Christmas is a huge holiday that a lot of your students are sure to celebrate, so why not decorate your classroom bulletin board to reflect their excitement and to help improve the holiday mood?
However, it can be tricky sometimes to get the creative juices flowing.
So, if you are looking for some inspiration when it comes to Christmas-themed ideas for your classroom bulletin board, then this is the place for you. We are going to jump into fifteen different but equally amazing ideas for some Christmas themed bulletin boards.
Take a look at the list below and choose your favorites so you can decorate your classroom with enthusiasm and fun, allowing your students to feel more excited about the upcoming holidays!
S-elfie!
A lot of students love to see themselves represented up on your bulletin board as it can make them feel like they are part of a larger team with their classmates and get the opportunity to show a part of their personality.
If you want to make this bulletin board more Christmas-themed, then you can decorate your bulletin board with some elf selfies – or s-elfies!
Print out enough Elf on the Shelf bodies for each of your students and take a picture of their faces.
While you are decorating the background and border of your bulletin board (you can use any kind of colors, but Christmas colors like red, green, white or blue works best), your students can color in their elf and pour their personality into it.
When they are done, they can cut their elf out, you can stick their face over the elf’s face, and then add the finished product to your bulletin board.
By the end of it, you will have each of your students represented on your bulletin board for a Christmas-themed image of unity!
Christmas Lights To Lighten Up Your Day
A huge part of the iconography of Christmas is Christmas lights so try making giant paper Christmas lights to ‘hang’ across your bulletin board.
In each Christmas light bulb, why not write something that will brighten up your students and bring some ‘light’ to their day.
These little notes can include jokes, inspirational comments and quotes, or sayings that can help encourage your students to be kind and grateful.
This perfectly fits in with the true meaning of Christmas and brings a lot of color to your classroom.
Every Snowflake Is Unique
With Christmas comes winter, and with winter comes lots of snow and ice (depending on where you live).
Snowflakes each have their own unique structure which makes them all completely different from each other.
However, all snowflakes (while different) are all equal so why not spread that message to your students by making them aware of what makes them unique and individual?
Make some paper snowflakes with your students and ask them what makes them proud to be unique. This trait could be a physical feature, a personality trait, a certain like or hobby, or a talent they have.
On each snowflake make a note of your student’s name and what makes them unique, then use them to decorate your stunning bulletin board.
Make Your Own Baubles
Another great way to represent your students on your bulletin board and get them involved in the decoration, then why not give them all a stencil of a bauble and ask them to decorate it in any way they want.
Your students can design their bauble in any way they want. They can make them Christmas themed, or related to something they enjoy like music or Spider-Man.
Either way, each bauble will perfectly encapsulate your student’s personality and make them proud to see their hard work up on your bulletin board.
The background can be designed to look like a Christmas tree and each bauble will look like it is ‘hanging’ from your class’s own personal Christmas tree.
The Advent Calendar Bulletin Board
The advent calendar is a popular method used by many to count down the days to Christmas Day and each day unlocks something new.
The most popular advent item is chocolate or candy, while some fancier advent calendars offer up soaps, cheeses or gadgets.
Using your bulletin board, you can make a giant advent calendar and behind each date, you can include a joke, a riddle or a funny story that is sure to make your students laugh.
The jokes could even be Christmas-themed too, and this will brighten up your student’s day and get them excited for Christmas.
When it comes to decorating your bulletin board, use big red or green envelopes and stick them to the wall, perhaps even sealing them with traditional wax and writing their number on them with a gold glitter pen.
Each day, you or one of your students can open the advent and read out the note to the class to set up the day.
Our Christmas Gifts
If there is one thing most of your students are looking forward to when it comes to Christmas is the presents. Kids love being spoiled with gifts and toys, so they are sure to have an idea in mind about what kind of present they want for Christmas.
So, ask your students what they all want for Christmas and have them draw or write down what they would like to receive. Turn folded sheets of colored paper into ‘presents’ with big bows and when unfolded, glue down your students’ response.
When you then attach the present to your bulletin board, you can then lift up the present’s ‘top’ and see the gift underneath. Each present can even have a label with your students’ names on them.
This activity is sure to excite your students for Christmas.
Dear Santa…
Another tradition of Christmas is for your students to send their Christmas wishes to Santa Claus. This is normally in the form of a letter, so why not ask your students to make a ‘first draft’ of their letters to Santa so you can use them to decorate your bulletin board?
Decorate your bulletin board with a traditional snow-scene, with an old-fashioned red English mailbox, and then stick your student’s letters to Santa on the bulletin board.
Alternatively, you could place them in open envelopes and attach the envelopes to the bulletin board, allowing your students to take the letters out to read and then neatly return them.
Seasons Greetings
Christmas cards are another big part of Christmas and nothing is more cute and personal than receiving a home-made card. You can introduce your students to making Seasons Greetings cards by asking them to make one to the rest of their classmates.
Each card can then be attached to your bulletin board so the rest of the class can read the card from their fellow classmates, plus they also get to see their artistic skills proudly displayed for the class.
This may even encourage your students to make more Christmas cards for their family members and improve their creativity.
The True Meaning Of Christmas
Preschoolers are sure to be fascinated with all the materialistic things of Christmas – the presents, the food, the lights, the decorations, etc.
However, it is important to relate to them the true meaning of Christmas. To help them understand the holiday spirit, you can plan a lesson around understanding the themes of Christmas including kindness, generosity, joy, happiness, gratitude, etc.
To translate this over to your bulletin board, you can decorate the background with snowflakes or stars and use big, bright letters to leave the important points of the lesson on the bulletin board so your students can remind themselves about the true meaning of Christmas.
A Nativity Scene
You may also want to teach your preschoolers all about the origin of Christmas. Linking it to any bible studies you want to promote, it’s also important that your students understand where Christmas comes from even if their families do not celebrate Christmas for religious reasons.
You can transform your bulletin board into a giant nativity scene with a large star at the top, a stable, cartoon animals and people that represent the important figures in the story of the nativity.
You can tell your students the story of the nativity while using your bulletin board as an image of reference so they can understand what happened during the first Christmas.
Frosty The Snowman
Another icon of Christmas are snowmen and you may want to turn your bulletin board into a winter wonderland with lots of different snowmen. Use light blue paper as a background and even try sticking lots of cotton onto it as an enriching board for your preschoolers to touch.
You can either have your students help you design lots of individual snowmen to stick onto your bulletin board or make your own.
You can use lots of different textures like foil, crinkled card, bottle caps for eyes/coal, fabric, etc. This will make your bulletin board into a wonderful touch board for your preschoolers to touch to feel lots of different textures and stimulate them.
March Of The Reindeer
Preschool is a great time to tell your students all about the best Christmas stories and one of the most popular stories is the tale of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.
However, Santa Claus has a lot of reindeer and it may be tricky for your preschoolers to keep up with all the names and which reindeer is which.
So, you can try turning your bulletin board into an informational board all about Santa’s reindeer. You can put up a portrait of each reindeer, write their names in big colorful letters, and even get creative with their hobbies, personalities and favorite foods.
Rudolph can take center stage with his red nose and you can even write the song lyrics all around him so your students can follow them along as they sing.
You’re A Mean One, Mr Grinch
Another great story to tell your preschoolers at Christmas is How The Grinch Stole Christmas!
Because your students love the tale, why not turn your bulletin board into a huge celebration of the book. You can draw a giant Grinch, Max the Dog, the Whos in Whoville and even include some of your students’ favorite passages.
Use lots of colors and perhaps ask your students to draw their favorite scenes from the book to include on the bulletin board!
If Santa Got Stuck Up The Chimney
When Santa Got Stuck Up The Chimney is a popular Christmas song that your students are sure to know well, but it would be interesting to find out what they would do if they discovered Santa stuck down their chimney.
Call 911? Help him out? Take the presents and run?
Ask your students what they would do and write down their ideas. On your bulletin board, make a giant Santa stuck down the chimney (either with his feet sticking upwards or with his big belly blocking the way and a shocked expression on his face).
Around Santa, write in big letters all the answers your students gave you.
This is a fun and quirky idea that you won’t often see, meaning that it will make your classroom more special and definitely amuse your students every morning.
All Of Our Favorite Things
And finally, why not decorate your bulletin board with lots of colorful images of your students’ favorite things about Christmas.
Presents are sure to be one of the most popular answers, but perhaps also include snowmen, Christmas trees, hot chocolate, gingerbread, cookies, mistletoe, Christmas lights, etc.
There are lots of ideas to include and you can create a large, colorful collage of all of your students’ favorite Christmas-themed things!
Conclusion
So, those were fifteen different and fun ideas for Christmas-themed bulletin boards!
Some ideas require more work than others, and some can even include your students’ efforts so they can feel like part of a team and feel proud to see their hard work represented on the bulletin board too.
So, whichever idea you like best, pick one and have fun decorating your bulletin board!
Hi, my name is Helena Waters and I was a teacher for 40 years before retiring last year.
During my time as a teacher I dedicated the majority of it to making classrooms as fun as possible, with educational parties, fun activities, and low cost entertainment that made the children excited about learning.
I taught children of all ages, from preschoolers to high school students. Now, with the pandemic having uprooted everything that children once knew about school and learning, I think that the need for my ideas is bigger than ever.
That is why I created School Sparks, a place in which I can write down and share all of my ideas on how to get students excited about going to school again. I hope that you’ll find some useful within a school setting, even at home too!
