Task:

Welcome to the Christmas Around The World project! You will explore a country that you have probably never visited in order to learn how the people of that country celebrate Christmas. You will gather information so that you can make a poster and tell your classmates about it.

Procedure:

Your teacher will divide you into groups. Each group will be assigned one of the following countries to explore.

Australia

Iceland

Italy

Japan

Mexico

Each group will be given a poster board that you will use to display your answers. On your poster board draw a large cross to divide it into four rectangles. You will place the information you collect in the rectangles. Under each question you will find links to the sites where you will find the answers to the questions.

Research Questions:

1. Who is the gift bringer? (Put your answers in box #1 on your poster.)

• What is his or her name?
• What does he or she look like? Draw or print a picture.
• When does he or she bring presents?
• How does he or she gives the presents?

Australia

Iceland

Italy

Japan

Mexico

You could also try:

Santa’s Other Names

2. What foods do they eat to celebrate? (Put your answers in box #2.)

• Describe the foods and draw pictures of them. Be sure to label the foods.
• Do they have special reasons for eating these foods? If they do, list the reasons.

Australia

Iceland

Italy

Japan

Mexico

3. What are their Christmas customs? (Put your answers in box #3.)

• Draw pictures of two customs or symbols that they use for decoration. Label the drawings.

Australia

Iceland

Italy

Japan

Mexico

4. How do they say "Merry Christmas"? (Put your answer in box #4.)

How "Merry Christmas" is said in Many Different Languages

Be prepared to share your research with the class.

5. Create an Acrostic Poem about your country. (Put this on the back of your project)

An Acrostic poem provides a simple framework to write a poem.
The first letter of each line of the poem starts with the letter running down the page:

For all Christmas
Usually is the
Nicest of times.

Write one using the name of your country written down the page - the theme of the poem should be about Christmas in your country.

Evaluation:

When your group has finished evaluate your project by asking these questions. Remember that you will be graded as a group.

1. Did you divide your poster into four rectangles to display your answers?
2. Did you answer all the questions fully?
3. Did you report you research to the class?

Rubric

	3 points	2 points	1 points	0 points
1. Poster	Correctly divided, neat, info in correct rectangle	Correctly divided, readable, info in rectangles but not necessarily correct	Incorrectly divided or messy, info in rectangles but not necessarily correct	Incorrectly divided, messy, info not in correct rectangle
2. Answers to questions	Full, correct answers to all questions	Full, correct answers to most questions	Partial or incorrect answers to questions	Missing answers to 2 or more questions
3. Report to class	All information given, well presented	Most information given, well presented	Some information given, adequately presented	Little information given, or poorly presented

Conclusion:

Now that you have explored different Christmas customs, as you celebrate your Christmas think about the different ways people all over the world will be celebrating theirs.

Extension: When your group is completely finished you might want to try one of the following links!

Create a Christmas Village - This paper project once completed will result in five free standing three dimensional buildings.
Ben & Jerry's New England Village Paper Cut-Out Craft
Read The Night Before Christmas
Gift tags to color and cut
Make Paper Snow Flakes #1, #2, #3
Christmas Cards #1, #2, #3,
Coloring Pages #1, #2, #3, #4,
Holiday Word Find #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7
Holiday Mazes #1, #2, Create your own maze
Print & Play Games

Resources:

Australia
Christmas Around the World-Christmas in Australia
http://www.the-north-pole.com/around/australia.html
Santa's Net-Christmas in Australia
http://www.santas.net/australianchristmas.htm

Iceland
Yule in Iceland-Yule Symbols
http://www.islandia.is/~gardarj/yule31.htm
Merry Christmas-Christmas-Food
http://rvik.ismennt.is/~neyglob/verk/comenius/xmas/food.html
Yule in Iceland-Jólasveinarnir Yuletide Lads
http://www.islandia.is/~gardarj/yule5.htm

Italy
Christmas Around theWorld-Christmas in Italy
http://www.the-north-pole.com/around/italy.html
Christmas in Italy
http://www.uk.umea.se/grubbero/comenius/grassi/christmas.htm

Japan
Christmas Around the World-Christmas in Japan
http://www.the-north-pole.com/around/Japan.html
Santa's Net-Christmas in Japan
http://www.santas.net/japanesechristmas.htm
Christmas.com-World View-Christmas in Japan
http://christmas.com/worldview/eastasia/japan.html

Mexico
Holiday Traditions-Mexico-"Feliz Navidad"
http://www.californiamall.com/holidaytraditions/traditions-mexico.htm
Christmas Around the World-Christmas in Mexico
http://www.peders.com/christmas/mexico.htm
Mexico Connect-Feliz Navidad-Making Merry in Mexico
http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/christmas.html

All
How "Merry Christmas" is said in Many Different Languages
http://santas.net/howmerrychristmasissaid.htm
CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS AROUND THE WORLD
http://www.bconnex.net/~mbuchana/realms/christmas/tradindx.html

Created by:
Cindi Bolton, Library Media Specialist
Copyright © 2000 [McKinney ISD]. All rights reserved.
Revised: November 26, 2007