| LESSON OVERVIEW
The main objectives of this lesson with a focus on Christmas speaking activities are to:
- discuss what is cheesy during the Christmas season;
- collaborate and develop ideas for a Christmas film plot.
Students engage in an unusual discussion on Christmas cheesiness and clichés. They rate some holiday activities, brainstorm Christmas movie ideas based on some provided comments, and then watch a parody trailer. Additionally, students have the opportunity to create a plot for a Christmas film.
C1 / Advanced45 min
60 minSpeaking ClassUnlimited Plan
This is a Speaking Class worksheet. It includes a variety of tasks that let your students practise their speaking skills. This lesson format does not focus on grammar or vocabulary. Learn more about it here.
WARM-UP
This lesson with a focus on Christmas speaking activities starts with a warm-up in which students understand the meaning of ‘cheesy’ and complete a statement about Christmas in the cheesiest way possible. Following that, they discuss things associated with Christmas that are considered cheesy and talk about their personal experiences. They rate some Christmas activities (e.g. putting up decorations and wearing an ugly Xmas sweater, sending Christmas cards with family photos) from the most to the least cheesy and explain their ratings.
TALKING ABOUT CHRISTMAS FILMS
This lesson is full of Christmas speaking activities but instead of talking about food and celebrations students focus on other aspects such as Christmas films. First, students think of some Christmas movies that they usually watch with the help of provided comments. Then they watch a parody trailer for a typical Christmas film. But before they do that, they brainstorm three things that such a trailer might feature. After watching the video, they continue their discussion by finishing some movie-related statements and commenting on them.
CREATIVE TASKS
In the last part of this Christmas lesson, students engage in more creative tasks. They start by collaborating to create a plot for a Christmas film, using information provided by the teacher (a character, a setting and an incident). The prompts for this task are diverse and surprising so students might come up with ridiculous and funny stories. Finally, students discuss and share their choices for three movies they would select for a Christmas marathon with friends and family.
WORKSHEETS
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A very entertaining lesson! Thank you!
Thanks, I’m glad you like it
This is an excellent lesson. Just taught it to two classes today and it went down extremely well with both! Very well done!!!!
Thank you for your comment! It’s great to hear your students enjoyed it
Hello. Nailed it I’m a huge fan of Hallmark movies and they’re just like that. Thank you so much.
Thanks so much! Glad it hit the mark
The video is not the best choice for the topic of the lesson especially when teaching in countries where tradition and culture are quite conservative. Maybe use a less controversial alternative. Not sure if a gay romantic Christmas comedy is something many people can associate with a cheesy Christmas.
Thank you for your feedback! We chose the video for its humour, but if it doesn’t suit your context, feel free to skip it – many activities in the lesson can be done without it. You might also enjoy exploring our other holiday-themed lessons
Rafal, I think you must have misunderstood or not watched the video. This parody video is making fun of the standard, repetitive script of Hallmark Christmas romantic comedy but in the parody both the female and the male roles are played by the same actor, i.e. he plays the female and the male role (that’s part of the whole joke here).