Christmas Charades: A Holiday Activity that your ELL's will love!
Looking for a lively Christmas activity that gets your ELLs speaking, listening, and moving? Christmas Charades turns holiday vocabulary practice into a fun, low-pressure speaking game.
Students act out a Christmas action while their classmates use complete sentences to guess what is happening. The movement makes new vocabulary memorable, and the repeated sentence practice helps learners use the present continuous with confidence.
Why Christmas charades work so well for ELLs
- Total physical response: Students connect a word with an action, helping language stick.
- Useful action verbs: Learners practice everyday verbs in a meaningful holiday context.
- Present continuous practice: Students describe what they can see using sentences such as “She is decorating the tree.”
- Natural speaking and listening: Every round gives students a reason to listen carefully and respond.
- Confidence through play: The game feels like a celebration rather than a worksheet.
What’s included in the Christmas Charades Set?
The Christmas Charades Set includes 30 different miming cards. Choose the colorful chevron design for a festive look or use the “less ink” white version when you want a printer-friendly option.
Before you play, quickly review the action verbs and model one example. You can also display a sentence frame so every learner has the language they need to join in:
“He is ______.”
“She is ______.”
“They are ______.”
How to play Christmas Charades
- Prepare the cards: Print, cut, and shuffle the cards. Place students in small teams or play as a whole class.
- Choose a card: One student secretly picks a card and keeps the action hidden.
- Mime the action: The student acts without speaking while classmates watch and listen for clues.
- Guess in a complete sentence: Encourage guesses such as “He is wrapping a present,” rather than one-word answers.
- Switch actors: Continue until everyone has had a chance to perform, guess, and use the sentence frame.
Easy ways to extend the lesson
- Pre-teach or review more action verbs before beginning the game.
- Ask students to add a detail to each sentence: “She is decorating the tree with red ornaments.”
- Have partners draw the action and write the matching sentence after each round.
- Use the cards as a warm-up, brain break, or end-of-term Christmas party activity.
- Finish with a quick exit ticket: students write one sentence using a verb from the game.
With movement, repetition, and plenty of laughter, Christmas Charades gives ELLs a memorable way to practice vocabulary and grammar together.
Print the cards, start acting, and let your students learn English by doing!
