What To Do When A Student Doesn’t Celebrate Holidays

How do you accommodate students who don’t celebrate holidays? Many of our classrooms include students who don’t celebrate and unfamiliar teachers may not know how to manage this type of situation. Read on to find tips and ideas to guide you in what to do when students don’t celebrate holidays.

Accommodating students who don’t celebrate holidays

During my second year of teaching I had a student in my classroom who, due to his religious beliefs, didn’t celebrate birthdays or holidays. At the time, I was unfamiliar with families whose religion included this belief. I didn’t know how to manage this situation without feeling I would be singling my student out or making him uncomfortable. Fortunately for me, my student’s mother reached out early on. She explained their beliefs and asked if we could plan ahead to come up with alternatives to accommodate various situations that may arise throughout the year.

Communicate with Parents

Keep the lines of communication open with parents. I’ve had several families now who were Jehovah’s Witnesses and parents have been very open and proactive about making me aware and letting me know the types of activities their child can and can not do. What has worked for one family however, hasn’t necessarily been acceptable for others. Each of my families has been different.

Meet with the child’s parents to ask what the limitations are. Make a plan with parents for situations like birthdays and holiday activities and discuss what an acceptable alternative might be. This has sometimes meant that the parent would pick up their child early or request the student have permission to go to the library or somewhere other than the classroom during certain activities. It has also with some families, been acceptable to have the child stay in the classroom but work on something different if the rest of the class is engaged in a holiday activity.

Communicate with other teachers and staff

Make the child’s specials teachers and administration aware of the child’s religious beliefs. Brainstorm with art and library teachers about alternate art projects or library activities your students can participate in while in their classes. For example, when students were making holiday cards in art, my student made a winter scene drawing instead. I have found that specials teachers usually appreciate the input and ideas.

Agree on a plan for holidays and birthdays

Have a plan in place or check with parents first about classroom parties, movie days, or school-wide events. Most of the time my parents have opted to either pick their child up early or requested they be able to go to the library or office to read or work on something else.

Make a plan with parents about how to manage birthdays. Is it acceptable to let their child have a treat and not sing, “Happy Birthday” or would they prefer their child not be in the room? I often do birthdays outside (we live in Arizona where the weather is almost always warm) at picnic tables on the playground. In some cases I’ve had the student play in another area with another class while we sang and passed out treats. In other cases, I’ve had parents suggest the student stay with the class, not sing and have one of the snacks they provided for me to give their child instead during class birthdays.

Adapt classroom activities when you can

Replace holiday themed activities with a non-holiday version when you can. I do a gingerbread man theme each December and teach a unit on comparing favorite versions. While gingerbread is traditionally a holiday treat, most of The Gingerbread Man stories are not at all holiday related.

Switch out practice pages with holiday pictures to a similar, winter-themed alternative if you can. If your class is researching holiday traditions around the world have your student who doesn’t celebrate research another topic related to one of the countries. Winter themes related to hot chocolate, snowmen, caribou and tundra animals are all activities even students who don’t celebrate can do. If you count down the days until Christmas break, consider changing the term to “winter break” instead. I’ve found it fairly easy to replace Christmas themed activities with winter or snow related ones.

As teachers, we have learned to make accommodations for a variety of student needs. With a little foresight, parent partnering and planning we can also respectfully accommodate children in our classrooms who don’t celebrate holidays.

I hope you’ve found this article helpful and have found ideas you can use in your classroom.

Happy teaching!