- Tuesday 12 December 2023
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It’s Day 12 of our Christmas Advent Calendar!
This month, we’re sharing special deals, festive classroom inspiration, and holiday-themed activities up until 24 December, so follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and sign up to our email list to make sure you don’t miss a single day!
So, have you ever wondered about how Christmas is celebrated around the world?
Just imagine how a child’s worldview could open up by introducing them to different country’s traditions, customs, and mindsets around the holiday season!
This is the perfect time of year to make Christmas a fun and educational learning experience.
Whether you’re wrapping up your final week in the classroom with students, or you’re home for the holidays with your kids, we have a number of different cultural learning activities to share with you today.
Take a look at these holiday traditions and discuss them with your students in the classroom or your kids at home.
1) Japan – KFC for dinner
This is a fun one! Did you know that in Japan, it’s tradition to eat KFC for Christmas dinner?
It all started in 1970, when a KFC outlet in Nagoya, Japan ran a Kentucky for Christmas marketing campaign. The campaign was so popular and effective that Japan has since adopted the tradition of purchasing bucket-loads of fried chicken for Christmas dinner.
2) Venezuela – Rollerskating to church
This one is arguably the most fun activity on the list. In Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela, roads are closed until 8am so that families can rollerskate to Christmas morning mass!
For some families, the skating actually begins the night before and lasts all night – parents and children will gather in parks and skate to Christmas songs and enjoy food and festivities, then finish the celebrations by skating to morning mass the next day.
3) Ethiopia – Ganna
Some countries celebrate holidays similar to Christmas on completely different days, with different religious meanings.
For example, Ethiopians celebrate Christmas on 7 January with ‘Ganna’, which includes a special church service followed by a festive meal that includes traditional dishes such as ‘injera’ (a sour, fermented pancake-like flatbread) and ‘doro wat’ (a spicy chicken stew).
4) China – Christmas apple-giving
In China, it’s common to exchange apples wrapped in colourful paper or boxes, and decorated with cartoons, ribbons, or Christmas messages, as gifts.
This is because in Mandarin, ‘Christmas Eve’ translates to ‘Ping’anye’ (the evening of peace) which sounds similar to the Chinese word for ‘apple’ ('pingguo'). This resulted in a special name for Christmas apples: ‘ping’anguo’ (peace apples).
5) India – Christmas banana trees
Can you imagine decorating a banana tree in your home instead of a fir tree? Well, in certain parts of India, this is exactly what they do!
This is because, due to the climate, banana and mango trees are more common in India. Indians will even use banana tree leaves for festive decorations around the home!
Learning activity ideas:
Here are some fun ways that you can incorporate these cultural traditions into a fun holiday activity.
1) Self-led research activity
Put a variety of country names into a jar. Have each student choose a country from the jar, and task them with researching Christmas traditions for that country either via computer or library books.
Have them create a short presentation with their findings, including their favourite discoveries and three differences they found between Christmas at home vs their researched country (e.g. traditional foods, decoration practices, songs, gifts, activities, etc.)
2) Christmas geography
Choose 5–10 different Christmas traditions and have students guess which country it originates from. Have them pinpoint where the country is on an unlabelled map to further reinforce their geographical knowledge.
3) Christmas cooking
Choose 1–3 different, traditional Christmas dishes and split your students into groups. Have each group make their designated traditional dish, which the entire class can taste test and enjoy together later.
Alternatively, choose a traditional Christmas dish to make at home over the holidays.
4) Holiday season reading
Send each student home with a Christmas comprehension exercise that discusses different cultural celebrations. Or, task each student with a simple, take-home holiday reading activity that focuses on food, people, gifts, celebrations, etc.
More resources and inspiration
Learning doesn’t have to stop during the silly season, and we know this time of year can be particularly busy and challenging, so we hope today’s blog post gave you some exciting, new lesson ideas and activities to implement with your students.
There are so many creative ways to learn about different cultures during the holiday season, and many interesting topics to explore that students will find both engaging and relevant at this time of year.
If you’d like more holiday season resources, explore our range of Christmas-themed worksheets, activities, classroom themes, and ebooks on our website, containing various Christmas traditions and holiday-themed learning units.