Culturally Inclusive Celebrations: Moving Beyond the Winter Holidays

Christina Cunningham introduces a culturally inclusive approach to teaching holidays year-round. The approach emphasizes year-round learning about different holiday traditions and their cultural meanings, so that all classroom students are represented. Parent volunteer opportunities integrate with this approach. Let’s explore this important approach.

In the schools of our childhoods, November would herald the arrival of handprint turkey crafts, corn cobs made of pony beads, and stories about the first Thanksgiving.

Not long after, we were likely to begin hearing holiday stories, perhaps celebrating “Christmas around the world” or marking the days on an Advent calendar. Along the way, we might read a book or two on Kwanzaa and make a cute dreidel craft to highlight Hanukkah before getting back to celebrating Christmas. 

While I was lucky to catch at least a glimpse of other holidays and cultures in my school, the reality is that the bulk of our November and December learning centered on Christmas, albeit secularly. 

An Inclusive Approach to Celebrating Holidays

How to celebrate the holidays is a prominent topic in teacher education programs and public schools. Approaches to celebrating holidays tend to differ from school to school or even classroom to classroom, and the decision-making process is typically based on the makeup of the student body or teacher preference. Some of the more common approaches include:

• Celebrating secular Christmas
• Highlighting Christmas traditions around the world
• Focusing on the “Winter Holidays,” i.e., Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and occasionally the Lunar New Year
• Avoiding the holidays altogether

While none of these approaches seeks to intentionally exclude students, a more nuanced approach can ensure that every child in your classroom feels equally acknowledged during the holidays.

Why celebrate holidays at all?

Every child has a unique background and culture, and each child interacts with that culture uniquely. Seeing their culture represented and respected in their world is crucial for building a positive sense of self-worth and self-esteem. Encountering the opposite naturally leads to the opposite impact.

This subtitle is a bit of a misnomer. Rather than celebrating holidays, instead focus on learning about them. Celebrating the holidays can become a sticky situation, particularly in public schools where religious teaching is not allowed. Learning about important celebrations, though, provides ample opportunities for children to practice academic skills while simultaneously exploring history and culture. Holidays are multi-faceted occasions, and children can explore how people celebrate them with traditions, food, and dress, as well as where and why. This allows every child in your care to see bits of their culture in your classroom without alienating any others. 

Thinking Beyond the Winter Holidays

I challenge you to think beyond the “Winter Holidays.” Religious and cultural groups celebrate holidays throughout the year, and teaching only about those that fall during November and December is limiting. Learning about celebrations year-round encourages students to think more deeply about the themes that unite different holidays, such as light, gathering together, sharing meals or gifts, etc. This also allows you to focus on holidays that acknowledge the struggles for freedom and justice in our nation’s history. Highlighting holidays like Indigenous People’s Day, Cesar Chavez Day, or Women’s Equality Day can lead to more dynamic, thoughtful discussions about topics of fairness and equity, with the added benefit of aligning closely with academic standards for social studies and persuasive writing. 

Developing a Holiday Policy

Faculty meetings and back-to-school planning days are excellent opportunities to develop policies surrounding celebrations. When teachers and school staff meet together, they bring the diversity of their own experiences with them. In these meetings, you might first discuss your prior strategies for teaching about the holidays and how students and families have responded. Then, you can share resources, including community contacts, teaching materials, useful websites, and educational videos. 

When creating a holiday policy, NAEYC writers Louise Derman-Sparks, Julie Olsen Edwards, and Catherine M. Goins suggest that you approach this through an “anti-bias lens.” Taking direction from the four goals of anti-bias education, they urge educators to consider how learning about the holidays will develop children’s sense of identity, diversity, justice, and activism. Holiday learning should also align with learning goals across subject areas, from exploring environmental science while celebrating Earth Day to teaching about fair shares while setting the table for a community meal.

Once policies are set, the team should decide how and by whom the policy will be communicated to parents. If it is a school-wide policy, it might be best for administrators to send the information out via the School Feed. You can also update the school calendar within School Signals to note the holidays being covered each month. If grade-level teams have developed policies for themselves, individual teachers might communicate the policy to families through their classroom news.

Communicating and Coordinating with Families

You can begin talking to families about the holidays even before school starts. Including questions like “Which holidays or special celebrations are important to your family?” or “Would you be willing to share any family or cultural traditions with our class?” in your back-to-school forms is a great place to start. Once you have decided which holidays to highlight, you can seek out family volunteers to contribute to a particular theme. This might look like bringing a traditional dish to share for snack time or bringing special decorations or stories to share with students. If parents are unwilling or unable to participate themselves, they might have connections with local elders or cultural leaders who could contribute instead. 

In any case, you should never put all the work onto your students’ families. While it is great to invite them to share how they experience and practice their cultural traditions, it’s not their job to educate you about them entirely.

Occasionally, you might have a family who does not want their child to take part in a particular lesson due to cultural or religious beliefs. I have found that early and open communication about my classroom’s holiday policy and emphasizing the goal of learning over celebrating avoids much of this. Most parents understand that it’s important for their children to learn about the diversity of their community and the world around them. If not, you can always give them the option of having their child opt out of the lessons. 

Please check out the resources below for further ideas on lesson planning, read-alouds, and inclusive practices in teaching and learning about the holidays! 

Inclusive Holiday Books

At Our Table by Patrick Hulse

Come and Join Us: 18 Holidays Celebrated All Year Long by Liz Kleinrock

Let’s Celebrate: Special Days Around the World by Kate DePalma

Lighting Our World: A Year of Celebrations by Catherine Ronclina and Jacqui Oakley

Our Favorite Day of the Year by A. E. Ali

Our Table by Peter H. Reynolds

What Do You Celebrate: Holidays and Festivals Around the World by Whitney Stewart

We Celebrate the Light by Jane Yolen and Heidi Stemple

Online Resources

Learning for Justice | @learningforjustice

Little Justice Leaders | @littlejusticeleaders

NIH Diversity Calendar

PBS Learning Media

Read Like a Rockstar | @readlikearockstarteaching

Teaching for Change | @teach_change