All over the world, children associate Christmas with Santa Claus, his reindeer, snowmen and the North Pole. Christmas songs, movies and stories usually take place in the Northern Hemisphere, where Christmas happens in the winter. For this reason, children in Australia are aware of a concept of a White Christmas despite our festive period taking place in the middle of summer! Here are some tips to incorporate white Christmas fun in child care!
Incorporate White Christmas traditions
A White Christmas is a fantastic theme to integrate into child care centres this time of year. You can use fake snow, Santa figurines and paper crafts to turn the centre into a winter wonderland.
It is also the perfect time to get the children involved in decorating the space. There are countless Christmas art and craft activities that can be planned. Whether it be creating your own mini tree, Santa Claus, reindeer or candy cane out of paper, paddle pop sticks, paints, buttons, toilet rolls and cotton balls. The opportunities for creativity are endless.
You can also integrate sensory play into your Christmas-themed activities. Many of the children in the centre may not have seen or felt snow yet, but you could use crushed ice cubes in discussions about the chilly Christmas they often see depicted.
Using White Christmas for further learning
All this talk of snow and winter Christmases can be a great lead in to introduce the concept of seasons and how they differ in various parts of the world. You can also open up the conversation to geography and get out the world map to demonstrate where others will be rugged up for Christmas.
While children in America and Europe will experience a snowy white Christmas, the children of Australia will be accustomed to hot and sunny Christmas days on the beach. That doesn’t mean we can’t have a bit of fun exploring the concept of a White Christmas with children here in Australia! It will certainly make some of the movies and books about Christmas make a little more sense!
