13 Ways to Say Merry Christmas!

As units wind down to a close and final exams are taken for the nine weeks it becomes necessary to fill the time remaining---usually a day or two---with activities that matter. Children are focused on the vacation looming ahead of them and beginning brand new material is just a waste of time. I like to use the few extra class periods before the holidays practicing skills.

One activity has to do with languages across the world and a web search where students attempt to find how many different ways the words Merry Christmas can be said. Other celebrations during this time of the year can also be included such as Hannukah.

We end up making a huge collage of the different greetings and individual students map their county in two ways---individually and in relation to the rest of the world. A few facts are gathered as well regarding holiday traditions and presented to the class.

A twist on this activity involves a review of crucial material students will need to remember during Spring testing. Nowadays there are many sites that also provide ‘Merry Christmas’ translations in various Native American languages. It’s a great way to review the Native American regions we studied back in August and September.

1. Chinese (Cantonese): Gun Tso Sun Tan’Gung Haw Sun

2. Brazil: Feliz Natal

3. Arabic: Milad Majid

4. Croation: Sretan Bozic

5. Egyptian: Colo sana wimtom tiebeen

6. French: Joyeux Noel

7. Icelandic: Gledileg Jol

8. Greek: Kala Christouyenna

9. Japanese: Shinnen omedeto Kurisumasu Omedeto

10. Lithuanian: Linksmu Kaledu

11. Papua New Guinea: Bikpela hamamas blong dispela Krismas na Nupela yia I go long yu

12. Turkish: Noeliniz Ve Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun

13. Vietnamese: Chuc Mung Giang Sinh

See other 13s here