With these Christmas materials your child will be able to:

			practise words related to Christmas
			learn about Christmas customs in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world
			practise writing a letter to Santa
			do a listening activity with the song
			read and listen to a story about a snowman, and print and dress up their own snowman
			find ideas for things to make at Christmas, such as decorations and Christmas cards. Perhaps you and your family could make these!

These activities are for all ages and levels. Activities are marked with a symbol to indicate the best age group and level. Look at these when you choose which activities to use with your child.

Younger children will enjoy making a snowman and Christmas decorations, and practising Christmas words. If they can write, they may enjoy writing a simple letter to Santa. Older children with a higher level of English could learn about Christmas around the world by listening to the story called My Favourite Day or trying the quiz.

Something you can do with your child

			Here is an activity you can do with your child to practise Christmas words. There are 12 flashcards of Christmas objects on the flashcards page.
			Print the flashcards and cut them up. You'll have 12 pictures and 12 words. You could put the pictures on card, or laminate them to make them stronger.
			Place the cards on the floor or on a table.
			Ask your child to match the pictures and words - help them to do this.
			When your child has an idea of the words and pictures, turn the cards over and mix them up
			Now you can play a game together. Take it in turns to turn over two cards. If the cards match, the player keeps the pair. If the cards don't match, the player turns the cards back over in the same place. Each player tries to make as many pairs as possible - you'll need a good memory.

You can play this game with any of the flashcards on LearnEnglish Kids.

Notes about the flashcards

Christmas is an important holiday in the United Kingdom. Some of the objects on the flashcards are related to Christmas traditions. You could also use the activity to find out about different holidays in the world. Here are some notes about the objects on the flashcards:

• Santa - Santa visits houses on Christmas Eve (December 24th) when children are asleep and leaves presents for them. Santa is also called Father Christmas.
• Holly - People traditionally use holly to decorate the house at Christmas.
• Christmas tree - People put a tree in the house and decorate it with lights and baubles.
• Cracker - On Christmas Day (December 25th) families have a big lunch. Each person has a cracker. When people pull the cracker apart it opens with a bang, and inside there is a small gift, a paper hat and a joke.
• Snowman - When there is snow, many children like to build a snowman out of snow.
• Stocking - Children leave this for Santa or Father Christmas. He fills it with presents.
• Star - This can go on top of the Cristmas tree. It is also a symbol from the Nativity story.
• Candle - Candles decorate the house at Christmas.
• Present - People give presents at Christmas. In the UK this happens on December 25th.
• Reindeer - Father Christmas travels on a sleigh which is pulled by reindeer.
• Christmas card - People send Christmas cards to friends and family to wish them a merry Christmas
• Snowflake - Snow is made out of many snowflakes. People often make 'snowflakes' out of paper to decorate their houses.