To help with your classroom celebrations, here are some of our favorite websites, games & activities!

Websites:
Kaboose
Helium
Spoonfu
apples4theteacher
Moms Who Think
Pinterest  

Games & Activities (by season/holiday)
Note: No crafts are listed for older children/upper grades because they seem to prefer playing games.  
Winter/Holiday Games

For Younger Children/Grades Pre-K, Kindergaten & 1st 
*Snowball Toss: Hang a cheap artificial wreath from the ceiling and have the children toss "snowballs" through it.  "Snowballs" are small bags of mini-marshmallows.  The non-Ziploc kind work the best and you can either use a twist tie that you can cut down or ribbon to tie off the bags and trim the baggie edges as needed.
*Wreath Toss: Make wreath rings out of paper plates and put out a bunch of prizes.   The kiddos throw 3 wreaths and got to keep the prize that they landed on.
*Roll A Snowman: Make the parts of a snowman correspond with a number on the dice and the kiddos roll the dice until they build their snowman...so if you roll a 1 you get the head a 2 you get the scarf...etc. Kind of like Cootie the board game.
*Fill the Tree: Each child gets a paper tree with the numbers from one to 12 on it and a marker of some sorts (peppermints work well)...they take turns rolling the dice and filling their tree. The first one to fill the tree wins
*Pin the Nose on Rudolph: Pin the Nose on Rudolph Sign (Print and hang from ceiling above station.)
*Pass the Candy Cane: They have to pass the candy cane to the next person using pencils not their hands without dropping it
*Mitten Race: Each kiddo gets a piece of candy that needs unwrapped (a hershey kiss for example).The class is broken into two teams. Each team gets a pair of mittens. The first one in line has to put on the mittens, open their candy, eat it, pass the mittens to the next player who has to open his candy...so on down the line to see who finishes first.
*Santa Says: Like just like Simon Says except for you use the name "Santa" instead

For Older Children/Grades 2-5 (adjust level of difficulty accordingly for age group)
Christmas Minute to Win It 
Note: All of these games must be accomplished in 60 seconds!  

Create stations for a selection of games from below.  Give each student a score card.  Divide the children amongst the stations and begin play with an adult being the primary timekeeper.  1 minute goes mighty fast so you can process many children through several games in a short amount of time and still have time for snacks!

*Christmas Ball: Christmas Ball is based on the regular Minute to Win It game called Egg Roll.  To play, you must use a gift-wrapped box (about the size of a shirt box) as a fan to move a round Christmas ornament across the floor and into a marked square.  The box must not touch the ornament while the game is in play.  You can vay the distance that the ornament must be fanned depending on the age of the children playing.

*Do You Hear What I Hear?:  
Set Up: Take 7 (or less depending on the age of the children playing) gift-wrapped boxes of the same size and place small jingle bells in each of them.  Boxes should contain the following number of bells: 5, 10, 15, 20 25, 30 and 35.  Place the closed boxes on a table.  

To Play: The contestant must arrange the boxes in order by the number of bells they contain, from smallest to largest.  Contestants can pick up and shake the boxes, but the must not look inside.
*Snowball Toss: Contestants take large marshmallows and toss them through a hanging wreath into a bucket while standing behind a designated line.  The goal is 10 marshmallows in the bucket in 60 seconds!
*Christmas Nutstacker:  Slide large metal nuts off of a candy cane one at a time and build an 8-story tower.  Note: This is quite difficult!  Decrease the level of difficulty by decreasing the # of nuts.
*Oh Christmas Tree: The contestant will use 36 plastic cups to erect a stumpless Christmas tree structure (pyramid).  Once built, the player will deconstruct it by sliding the cups down diagonally creating a single stack.

Decrease the level of difficulty by decreasing the # of rows 
36 cups = 8 rows
28 cups = 7 rows
21 cups = 6 rows 

Christmas/Holiday Crafts
Ideal for Younger Children/Grades Pre-K, Kindergarten & 1st
*Fingerpaint a String of Lights (Christmas Lights Art Project): Draw a string on construction paper with a black sharpie...the kiddos stamp their finger along the string to look like lights. Use all different colors . You could use paint or stamp pads.
Christmas Lights Art Station Sign (Print and hang above station.)

*Stain Glass Holiday Shapes (tree, candy cane, wreath, etc.): Just make the outer shape what you want (so that the center is open).  Glue wax paper in the middle.  Have small squares of tissues paper in all different colors and glue them to the wax paper.

*Cotton Ball Santa Hat: Have the kiddos cut a triangle out of red paper and glue cotton balls along the bottom edge and one on the top.

*Reindeer Hoofprint: Have the kiddos trace foot (in shoe) on a dark brown piece of paper and cut out. Fold a light brown piece of paper in half trace one hand...when they cut it out they will have 2 hands. Put the hands on the top of the foot (like antlers) put a red pom pom on the bottom for the nose. Glue two googlie eyes on.

*Reindeer Food: Set out Zip-loc baggies (sandwich size) with a Reindeer Food poem label on the outside, bowls of oats, red glitter and gold glitter with appropriate sized scoops (1/4 cup for oats & tablespoon for glitters)--you can get cheap scoops & spoons at the Dollar Tree--and have the chidren work their way down the line filling their bags.  Two lines work well so that 2 children can assmble their bags at a time.  (Remind them to sprinkle their Reindeer Food outside of their house on Christmas Eve!) ;)

See attached for Reindeer Food Station sign, Reindeer Food baggie labels, and Reindeer Food Station Steps Tent Cards!
Reindeer Food Station Sign (Print and hang from ceiling above station.)
Reindeer Food Recipe Step Tent Cards (Print, cut & fold in half so each tent card stands in front of each bowl)
Reindeer Food Labels (Print and adhere to baggies)

Valentine's Day Games
*Toss the Heart in the Bucket: Have a bucket on the floor at a desired distance. Give the kiddos plastic hearts or erasers to toss into the bucket. Each kiddo gets the chance to toss three.
*Heart Tic Tac Toe: Make a tic tac toe board on a piece of art paper shaped as a heart...make bean bags out of felt and corn (sew together) have the kiddos try to make tic tac toe with a partner...or by themselves
*Fill the Bucket Race: Have kiddos race on two teams to see who can fill the bucket at the end with candy hearts the fullest in a given time...I used a beach bucket to fill and a shovel to carry the hearts down
*Charades...tape a valentine word to a childs back...they show it to the class...the class gives them clues to figure out the word without telling them the word...
*Bingo using Conversation Hearts
*Sorting and graphing candy hearts by color or saying

*Minute To Win It Valentine's Day Themed Games

1. Converation Heart Shuffle: Give the kids two plates one has hearts and one is empty.  They get 2 pencils. They have one minute to see how many hearts they can move from one plate to the next using only the pencils.
2. Heart-A-Stack: Give the kids a small cup filled with candy hearts, between 10 & 20 depending on their age. They have one minute to see who can stack the tallest tower of candy hearts without it falling.
3. Toss the Marshmallow: Players need to be 3 steps back from a small cup and toss the marshmallows into the cup.  See who can can toss the most marshmallows into the cup in a minute.
4. Cupid's Arrows:

You will need:
- 1 box of wide straws--so that Q-tips will fit through easily
- 1 box of Q-tips
- 2 large bowls or baskets (heart-shaped are cute and can usually be found at the $ store at this time of year)
- Masking tape

Divide the group into 2 teams. Place a heart-shaped bowl or basket in front of each team and place some tape about 2 feet back from each teams bowl. Each team member needs a straw and the team needs a large pile of arrows (Q-tips). Tell the "Cupids" they have one minute to get as many "arrows" into their heart as possible. To do this you must place the straw in your mouth, load it with an "arrow," and then blow the "arrow" out the end of the straw towards the heart bowl. The team with the most arrows through the heart wins.  (Note: You can have 2 members from each team go at one time so as to speed up the game if you are short on time.)

Valentine's Day crafts
* trace hand and forearm onto paper with brown crayon. It becomes the tree. Put foam heart stickers all around it to become the leaves.
* take a toliet paper roll and bend the end into the shape of a heart . The kiddos can use this as a stamp to dip and paint and randomly stamp a paper
*Have 4 small squares cut out of pink or red paper the kiddos fold in half and cut hearts out of them. If they glue them on paper with all 4 of the bottom of the hearts facing in to each other it will make a flower...they can draw the stem and make heart leaves out of green paper to add to the stem
*cut out hearts and have them hole punched on each side. The kiddos can take a peice of yarn and weave four or five hearts together so they end up side by side. They can decorate them with stickers when done.
*Doilie heart man...take a doilie and add a heart head that the kiddos cut out of folded paper on to the top of the heart doilie. Add eyes and a mouth to cut out heart. Accordian fold paper for arms and legs and glue onto doilie