celebration Activities

During the holiday season, it could prove challenging to avoid a bias toward any one way to celebrate, but we did our best to find a healthy variety of winter fun for your classroom this December.

From playful snowmen to cozy mittens to hot chocolate, we’ve compiled a number of decoration and holiday celebration ideas from around the web to turn your classroom into a winter wonderland. And the best part is, your students can create most of these themselves!

Stained Glass Tissue Paper Window Decorations

Adorn the windows of your classroom with this pretty, wintry project. All you need is construction paper, tissue paper, and clear contact paper, and students can create their own snowflake-spotted “stained glass” window panes. The blue and purple hues look lovely filtering the sunlight throughout December as you gear up for winter break.

Spiral Snowman Ornament

This project is simple and fun, and while the craft is aimed toward being a Christmas tree ornament, the snowmen will look just as darling hanging like snowfall from your classroom ceiling, or along a string like a banner. Kids can take their snowman home for winter break to use them as a tree ornament if they celebrate Christmas, or as a wintry decoration in their homes.

Hand Print Mittens

This craft is a great way to get your kids’ hands a little dirty. Students can imprint their hands on paper mittens, and decorate them however they please. The mittens will look cute and cozy as name tags hanging from students desks, or grouped together as a door or bulletin board decoration.

Pom-Pom Snowball Toss Game

This blog post details how to make a fun pom-pom snowball toss game, perfect for a holiday classroom celebration. Kids will have fun earning points with the game, and for prizes, you can hand out candy, or other small gifts that fit the season. Because the snowman is supposed to be “singing,” play some holiday carols as kids play.

Pine Needle Discovery Bottles

Students will have fun being amazed at these magnified pine needles. All you need are some empty plastic bottles, water, and some pine needle branches to create an interesting decoration. Add some glitter for a little festive fun.

Hot Chocolate Sensory Craft

This craft uses real hot cocoa powder to create a sweet-smelling craft. Your classroom will smell like chocolate for the day, and students can hang them up around the room or on a bulletin board, to keep the cozy memories alive through the winter months.

Build A Snowman Game

Using a cardboard dice with pictures of snowman parts on each side, this is a great game for young kids that also encourages learning about anatomy. You can break your class into teams, and each students will take a turn rolling the dice. The first student to create a full snowman wins!

Super Strong Snow Slime Recipe

Creating this puffy, moldable snow is a lot of fun, and great for creating a miniature, classroom-sized winter world. Students can bring in their own figurines from home, like small plastic animals or lego toys, and fit them in to a snow-covered little world they create. The “slime” is also a lot of fun to play with, and kids can keep the recipe and create more at home if they’d like.

‘Do You Want To Build A Snowman’ Party Snack

Treat your kids to a kit of simple and yummy snowman parts, inspired by Disney’s “Frozen.” It includes marshmallows, chocolate chips, chocolate or pretzel sticks, and an orange tic-tac as a carrot nose.

Snapshots of Winter Break

This project is a great way to get back in to the swing of classroom things after the winter break. It’s a fun writing activity that lets students remember and share what they did over their winter break.

Compiled by Samantha DiMauro, Education World Contributor