It’s always great to have a few ideas on hand for students who do not celebrate holidays. I learned this my very first year of teaching. I’ll admit that I sort of blundered my way through the first experience—I was totally unprepared for so many things that year! 🙂
Here are a few nonholiday options. Please share what works for you too!
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Plan a seasonal gift-making project rather than one that’s holiday-specific. Making a photo frame is a nice option. (A child who doesn’t celebrate a Christmas can still give gifts throughout the year!)
Ask a child to make a thank-you card rather than a holiday card, a winter tree instead of a holiday tree, or a snowpal or penguin as alternatives to a Santa or holiday stocking. If a parent can’t arrange early pickup on party day, make arrangements for a staff member (librarian, nurse, office assistant) to request a special helper prior to party time. |
Thinking of you!
Diane
Those are great ideas Diane. I have a child in my class and she does not come to school on holiday party days. Makes me feel bad for her.
I had 2-3 students every year who did not celebrate anything, but I always knew at the beginning of the year, so I was able to prepare. We always played BINGO and had things like snowman, snowflake, ice skates, hot cocoa, shovels, snowballs, etc.. on our BINGP cards. For crafts we jusr made a lot of snowflakes and snowpeople crafts. These families were OK with gingerbread houses, so we made those as well. We didn’t do gift exchanges, I just bought a few new games for the classroom and we passed those around the circle and when the music stopped, the kids got to take off a layer of wrapping paper (each present had 20 + layers). For class gifts, I always give books, pencils and candy, so we just used the snowflake theme again and the students who did not celebrate got non-Christmasy books.:) If kids wanted to color Santa, reindeer, etc pictures, I did have them available, but my classes were really happy to just be doing something else besides “work” :), so they were just fine with what we did. It was also a great lesson in “acceptance” and “diversity” for my students to understand that not everyone believes/celebrates the same things. 🙂
As a teacher I have yet to experience this, but when I was in school we had a classmate who didn’t celebrate the holidays. His mother was always the room helper during our holiday parties and would provide other activities for him or our teachers would provide an alternative not just for that student but for anyone that wanted to do it too (i.e instead of making a ghost you could make a scarecrow instead).
We avoid holidays all together. To include every child in all classroom activities we celebrate things like the season of winter/snow instead of things like Santa and Christmas. You can still make cookies (gingerbread/snowflakes), and decorate your classroom as a winter wonderland.
We like to have the parents come in and share their holiday traditions and for those that do not celebrate any holidays we ask them to come in and share something about their culture. This way all the children celebrate one another and no one has to be excluded. We just all celebrate with each other.
What do you do for an alternative when making ornaments for the classroom Christmas tree? I have 2 students who do not celebrate Christmas. I don’t want to leave them out of this fun activity. I make the ornaments during the first week back after the Thanksgiving break. We make them during our morning work time before instructional time begins. Any suggestions?
This year I am having a gingerbread house and pajama party. The children are going to make houses out of graham crackers, icing or cream cheese, dried fruit, candy, pretzels and anything else I can think of, they are also going to make hot cocoa in a crock pot and read some of their favorite books from home. Parents are welcome to come in and participate and I have asked all families to share their traditions. I normally have a huge turn out. In the past I have done book exchanges, had the kids make their own lunches or even have them create a winter wonderland. Which was fun we got cotton balls and batten (the stuff to make pillows) the children made snowflakes and we hung them around the room, on the day we had sleds and shovels and the children wore boots, scarves, hats, gloves etc. We even made a couple of snow men using trash bags and newspaper. With the batten and cotton balls all over the room and snowflakes hanging it did look like a winter wonder land! We even ended having a snowball fight. I also brought snow in from outside and put in the sensory table.