Christmas Math Games & Activities

Christmas Light Patterns

It’s Winter break! School is out! Time for hot chocolate, relaxation and family sharing. Yet the holidays don’t necessarily have to be a complete break from learning and growing. They can be a great opportunity to use holiday cheer as math practice opportunities. Keep your students motivated to learn during the holidays with these Christmas math games and activities.

christmas lights patterns

Holiday Cheer Counting

Chances are, your neighborhood is lit with Christmas lights and holiday cheer. Use this as a math lesson! Walk around with your student and count the number of homes that are decorated vs the number of homes that are not. To make it more advanced, calculate the percentage of homes lit in your neighborhood or make it into a fraction and a decimal! Your student can even sort the homes into categories of Christmas light colors. Encourage students to make up their own math lesson using the neighborhood!

Shape Wrapping

The Holidays come with gift-wrapping. Why not let your child join in? This is the perfect opportunity to teach your math basics such as how much paper is needed for each gift and how the paper will completely cover the gift’s surface area. You can even calculate the perimeter and area of the wrapped gift using a ruler! While you’re at it, why not calculate the volume too? This activity not only teaches wrapping skills, but strengthens core math skills as well.

*Need a formula reminder?

Area= Length  x Width         Perimeter= 2(Length + Width)

Volume= Length x Width x Height

Snowman Math

Who doesn’t want to build a snowman during the holidays? Have your student cut out different sized triangles, circles, rectangles, hexagons, pentagons, you name it. Then challenge them into making the shapes into a snowman! When the snowman is complete you can count the number of sides the snowman ended up with. Do you have multiple children? Have the children compare their snowmen to each other and calculate which snowman had the most and least sides! If you’re doing this is a classroom you can even help the students calculate the average number of snowman sides, the median and the mode.

Christmas Addition

If you have a student who loves to color, this is the perfect math holiday activity. Designate which answers will have which colors to make it more complex. You can even make your own Christmas addition worksheets by drawing holiday figures such as snowmen and trees and writing in math problems appropriate to your child’s math level.

*For another fun Christmas addition check out is this worksheet.

Oh Christmas Tree Length, Oh Christmas Tree Length

Have your student cut out different lengths of rectangular paper. Then, have your student make a Christmas tree by arranging the strips in order of greatest to smallest. You can also have your student cut out different sized circles to make Christmas tree ornaments and glue them in order of greatest to smallest as well.

christmas addition

christmas tree addition

We hope these activities help your student learn and have fun during this holiday season. Be on the look out for other creative ways to include math in your daily holiday schedule. Be sure to check out our free math games and resources this holiday season.  Anything you do with your student helps not only in building their math skills, but their relationship with you as well.

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