Christmas Writing Opportunities
Creating writing opportunities at Christmas time
By this point in Advent, the school postbox is overflowing with greetings cards, Reception have finally nailed Little Donkey and the cleaners have given up berating exhausted teachers for covering the school in glitter. We’re all tired and the curriculum is being squeezed like at no time else in the year. On the off-chance that you’re stumped for a writing activity to squeeze into the window between the school carol service and the staff buffet, we’ve collated a few quick and easy Christmas themed writing opportunities. None of them require much preparation and nor do they require you to spend half an hour in the photocopying queue; something that should keep you off the naughty list (no not the one kept by the big man, the one kept by your school business manager).
Christmas list – as a twist on what could otherwise be a somewhat dull task, consider asking your class to write an alliterative list poem. It can be as practical or silly as they like and of course it’s a sneaky way to practise writing expanded noun phrases: Dear Santa, I’d like a delightful dog, a perfect pet, and a lovely lead to take him on wonderful walks etc.
A persuasive letter to Santa – this could show both sides of the naughty and nice argument and may even offer the chance for a pre-Christmas confession should anyone feel they need one… Dear Santa, You may have seen me kick my brother. However, I did also help him with his homework last week…
Instructions for Christmas crafts. We all know that instructions work best if the children have a go first so this could be combined with an art enrichment activity such as making a Christmas cracker, a table decoration or a pop-up card.
Create a preparation timeline for Santa, for example how to get the reindeers and sleigh ready for the big night. This is super opportunity to practise using adverbials of time and writing in chronological order: First, make sure you’ve fed the reindeers… Once that’s done…
Write a persuasive letter to parents about why the children *need* that particular toy. A great way to practise using modal verbs: I really must have… I would be the happiest child alive…
Make an opportunity for the younger children in school to write to Santa. The oldest children could then write letters back as Santa in role.
Write adverts for toys. These could be posters, magazine adverts or scripted TV adverts. This is another opportunity to practise using those modal verbs: You should buy this toy… You will be the coolest kid in town.
Write descriptive settings. As an example, these could be descriptions of Santa’s workshop or the North Pole. This activity could be combined with watching a Christmas film or working with a Christmas book such as The Polar Express (see our Polar Express blog for ideas). You could also use some of the images on our winter theme and Christmas Pinterest boards.
Write winter poems based on observations of the season such as snowflakes and frost. You could also take a look at our Christmas haiku post.
Christmas recipes. Write your favourite family Christmas recipe and collate a class book. Combining this with a bit of festive cookery would also be great, although maybe not the top of your list by the last week of the term.
These ideas are suitable across the age-range and of course, should you have an eye on standards and progression, our Progression Documents are available to download FREE of charge to help you select the appropriate features for your writing.
If you enjoyed this post, you may also like our other Christmas articles:
And if you’re looking for downloadable resources to help you celebrate but with an eye on quality teaching and learning, we’ve got plenty of lovely resources to help you out.
This article was inspired by an original idea from the late Charlotte Reed and first appeared on the Primary English website on 5th November, 2013. Updated and reworked by Rachel Clarke in December, 2019 and November 2024.