Christmas Lesson Ideas in Class and Online

Christmas Lesson Ideas for English Teachers

With the festive season fast approaching, many of us are preparing for a well-earned break. Across the UK and internationally, schools begin to close for the holidays, teaching schedules lighten, and families come together to enjoy time, traditions, and celebration. For teachers, however, lessons often continue right up to the end of term — especially online. That’s why we’ve put together a selection of practical and engaging Christmas lesson ideas you can use in your classroom or virtual English lessons.

As the final week of the school year approaches and online classes remain active, this is the perfect time to bring some festive energy into your lessons. Below, we share adaptable lesson ideas suitable for different age groups and class sizes. Feel free to adjust each activity to match your learners — after all, you know your students best.

Christmas Lesson Ideas for Young Learners, Teenagers, and Adults

We’ve prepared five Christmas-themed lesson ideas covering young learners, teenagers, and adult students, with options for both online teaching and face-to-face classrooms. If an activity feels better suited to a different age group, it can easily be adapted with small changes.

1. Christmas Lesson Ideas for Young Learners (Online Classes)

Teaching young learners online can be challenging at the best of times. Keeping their attention, maintaining engagement, and competing with holiday excitement isn’t easy — especially when Christmas is just around the corner. Many children are already focused on Santa, presents, and school holidays, which can make concentration difficult.

A simple way to keep lessons engaging is by making them festive. One effective activity is writing a letter to Santa in English. Depending on your students’ level, this can be done as a fill-in-the-gaps worksheet shared on screen or as a free-writing task for more confident learners.

To add a learning focus, ask students to include specific grammar points. Lower-level learners might practise phrases like “I’d like…”, while higher-level students could use “I’d rather…” or conditional sentences. You can also build in speaking practice by asking learners to compare their lists, explain what they would do with their gifts, or discuss what they might give to others. This activity requires very few resources and works well as a homework task too.

2. Christmas Lesson Ideas for Young Learners (Classroom Activities)

In-person classes often make it easier to keep young learners involved. During the final week before Christmas, children usually expect lighter lessons and enjoy a more relaxed classroom atmosphere. Rather than introducing large amounts of new vocabulary, focus on revision and fun — repetition plays an important role in language learning.

A popular activity is the alphabet categories game. Choose a letter and a category, and students must name something that begins with that letter. To involve the whole class, form a circle and use a ball. Call out a category and throw the ball to a student, who must quickly respond. This keeps everyone alert and helps develop receptive language skills.

To make the game seasonal, use Christmas-related categories such as festive food, stocking fillers, Christmas songs, winter clothing, Santa’s reindeer, winter activities, toys, gifts for family members, decorations, or Christmas symbols.

3. Christmas Lesson Ideas for Teenagers

Teenage learners can be difficult to motivate, particularly when holidays are approaching and social plans are top of mind. Finding the right balance between fun and structure is key. Lessons should feel engaging without being childish, while still respecting students as young adults.

The following Christmas activity works well for both online and classroom settings and can be adapted based on your students’ confidence levels.

Students work in small groups and play a mystery game where one elf has committed a “Christmas crime.” Each group receives images of several elves (or other festive characters such as Santa or Christmas trees). One student secretly chooses the guilty character and decides what crime was committed — for example, stealing presents or sabotaging Christmas preparations.

The rest of the group asks up to 20 yes/no questions to identify the guilty character and the crime. If they solve the mystery within 20 questions, the group wins. If not, the student who chose the character wins the round. When teaching online, breakout rooms work well, and it helps to prepare character options in advance.

4. Christmas Lesson Ideas for Adult Learners (Online Lessons)

Most adult learners choose to attend lessons because they genuinely want to improve their English. For this activity, we focus on general conversational English rather than exam or business preparation.

Although some teachers worry that festive themes may feel inappropriate for adults, Christmas often brings out a sense of nostalgia and enjoyment for many learners. That said, it’s important to remain culturally sensitive and adapt the theme for students who celebrate different holidays.

A simple online activity involves screen-sharing festive images and asking students to guess what they represent. You can follow the PPP (Presentation, Practice, Production) approach and gradually introduce vocabulary. Start with familiar items and increase difficulty as the lesson progresses.

Once students guess correctly, ask them to spell the word and write it in the chat. You can then encourage them to use the vocabulary in sentences or assign a short written task using all the words.

Suggested vocabulary includes:
Christmas tree, decorations, present, turkey, Christmas lights, elf, baubles, Santa’s sleigh, reindeer.

5. Christmas Lesson Ideas for Adult Learners (Classroom Lessons)

Begin by discussing students’ Christmas traditions, preparations, and celebrations. Next, show short Christmas adverts and ask each student to watch one while taking notes. They then summarise the advert to a partner, explaining how people prepared for the holiday.

This leads naturally into a discussion about memorable Christmas adverts, the idea of Christmas spirit, and whether students send wishes by card or message. After this, move into a word-formation exercise using Christmas wishes, followed by an error-correction task using a festive card.

To finish the lesson, students write their own Christmas wishes to a friend, family member, or colleague, choosing suitable openings and endings while creating original messages.

From everyone at the TEFL Institute, we wish you a wonderful festive season. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, and a very Happy New Year.