Virtual Classroom Christmas Party Ideas

With a combination of remote, in-person and hybrid learning, teachers are getting creative with keeping their virtual students engaged and connected with their classmates during the holiday season. Finding virtual holiday games and activities that are the perfect balance of educational and fun can be a challenge. Here’s a list of my favorite virtual classroom Christmas party ideas that will help put your little learners in the holiday spirit even from a distance!

VIRTUAL CLASSROOM CHRISTMAS PARTY FESTIVE WEAR

Prior to your event, send out a virtual invite asking your students to wear their festive gear. They might don a favorite holiday outfit, an ugly sweater or a festive headband. This will help set the stage for a truly magical virtual classroom Christmas party!

VIRTUAL CLASSROOM CHRISTMAS PARTY SCAVENGER HUNT

A scavenger hunt is a virtual classroom Christmas party idea that is engaging and interactive for your students. Challenge them to find items around their home that meet a certain condition. I like to play three rounds with four challenges. I make sure to review academic skills as we play, so each round has two math and two literacy challenges, as well as a clean up slide.

The students will find something in their home for each challenge slide. Then, each student will share the item they found. Choose just a few students for each slide. Once those students have shared, the entire class can hold up the item they found for that challenge. After the round is complete, the class will be instructed to put away their items.

VIRTUAL I SPY

Another game you can play virtually is “I Spy.” Start the game by saying, “I spy with my little eye,” and describe one of your students. You could also describe something in the background of someone’s video thumbnail, and the class will try to guess who or what it is. Here’s an example: I spy with my little eye someone wearing a red shirt. Continue to give clues until they class has guessed correctly. You could also choose students to have a turn to be “the spy.”

GUESS WHO

Virtual “Guess Who” is a fun way to build oral language skills. Share your screen via Zoom, Google Meet or any other video conferencing platform. Read the first clue to the students. Have the students name the pictures that do not match the clue. Click on the pictures that do not belong, and they will disappear. Continue revealing clues and removing any pictures that do not belong until the class has correctly guessed the holiday character.

For a more challenging game, secretly choose a holiday character in your head. Have the students ask questions. Click on the characters to make them disappear based on the question and answer. Repeat until the character has been revealed.

HOLIDAY CHARADES

Get your little reindeer up and moving, as well as build gross motor skills, with a fun game of Charades! To play, you will need to privately message a student the action. You could do this via the chat box on your video conferencing platform. The class will try to guess the action. Once they have guessed correctly, share your screen to show the slide. Then, the entire class can complete that motion.

SANTA SAYS

Help your kiddos burn off all of that excess energy from being cooped up inside and on a computer for so long with a game of “Santa Says!” This would make an excellent brain break in between activities.

For some of the actions you will say “Santa says.” For others, you will not. If there are any students who complete the action and Santa didn’t say to, they will sit. The last student standing wins!

VIRTUAL CLASSROOM CHRISTMAS DANCE PARTY

Get the holiday wiggles out with a virtual classroom Christmas dance party! Search for your favorite holiday songs on Spotify, Amazon or YouTube. Once you’ve found your holiday playlist, turn up the music and watch your little reindeer prance! Play Holiday Freeze Dance to increase the excitement! Just stop the music, and have your students freeze like a holiday action (Santa going down the chimney, a Nutcracker).

SANTA’S CAM MYSTERY PHOTOS

Santa’s Cam is sure to entice your little learners during your virtual classroom Christmas party! The students will see a zoomed-in portion of a larger picture on Santa’s (magic) cam.

They will try to guess what the picture is based on this small glimpse. Three different clues will be given to help them guess the picture. Each clue will appear on a different slide. The mystery picture will be revealed on the last slide.

HOLIDAY DIRECTED DRAWING

If you’re looking for a super easy virtual classroom Christmas party idea, a holiday directed drawing is your answer! All the students will need is a piece of paper and a pencil. Display each step by sharing your screen.

Once the students have completed all of the steps, they will have a holiday masterpiece that they can color or paint.

NAME THAT CAROL

“Name that Carol” is another simple virtual classroom Christmas party activity. Play a snippet of a Christmas song from YouTube, Spotify or Amazon. You can play the music through your computer, or even on your phone. Then, choose students to name the carol. If they need help, you could play another snippet of the song or provide clues.

VIRTUAL SING ALONG

After naming Christmas carols, a sing along is a virtual classroom Christmas party idea that is sure to put everyone in the holiday spirit. Simply play your favorite holiday songs and sing along. There are so many great videos on YouTube featuring Christmas songs for kids. Many of them even show the lyrics for kids to sing along.

TRICKY ELVES CVC WORD BUILDING GAME

Those tricky elves mixed up the words for each stocking! Help Santa know what’s inside the stocking by dragging the letters into the correct order to build each word.

VIRTUAL CLASSROOM CHRISTMAS PARTY READ ALOUD

An easy way to celebrate the Christmas season is with read alouds. A few ways you could do this include:

Record a video of you reading a book.
Share a link to the book on YouTube, Epic or Vooks.
Host a live reading of the book via Zoom, Google Meet or Facebook Live.