Resources

• Christmas Flash Cards
• Small boxes
• Plastic Spiders (Amazon #Ad)

How to play

Class Size: whole
Set up: Place four or five small cardboard boxes in front of the class. Place a small plastic spider in one of them. Go through the Xmas flash cards - whoever identifies them can have a chance to open one of the "presents." If there is nothing inside the class is "safe." Continue this until one of the students opens the present with the spider inside, then chase them around the room a la ghost game / spider game.
Amazon

• some small boxes

Resources

• Christmas Flash Cards
• 2 Small Bells (Amazon #Ad)

How to play

Class size: whole class
Set up: Two lines Two teams (Girls vs. Boys) etc.
One team has the Reindeer card and the other team has the Candy cane card. They pass the card down the line and back up the line until the teacher says stop. The two bells are positioned in the middle between the two teams. After the teacher has said stop then he/she says Merry Christmas in which the two kids holding the cards race to the middle to ring the bell. The first one to ring the bell and identify the card that they are holding gets one point for his/her team.
Amazon

Resources

• Christmas Flash Cards
• Christmas Tree Ornaments (Amazon #Ad)

How to play

Level: Would work well with all age levels.
Variation of a circle pass game using realia. Buy a bunch of Xmas decorations at a ¥100 shop and a gift box tied with a ribbon. Inside the box put a Xmas decoration relating to the vocab and pass the present around the circle. When the music stops, the child with the present opens it, takes out the decoration, correctly identifys it, then puts the decoration on a tree drawn on the board. Get all students to repeat the vocab. Pretty basic, but they loved opening the present and putting the decoration on the tree.
Amazon:

Resources

• Christmas Flash Cards, although any will work

How to play

Class size: whole class
Set up: If possible, it would be good to use coloured tape to put lines down on the ground to indicate where the teams should line-up.

Divide the class into two teams (or more if a large class) Have them sit down in lines. Give each team a name, like 'bell team', 'star team' etc. IF you have a long seika class, let the kids decide their own team name.

Model the game by joining one of the teams and stand at the front of the line. Choose a card and then have the kids say 3-2-1 GO! before you start to pass the card. Model the passing over your head, then next kid passes between legs, then over head then under legs etc. until you get to the last kid in the line. Encourage him to run to the front and hand you the card. Ask him what it is, and don't award any points or celebrate until he (or his team) shout out the answer. Get him to sit at the front of the line when the round has finished.

With the teams standing in their lines, shuffle the cards and then everyone says 3-2-1 GO! Pass a card to the front member of both (or all if more than one) teams. Give the team that correctly identifies the card a point and then encourage the entire class to repeat the vocab. Repeat.

Resources

• Flash Cards

How to play

Have all the students sit in a circle. Then give one card to a student, for example candy cane, and get the students to start passing the card around the circle. Once the kids get the hang of it, teach them to pass the card whilst music is playing and to stop when the music stops. The student who has the card when the music stops stands up, and the class is to ask him/her “What do you want for Christmas?”. The student holding the card should respond “I want a/an ……….”.

Resources

• Flash Cards

How to play

Time: 10 minutes
Receptive Language: ‘Where is Santa?’
Game Explanation: Move all the students to one side of the room. Put all the Christmas FC face down at the other end of the room. Have groups of 3-5 children line up and race down to the other side of the room and energetically flip the cards over until one child finds Santa. Give that student a high five or something to that effect. It is a good idea to get the children who have finished to sit in a different area to those still waiting to have a turn. That way you can easily tell who has and hasn’t had a turn. Play until everyone has had turn.