Though most American kindergartners know about Christmas and Hanukkah, people around the world celebrate many other holidays during the winter months.
While these holiday traditions vary across different cultures, most have one thing in common: candles! Candles and lamps are major symbols in several religious and cultural practices, especially for winter celebrations. You can introduce your students to these diverse traditions with this activity adapted from The GIANT Encyclopedia of Monthly Activities that incorporates several winter holidays.
I’m a Holiday Candle
Beforehand:
- Talk to the children about the holidays they celebrate in the winter
- Once all the children have shared, introduce them to some holidays they aren’t familiar with, like Kwanzaa, Diwali, Las Posadas, or Hanukkah. Christmas, Kwanzaa, Las Posadas, and Hanukkah all incorporate candles in their tradition, and Diwali features old-fashioned oil lamps
- If you have a book on winter holidays around the world, read it aloud to the class
What to Do:
1. Sing the following song while performing the appropriate gestures:
I’m a Christmas candle (stand, hands above head as it they were a flame)
Growing shorter you can see (bend down)
Melting all my wax (bend some more)
Till there’s nothing left of me (go down to the floor)
2. Repeat with verses for the other holidays listed:
I’m a Hanukkah candle…
I’m a Kwanzaa candle…
I’m a Las Posadas candle…
I’m a Diwali lamp…
Author(s)Maureen Murphy, Kathy Charner
Ashleigh Craven
Ashleigh Craven has a decade and a half of diverse category experience from agency communications to athletic apparel to automotive to education, developing and executing communication strategies in both traditional and social media. She has supported national product launches and corporate events for the likes of Soffe, Buick, Chevrolet, Wake Forest University , Kaplan, and others. She has an BA from the University of Michigan in English and Communication Studies and an MA from Wake Forest University, where she focused her studies on argumentation and presidential rhetoric and speechwriting. She served as director of marketing for Gryphon House from 2017- 2020.
