Christmas Bulletin Board Ideas

The holidays make a perfect theme for classroom decorations, and Christmas bulletin board ideas offer a colorful way to student attract attention and create a festive classroom mood. The best teaching bulletin board ideas involve making the board decorations only once and out of materials that allow the board to be used again, as is or as part of another bulletin board display. 

1. Gift giving. The idea of gift giving is a popular topic for classrooms at the holidays, but not all giving needs to be actual goods or materials. A bulletin board with images of possible gifts gives the students a visual that explores all sorts of gift giving. Divide the board into groupings for different categories of giving to add intellectual stimulation for your students. Use old gift catalogs and newspapers for images.
2. Thankfulness. The holidays typically incorporate themes of being thankful for things. Ask students what they are thankful for and ask them to draw or bring in photos or images cut from magazines, newspapers or catalogs of the things they are thankful for. Organize these images on a special Christmas bulletin board and discuss the images during class to explore the various kinds of things to be thankful for over the Christmas holidays. 
3. Conifer focus. Pine trees play an important role for some families over the Christmas holidays, and tree lots sell all sorts of varieties of trees. A bulletin board exploring the types of pine trees with images of the common pine tree shapes and needle shapes helps students understand variations in nature, even in the same general tree grouping. 
4. Research idea. Divide the Christmas bulletin board into categories, including food and drink traditions, ornament types, present giving and the idea of Santa Claus. Ask the students to research each topic and bring in drawings or photos illustrating what they found out about that category. 
5. Ornaments. Divide the class into groups and ask students to create various kinds of Christmas tree ornaments and window decorations. Display these on the board for the entire class to see how each child interpreted the same assignment. 
6. Synthetic v. Real. The conversation surrounding using real trees versus use of a synthetic or artificial tree can become a major classroom issue developed into the topics of replanting and how much energy is used to transport trees to market. Have students research how a real tree is grown and how synthetic trees are made. Draw images of the steps for each and put them on the bulletin board. Discuss the pros and cons of each type of tree using the drawings.
7. Recycling. A Christmas bulletin board can carry over after the actual holiday by integrating the topic of Christmas tree recycling. Have the students research and draw images of what happens to a Christmas tree after the tree is taken from the house. Use the images on a bulletin board that integrates the topic of recycling wood, paper and holiday trees.
8. Christmas textures. Young students need to explore basic elements, including aromas, tastes and textures. A bulletin board featuring the textures of the holiday allows student to touch and relate to tree needles, fluffy batting and angel wing netting. 
9. Holiday Colors. Young students also learn colors using visual classroom clues. A Christmas holiday board focused on the basic colors of the holiday with sample items featuring the color makes the holiday colors come alive. 
10. Christmas foods. Photos and drawings of Christmas and holiday food and drink can be used as a basic starting point for classroom discussions about culture and dining. Christmas food traditions from throughout the world also help students to learn about diverse cultures.