Just had an email from a colleague asking if I knew of any great Christmas activities, I could only think of a couple of resources and ideas, so I thought you could help: a perfect opportunity for an ELTbites challenge which is:
Please describe one of your favourite Christmas activities. Post to your blog and send me the link, or simply leave as a comment here on ELT BITES
Look forward to your ideas 
Hi Richard,
Possibly a bit late for Xmas this time round (but this lesson can be adapted to suit birthday/anniversary/family get together etc), but here’s my effort – written out in detail for newbie teachers!
Four Xmas Presents for the English Relatives
http://www.tesoltraining.co.uk/blog/lesson-plan-for-new-tefl-teachers-4-presents-for-the-english-relatives/
Cheers! And Merry Xmas
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Hi, I have a lesson plan for the topic Christmas – http://eltkit.blogspot.com/2011/12/holidays.html – however, there are not many bite-size activities in this plan.
I think you can take one of the activities from this lesson plan and do something with it. For example, there is a great article from the Guardian about a Jewish woman who never celebrated Christmas. You can discuss it in the class. Then you can ask your students to write a short article about what they think of Christmas. Next, students switch their papers, read and leave their written comments to it.
If you have an opportunity you may show some Christmas videos.
Hi Oleg, thanks so much for this wil post on site tomorrow.
All the best. Richard
Dear Richard,
You’ve had a great idea creating this blog. I’m going to share with you the activity that I designed last year. I’m sure you’ll like it.
I’m eager to see what ohter teachers share, as I can’t use this one again.
This is the link: http://eslclassroomactivities.wordpress.com/2011/01/21/zen-christmas/#more-72
Regards,
Eva
Hi Eva
Thank you so much for sharing this idea, and yes I think it is great. What an interesting perspective on Christmas with so much opportunity for classroom discussion and language work. I’m sure this idea will be appreciated the world over.
Happy Zen Christmas to you
One I did the other day with my teenager class went like this (I asked them originally to find pictures of festivals/holidays and Christmas came up)
1. Ask Students to find a picture of Christmas on their iphones (mine have lots but it could be done with a collage of ELTpics).
2. Ask them to tell their partner how they feel, what they can smell, what they can see, what they are doing, why they like/dislike it.
3. Ask students to brainstorm vocabulary on these areas in their books in the form of a mindmap. Allow them to use online dictionaries if they like. Monitor and add collocations to the words they write, e.g. eat chocolate/pig out on chocolate
4. Ask student to share their mindmaps with each other and clarify new vocabulary.
5. in groups, students write a text on ‘Christmas in our country’. Alternatively they could write an email individually to a person in another country to explain Christmas in the country.
6. There are a number of extension activities you could include
a) Add some synonyms on the board for students to find in their texts.
b) Make or ask students to make comprehension questions for their texts and they answer them reading the texts.
c) Take new vocabulary from the texts and put them on cards, pass the cards around and ask students to explain the vocabulary on the card, find the context in a text, or play taboo.