🎄 Christmas ESL Activities for Your Classroom (Free Lessons Included!)

Christmas is one of the most exciting times of the year for ESL teachers — but it can also be one of the busiest. Between finishing units, grading, and managing holiday energy in the classroom, most teachers don’t have time to prep creative, high-quality Christmas lessons.

That’s why this post gives you simple, engaging Christmas ESL activities you can use immediately — plus free ready-made Christmas lessons you can download from Super English ESL.

👉 Get your free holiday lessons here: Free Christmas & Holiday ESL Lessons

🎁 Why Christmas Lessons Matter in the ESL Classroom

Holiday lessons aren’t just “fun fillers.” They:

• give students meaningful vocabulary they can use outside the classroom
• boost speaking confidence because learners already know the context
• reduce behavior issues (festive lessons = more engagement)
• build cultural awareness for both Christmas-celebrating and non-celebrating students
• help teachers transition smoothly into winter break without heavy prep

When lessons are festive and structured, everyone wins.

🎅 12 Christmas ESL Activities Students Love

These activities work for in-person, online, beginner, and mixed-level ESL classes.

1. Christmas Vocabulary Bingo (No Prep)

Create a simple list of holiday words — tree, Santa, gift, wreath, reindeer. Students mark the words as you call them.

Teacher tip: Have students use each word in a sentence before marking it.

2. “Holiday Shopping” Role-Play

Pairs practice shopper/store clerk dialogues using holiday items: Can I help you? How much is this? I’d like to buy… Perfect for speaking and functional language.

3. Christmas Word Games (Word Search, Scramble, Crossword)

Use a simple Christmas word search, word scramble, or crossword as a warm-up or station activity — especially helpful for mixed-level classes.

4. Letter to Santa (Writing Task)

Students write a short letter: Dear Santa, This year I was… I would like… Thank you!

For teens or adults, switch to a more age-appropriate version like “Letter to a friend about my holiday plans” to practice past and future tenses.

5. Holiday Trivia Quiz

Create trivia questions about global Christmas traditions and winter holidays. After the quiz, have students compare their own family or cultural traditions for natural speaking practice.

6. TPR Christmas Actions (Young Learners)

Perfect for beginners and high-energy classes. Call out commands such as:

• Decorate the tree!
• Jump like a reindeer!
• Wrap the present!

This works especially well alongside a structured beginner curriculum like Beginner ESL: Level 1 .

7. Christmas Charades or Pictionary

Students act out or draw Christmas vocabulary while classmates guess: snowman, stocking, candy cane, sleigh, carols. Great for low-pressure speaking and lots of laughter.

8. Christmas Traditions Discussion (Teens & Adults)

Use open-ended questions like:

• Do you celebrate Christmas? Why or why not?
• What winter holidays are common in your country?
• What foods or traditions do people enjoy?

This is a great way to include students who don’t celebrate Christmas by inviting them to share their own traditions.

9. Reading: Short Christmas Stories

Give students a short festive text and follow up with comprehension questions. Beginners can match sentences to pictures, while higher-level learners can summarize the text or discuss themes in small groups.

10. Flashcard Speaking Drills (Beginners)

Use Christmas flashcards and prompt students with simple questions:

• What is it?
• Do you like it?
• Where do you see it?

This is ideal for true beginners following a structured path like Level 1 – True Beginner .

11. Christmas Songs Gap-Fill

Play a clean version of a simple Christmas song (for example, “Jingle Bells”) and give students a lyrics sheet with missing words. Students listen and fill in the gaps.

This reinforces pronunciation, rhythm, and listening skills in a fun, low-pressure way.

12. Holiday Crafts + Presentation

Have students create a Christmas card or simple decoration and then present it using a sentence frame:

“This is my ____. I used ____. It represents ____.”

You can easily scale this up for higher levels by asking students to explain why they chose specific colors, images, or messages.

🎄 Want Ready-to-Teach Christmas Lessons?

If you’d like full lessons with vocabulary, activities, speaking tasks, worksheets, teacher notes, and digital slides, Super English ESL offers free Christmas and holiday lessons for multiple levels.

🎁 Download your free holiday lessons here:

Holiday Lessons

Inside, you’ll find:

• Beginner lessons with clear vocabulary and phonics support
• Elementary and pre-intermediate lessons with stories and speaking prompts
• Higher-level lessons with global holidays, debates, and reading passages

🎓 How Christmas Activities Fit Into a Structured ESL Curriculum

Christmas activities are most effective when they reinforce skills your students are already learning in your core curriculum.

• True beginners (Pre-A1 / A1): focus on basic vocabulary, simple questions, and phonics support. A level like Level 1 – True Beginner Foundations is ideal for this.
• Elementary / pre-intermediate: use Christmas topics to review grammar, extend vocabulary, and practice longer dialogues. You can pair holiday lessons with an intermediate level such as Level 5 – Intermediate ESL Curriculum .
• Intermediate and above: explore global traditions, compare cultures, debate holiday topics, and write opinion paragraphs or essays.

For even more speaking support, you can plug Christmas themes into your regular ESL Speaking Lessons or reinforce phonics work from Phonics Lessons .

That way, your holiday lessons feel fun and fully aligned with your year-round curriculum instead of random one-off activities.

🎉 Next Steps: Grab Your Free Christmas Lessons

Before your week gets any busier, download your ready-to-teach Christmas lessons:

👉 Free Christmas + Holiday ESL Lessons

Holiday Lessons

You’ll get:

• Printable worksheets and homework
• Digital lesson slides
• Teacher notes and timing suggestions
• Vocabulary lists and speaking tasks
• Reading and comprehension activities

Everything is designed so you can run a festive, high-quality lesson with zero prep time.

⭐ Why Teachers Love Super English ESL

Thousands of teachers use Super English ESL because it saves hours of prep time each week while giving students clear, structured lessons that actually build fluency from Level 1 through the advanced levels.

If you want to access the full Level 1–7 curriculum and all speaking/phonics units:

👉 Start your free 2-week trial here:
View Subscription Plans & Pricing

Have questions about how the subscription works, school licensing, or free trial details?
📌 Visit the Super English ESL FAQ for answers.

Make this Christmas season easier — and more fun — with ready-to-teach ESL lessons.