December is a month filled with joy, celebration, and merriment. It’s a holiday season marked by diverse cultural and religious traditions. Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa are all celebrated in December, offering you an opportunity to create a meaningful and inclusive festive season. Here are 6 ideas for blending and honoring traditions in the classroom.
- Learn About Each Holiday
The first step to integrating the different traditions is talking about each one’s significance. For this activity, try using the jigsaw cooperative learning strategy where students become “experts” on a topic and then teach members of their group what they learned. After the activity, all students will have a better understanding of each holiday’s history and importance.
- Decorate
Take time as a class to create an inclusive display that incorporates symbols, such as a menorah, Christmas tree, and kinara. Get creative by including colors that represent each celebration. Blue, white, and silver are colors associated with Hanukkah; red, green, and black for Kwanzaa; and red, green, and gold for Christmas.
- Create Food Fusion
Test your students’ culinary talent by creating a cookbook that combines traditional dishes with customary ingredients or sides from other the holidays. For example, you could combine latkes, a typical dish served for Hanukkah, with cranberry sauce, a common side dish at Christmas dinner. Another possibility is serving savory collard greens and cornbread with brisket, making it a delicious meal for Kwanzaa and Hanukkah.
- Host a Holiday Concert
Organize a holiday concert for the school and community that includes songs and music from each celebration. If it’s not possible for students to prepare a performance, you could also play music from each tradition and host a listening/dance party.
- Share Stories
Invite community members to share narratives and personal experiences they have had celebrating their holiday. They could read a traditional story about their celebration or elaborate on their families’ practices and the significance behind them.
- Get Crafty
Organize a time for students to create crafts that are meaningful to their family’s holiday traditions. You could supply the materials and one or two ideas for each celebration, but also allow students to come up with something unique and important to them.
By Kelli Drummer-Avendano
Also read:
Ho-Ho-Holiday Traditions in the US
5 Awesome Ideas for Celebrating the Holidays in the Classroom
