December is the perfect time to bring fun, hands-on, and vocabulary-rich activities into your Core French classroom. Even beginner students can participate in Core French Christmas activities that combine language practice with festive cheer.
Here’s a mix of paper-based, digital, and interactive resources to make your holiday lessons engaging and stress-free.
🎄 Core French Christmas Speaking Activities
Boost student speaking confidence with interactive conversation tasks:
Christmas Chat Mat: A no-prep tool that provides French vocabulary related to Noël (sapin, cadeaux, Père Noël, bûche de Noël) and sentence starters. Students can practice mini-dialogues, partner surveys, or group discussions about their favorite holiday vocabulary.
Question du Jour Cards: Use these Christmas-themed bell work cards to spark short daily conversations. Students answer prompts like Quel est ton dessert préféré à Noël? or Qu’est-ce que tu veux pour Noël? in pairs or journals.
Core French Christmas Speaking Activities
These activities are perfect for beginners, focusing on high-frequency vocabulary while fostering spontaneous speaking practice.
✏️ Core French Christmas Writing & Coloring Activities
Even beginner learners can engage in hands-on, language-building tasks:
Color-by-Word Pages & Labeling Activities: Students color festive images and label objects in French (sapin, cadeaux, guirlande).
Christmas Ornament Craft: Students complete templates with prompts like:
Pour Noël j’aime manger…, Mon film de Noël préféré est…
They color, cut, and assemble personalized ornaments — perfect for decorating the classroom.Letter to Santa Craft: Students write a short French letter to Père Noël using vocabulary prompts, then decorate a pennant.
🎯 Core French Christmas Vocabulary Activities
French Christmas Escape Game: A beginner-friendly, team-based activity where students solve 7 festive puzzlesto save Christmas. Each task focuses on reading, decoding, and practicing French Christmas vocabulary like cadeaux, sapin, Père Noël, and bougie.
French Christmas Mime Cards: Students act out holiday-related verbs and vocabulary while classmates guess the word. A kinesthetic activity that reinforces present tense verbs and Christmas vocabulary.
🌟 Core French Christmas Cultural & Vocabulary Activities
Bring real-world French holiday experiences into your classroom with the Strasbourg Marché de Noël Virtual Field Trip:
Vocabulary in Context: Students encounter words like sapin de Noël, vin chaud, décorations, artisanat, and cadeaux while navigating the virtual market.
Interactive Observation: Students can describe what they see, label objects, or answer guided questions in French.
Optional Writing or Speaking Extension: Have students write a short paragraph or give a mini-presentation about their favorite part of the market, reinforcing both vocabulary and sentence structure.
This virtual field trip pairs perfectly with coloring, labeling, and chat mat activities, giving students a real-life context for the words they’re learning and engaging all levels, from beginners to advanced learners.
🖼️ Core French Christmas Art & Collaborative Projects
French Christmas Collaborative Posters: Students research and illustrate:
Christmas Markets in France (les marchés de Noël)
Legendary Christmas Figures (Père Noël, Saint Nicolas, Père Fouettard)
French Christmas Foods (la bûche de Noël, les treize desserts)
Beginners can focus on coloring and labeling, while advanced students research and write.
French Christmas Idioms Posters & Activities: Students explore idiomatic expressions and reinforce vocabulary through matching, sentence creation, and creative writing activities.
Christmas Paper Quilt: Students create quilt squares featuring festive illustrations, French vocabulary, and simple sentences. Combine squares for a classroom display celebrating creativity and language learning.
French Christmas Idioms Posters & Activities
💡 Tips for Differentiation
Beginners: Focus on coloring, labeling, and structured speaking/writing prompts.
Intermediate students: Add short writing or vocabulary-based research tasks.
Advanced students: Encourage independent stories, creative writing, or presentations using French Christmas vocabulary.
🎁 Wrap-Up
These Core French Christmas activities let you combine speaking, writing, coloring, crafts, vocabulary-building tasks, and virtual field trips while keeping your classroom festive and stress-free. Using ready-to-go resources like chat mats, collaborative posters, escape games, crafts, and the Strasbourg Virtual Field Trip, students of all levels can participate and have fun while mastering essential French Christmas vocabulary.
Explore the French Christmas Collaborative Poster Bundle.
🎄 Grab your FREE French Christmas cards here — a fun, no-prep way for students to color, write, and spread holiday cheer en français!