Christmas Traditions From Around The World

    If you have children you will know how hard it can be in the lead up to Christmas.   The children are excited about the whole idea about Christmas, but the weather is usually inclement and more time is spent indoors than is ideal, and many of the play centres are closed for the festive break!  Well here is a project which will help to entertain them when it’s raining outside and you need them to play at home.  Start a project where they learn about the traditions from around the world.  You will need to invest in a few large sheets of cardboard which you can stick on the wall for them to add to.

Now you need to investigate the traditions from around the world.  It will be easiest to start with your own family traditions, religious or simply events in your community.  The second of traditions from around the world which is guaranteed to keep your child’s attention has got to be Father or Santa Claus.  This is one which your child will be seeing everyday during the season and will probably already know quite a bit about.

Now that you have chosen two of the traditions from around the world you will need to start filling the wall chart.  Do not get too ambitious with this and remember that it should be fun for your child.  If your child is still just a toddler you can use leaflets and catalogues and cut out pictures which they associate with and you can then use these to become a scene they will understand.  For example you can draw a picture of Father on the paper on the wall and your child can choose presents out of the catalogues to put in his bag.

This same simple idea can be used for many more traditions from around the world.  If you need to find out more, instead of heading to the library you can invite around a friend from another country and they can help your build up your scene of traditions from around the world.  This means that you can incorporate your project into play afternoon with friends.

When you are building up your traditions from around the world, don’t forget the different foods.  This is a fun way for children to learn new tastes, as well and seeing food as a part of play rather than just meal and snacks which they are given.

If you have older children they can also help with the more complicated parts of the picture, perhaps they could draw the Father Christmas, whose sack your toddler will fill with cut out pictures.  Also for older children, they will be able to better understand the different ways in which their friends spend the festive season.

Finally, when the 12th day of arrives and it is time to take down the decorations, you can keep your traditions from around the world and use it as a reminder for next year’s project.