The holidays – not just the winter holidays – are a great opportunity for educators to build awareness and empathy in their students.  By exploring the many common themes in holidays and world religion, students learn how people of diverse backgrounds practice similar values.  

Explore our collection of short videos to celebrate diversity in your classroom and engage students as they learn about different holiday traditions this season.

Holidays: Why We Celebrate 

Build prior knowledge and share the origin of the word with students before they explore the different holiday videos.  Use the video as an icebreaker before winter break and have students share some of their favorite holidays or traditions. 

Diwali

Grow your students’ knowledge about the five day celebration of Diwali that is celebrated by more than one billion people each year. 

Day of the Dead

Infuse multiculturalism into your classroom with this video resource that introduces students to the origins of Día de Muertos. 

Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah

Students will learn about Judaism’s High Holy Days and the history of both celebrations in this video. 

Curious about Kwanza 

Did you know that Kwanza has only been around since the 1960s?  Learn how Maulana Karenga started the celebration and the ways in which Kwanza builds unity for the African American community each December. 

A Christmas Story

Your students are probably familiar with how Christmas has been widely commercialized, but do all your students know the religious origins? Highlight the history of Christmas with this video. 

The Story of Hanukkah 

The lighting of the Menorah is only one of the traditions celebrated during Hanukkah. Students will explore the historical significance of Hanukkah in this video by learning more about the 8-day celebration. 

New Years Eve Around The World 

The New Year is not only celebrated on January 1. Introduce students to the different new years celebrations from different cultures and religions around the world. 

What is Ramadan?

Introspection, prayer and fasting are a few of the ways Muslims observe Ramadan. In this video, students will discover more about the history of the Ramadan and its significance in Islamic culture.

Lesson Ideas with the Holiday Video Collection:

• Divide your class into groups and have students research one of the holidays and present their findings to the class
• Give students the opportunity to watch each video and compare and contrast the history and celebrations of each
• Share the videos with students and engage them in a class discussion about their holiday traditions
• Randomly assign each student a specific holiday video to watch. After, have them join a group with other students who watched the video to engage in a small group discussion
• Have students explore the videos and look for a common theme among the holidays 

Looking for more videos to add to your lessons? Don’t forget to take advantage of The Juice’s extensive online library that features over 300+ videos. Search for video by keyword, category or standard.