5 Online Christmas Activities for ESL Classrooms to Get Students Talking

It’s just a few days until Christmas, and your online ESL classroom may be feeling both exciting and chaotic. To keep the atmosphere fun and engaging, while still meeting your learning goals, try some festive, low-pressure activities to lighten the mood and wrap up the year on a positive note!

Below are five ready-to-use online Christmas activities especially designed for online ESL teachers. These activities focus on communication, vocabulary, and interaction, so students aren’t just staring at worksheets but are using English in meaningful ways.

Whether your students celebrate Christmas or simply enjoy this joyful season, these activities can be adapted to be inclusive and culturally sensitive.

1) Would You Rather Christmas Edition

Best for: Speaking, conversation, critical thinking

Level: A2-C1

Prepare a list of holiday “Would you rather” questions and display them on slides or in the chat. Have students answer verbally, type in the chat, or use reaction buttons. You can also put students in breakout rooms to discuss their choices. Afterwards, encourage students to ask each other follow-up questions to have deeper conversations.

Examples:

Would you rather receive one big gift or ten small gifts?
Would you rather spend Christmas at home or travel somewhere new?
Would you rather eat only sweet food or only savoury food during the holidays?

For an additional challenge, ask students to create their own questions.

2) Virtual Christmas Show & Tell

Best for: Describing objects, storytelling

Level: A1-B2

Ask students to bring an item related to Christmas (or winter in general). It could be a decoration, a gift, a winter item or anything meaningful to them this holiday season. Prompt your students with questions such as:

What is it?
Who gave it to you?
Why is it special?

If a student is shy or prefers not to turn on their webcam (never force students to do this), they can show a photo instead and describe the item.

3) Christmas Taboo or Pictionary

Best for: New vocabulary, vocabulary review

Levels: A1-B1

Prepare a list of Christmas vocabulary and have students taking turns describing or drawing the words. Send each word privately in the chat so only one student sees it. They must give clues or draw, and the rest of the class guesses.

For lower-level learners, pre-teach the vocabulary with pictures and allow them to take notes before playing.

Words you can use:

Santa Claus
Reindeer
Decorations
Stocking
Wreath
Christmas tree

Feel free to turn this activity into a team challenge to increase engagement and excitement. Make sure to use a timer to keep the pace quick and ensure everyone gets a turn.

4) Christmas Role Plays

Best for: Real-life situations, fluency

Level: B1-C1

Give students short Christmas-themed role-play scenarios. Assign roles in breakout rooms and pop into the rooms briefly to check on progress. Rotate students around so they’re practicing with different partners.

Example scenarios:

Buying a last-minute Christmas gift
Visiting family for the holidays
Planning a Christmas dinner
Explaining Christmas traditions to a foreign friend.

Consider providing useful phrases beforehand to help lower-level learners. You can have groups perform their role-play for the class to encourage peer learning.

5) Write a Christmas Card

Best for: Writing, functional English

Level: A1-B1

Have students write a Christmas card or holiday message to a friend, family member, teacher, or even a stranger. Focus on the greetings, polite phrases, well-wishes, and simple sentence structure. You can have your students create digital cards using free online platforms, like Canva, and send them if they’d like.

Example holiday greetings: