15 Entertaining and Merry Christmas Vocabulary and Speaking Exercises
Christmas is a good topic as it touches on so many aspects of society and culture. It’s also pretty good fun.
Updated 3rd December 2024
1 Santa Interview Role Play
Featuring a lighthearted interview with Santa Claus, this role-play lets students practice question-answer patterns in English. The dialogue covers Christmas preparations, gift requests, and Santa’s work challenges, ending with a message about giving.
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2 Santa Claus – Visual Discussion Worksheet
This festive ESL exercise brings Santa Claus into your classroom with ready-to-use discussion questions. Students move from basic scene description to deeper cultural chats about Christmas traditions worldwide. The five sections cover everything from Santa’s outfit to personal holiday memories, with helpful example answers and key vocabulary included. Perfect for mixed-level classes, this activity combines basic observation skills with chances to share holiday experiences.
3 What’s Santa saying ?
This engaging listening and speaking activity shows ten different Christmas scenes. Students hear and complete what Santa might say in each situation, from checking his long gift list to enjoying cookies and milk. The exercise mixes humor with seasonal vocabulary as Santa deals with everyday problems like finding his reindeer, checking his savings, and packing his gift bag. Example answers range from practical (“5 minutes to midnight!”) to playful (“Ho ho gotta go…Merry Christmas!”).
4 Christmas Conversational Practice
This speaking activity offers 15 questions about holiday traditions and experiences. Each question comes with two sample answers and a follow-up prompt, moving from general topics like family gatherings to specific ones about movies and markets. The exercise splits into two parts: open-ended questions about traditions, food, and decorations, followed by yes/no questions about Christmas markets, Santa Claus beliefs, and holiday customs. Sample responses help students structure their answers while follow-up questions encourage deeper discussion.
5 Christmas Pronunciation : A Three-Part Exercise
Circling Similar-Sounding Words has students distinguish between tricky holiday pairs like “bells/bills/balls” and “stocking/stalking,” helping them catch subtle sound differences. The “-ed” Verb Endings task sorts Christmas actions into three pronunciation patterns, from the soft “d” in “snowed” to the extra syllable in “decorated.” Syllable Stress Exercise focuses on longer holiday terms like “celebration” and “anticipating,” showing students where to place the emphasis in multi-syllable words. Complete answer keys guide both teachers and learners through each exercise.
6 Critical Thinking Activities for Christmas
Comparing Christmas celebrations across cultures, this critical thinking exercise combines a festive activity ranking task with a USA-Japan tradition comparison chart. Discussion questions guide students through key cultural differences, with model answers provided.
7 Write a Conversation: What are you doing at the end of the year?
This conversation exercise gets students talking about end-of-year celebrations. Students use a word bank with terms like “gifts,” “candles,” and “Santa Claus” to create dialogues about Christmas and New Year activities. The worksheet includes a fill-in-the-blank conversation between Ryan and Ashley about family gatherings, gift exchanges, and holiday wishes, with both a blank template and completed version for reference.
What are you doing at the end of the year? (PDF)
8 Good Christmas role play/speaking activity
Building holiday storytelling skills, this ESL activity helps students describe positive Christmas experiences. The worksheet combines a vocabulary matching exercise, fill-in-the-blank conversation, and reflection questions. Students use phrases like “got a promotion,” “festive atmosphere,” and “sang Christmas carols” to complete a dialogue between Ashley and Levi about Ashley’s wonderful Christmas memories, from career success to family gatherings. The exercise includes supporting images and concludes with personal questions about students’ own Christmas experiences.
9 The Story of Christmas (or The Story of Jesus) (with answers)
Combining images and text, this ESL exercise teaches the nativity story through 12 key scenes. Students match illustrations to phrases like “the Virgin Mary,” “announcing the birth of Jesus,” and “running away to Egypt.” The worksheet includes a detailed script that follows the story from Gabriel’s visit to Mary through the family’s flight to Egypt. The chronological format and visual aids help students understand the sequence of events and cultural significance of the Christmas story.
10 Brainstorming Christmas
Mapping Christmas themes, this ESL brainstorming activity divides holiday topics into seven illustrated categories. Students explore core aspects of Christmas through labeled images: holiday foods, seasonal decorations, cultural traditions, Christmas spirit, gift-giving, festive characters (like Santa), and common Christmas problems. The mind map format with arrows encourages students to expand each topic with their own ideas and experiences.
11 Elements of Christmas vocabulary (with answers)
Exploring both sacred and secular Christmas elements, this ESL activity connects 13 images to vocabulary through a mind map format. Students match pictures of religious figures (three wise men, Angel Gabriel), decorative items (tinsel, mistletoe, candles), and holiday symbols (sleigh, reindeer, stockings). The exercise blends traditional elements like frankincense with modern customs like wrapping paper, and includes literary references like Scrooge. An answer key helps teachers verify student work.
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12 Christmas discussion questions
In this speaking exercise, students explore personal views on Christmas through eight illustrated discussion questions. The prompts cover holiday preferences, gift-giving habits, seasonal challenges, and work responsibilities. Cartoon images support each question, helping students discuss topics from beach Christmases to religious observances. The format encourages learners to share experiences while practicing conversational English about holiday customs and traditions.
Christmas discussion questions(PDF)
13 Christmas vocabulary dictation exercise
In this activity, students learn Christmas vocabulary through a flexible image-matching exercise that can be used for dictation or team games. The worksheet features nine rows of themed images covering religious elements (wise men, nativity scene), decorations (wreath, tinsel), characters (Scrooge, elves), and traditions (caroling, gift-giving). Teachers can dictate words with contextual sentences or create competitive games where students earn points for matching words to pictures. A word bank and word cloud visualization provide additional support for language learners exploring holiday-related terms.
14 Elements of Santa’s Life
In this totally fun exercise, students match words and phrases to pictures for a humorous look at Santa’s life. Through 12 amusing scenarios, they explore Santa’s mishaps and challenges like getting “stuck in the chimney,” “dealing with an angry elf,” and “getting an electric shock.” The worksheet combines comical illustrations and photos to show Santa’s everyday problems, from reading wish lists to feeling confused about bills. An answer key helps teachers check student work against the correct phrase-picture pairs.
Elements of Santa’s life (PDF)
Related Resources:
10 Role Play Speaking Activities
11 Classroom Debate and Discussion Language Activities
5 First Day of Class Activities
3 Great Icebreakers to Start a Class
8 Invitation and Request Dialogues for Everyday Scenarios
Excellent site. Thanks
It is a great commitment. Quite rich for learners of english language and for anyone else.
Thank you!
I like the variety of activities – thank you for showing some that are appropriate for adult learners!
Ok! Thanks for the comments. Much appreciated!
Great class materials