Reasons to Love Christmas

This intermediate Christmas lesson plan helps B1 students explore holiday traditions while practicing essential conversation skills and building vocabulary around kindness and celebration. The centerpiece is an engaging one-minute video that asks students to think about why Christmas matters beyond presents and food. Through matching activities, comprehension questions, opinion debates, and personal reflection tasks, learners discuss their own cultures and what makes holidays feel special. It’s an ESL lesson that works beautifully in December but also teaches vocabulary and expressions students can use year-round. Great for classes that want something festive but substantial.

Teaching guide

Lead-in
This Christmas lesson plan begins with six warm-up questions that explore holiday celebrations and personal connections to the season. Students discuss whether Christmas is celebrated in their country, what they enjoy most about the holiday season, and whether people behave differently in December. The conversation moves through family traditions, typical Christmas foods, and what makes any holiday feel special. This serves as a communicative opening stage within an intermediate ESL lesson plan, allowing learners to share cultural perspectives while activating vocabulary related to celebrations and traditions. The lead-in works well for adult learners in a holidays lesson plan.

Speaking
Students examine eight images showing common Christmas traditions: wrapped gifts, gingerbread cookies, wreaths, festive food tins, mistletoe, Santa Claus, ornaments, and decorated Christmas trees. They identify which traditions exist in their own country and explain how people celebrate. Following the image discussion, learners complete a connected speaking task where they link four sentence starters into a natural flow: “In December, people are usually…” / “For me, the best part of Christmas is…” / “In my country, people celebrate Christmas by…” / “I think the spirit of Christmas means…” This structured fluency activity provides scaffolding for B1 students while encouraging personalized communication about cultural customs, making it an effective component of an ESL Christmas lesson.

Vocabulary
In this stage, students work with eight key expressions related to holiday spirit and behavior through a matching activity. The target vocabulary includes “share joy,” “grumpy,” “make someone feel loved,” “think of others,” “generous,” “get away with something,” “spirit of Christmas,” and “wonder.” Students match each phrase with its definition, preparing them for the upcoming video input. This vocabulary pre-teaching removes barriers to comprehension and ensures the lesson remains accessible at intermediate level. The words chosen reflect both Christmas-specific language and everyday expressions, making this vocabulary work practical beyond the holiday context within an ESL lesson plan for adults.

Video, Comprehension, Speaking
Students watch a one-minute video titled “More to Value this Christmas” featuring a young girl reflecting on what makes the holiday season special. Before viewing, learners answer three preview questions to establish purpose: What is the video about? Is it focused on gifts, food, or feelings? How does the girl feel about Christmas? During the first viewing, students focus on general understanding. The second viewing supports four multiple-choice comprehension questions that progress from identifying the main message to recognizing specific details about generosity, changing behavior, and holiday traditions. After checking answers, students discuss the video’s perspective on Christmas spirit and whether people truly become less grumpy and more generous during December. This listening component fits naturally into a B1 Christmas lesson plan, combining comprehension skills with opinion-based discussion.

Practice, Vocabulary Practice
The practice section includes two activities. First, students match sentence halves from the video to reconstruct key messages about Christmas spirit, such as “Maybe it’s that everyone’s a bit less grumpy” and “We love Christmas so much because we all want to make each other feel more loved.” This reinforces both listening comprehension and the logical flow of ideas presented in the video. Second, learners complete a vocabulary practice task where they rephrase eight sentences using the target expressions from earlier in the lesson. For example, transforming “My sister gives everyone small gifts and helps a lot” using the word “generous,” or rephrasing “In December, people pay more attention to what other people need” with “think of others.” This stage develops lexical flexibility and ensures students can actively use new language, essential components of an effective intermediate ESL lesson.

Agree or Disagree, Name 3
Students engage with four opinion statements about Christmas, discussing whether they agree or disagree: “Christmas was more exciting when I was a child,” “Watching Christmas movies is an important part of the holiday,” “People are kinder at Christmas than at other times of the year,” and “Adults should try to keep the same Christmas traditions they had as children.” This encourages debate and critical thinking within the Christmas lesson plan. Following the discussion, learners complete a “Name 3” fluency activity where they quickly generate three examples for five categories: places to visit at Christmas, Christmas movies or songs, things that stress you at Christmas, gifts you’ve received before, and ways to ruin Christmas dinner. This fast-paced speaking task promotes spontaneous language use and adds an element of fun to the lesson plan, suitable for B1 conversation practice.

Homework
To conclude this lesson plan about Christmas, students write five small, kind actions they can do this week to “share joy” during the holiday season. They think about simple gestures for family, friends, or their community that demonstrate the true spirit of Christmas discussed throughout the lesson. This homework task encourages personal reflection and connects classroom learning with real-world behavior. It also reinforces the lesson’s core message about generosity and thinking of others, making it a meaningful takeaway assignment for an intermediate Christmas ESL lesson. Students return to class prepared to discuss what they did and how people responded, creating natural conversation material for the following session.