Celebrate the Holidays!

The holiday season is an exciting time for children. They love to take part in holiday traditions, and there are many celebrations they can learn about to help them build food literacy and an appreciation for different cultures.

Learning about and trying holiday foods from a variety of cultures through fun food-based activities also helps children develop positive attitudes towards food and eating, allows them to express their creativity and builds their self-esteem as they gain a variety of skills.

Here are a few engaging and inclusive activity ideas for sharing holiday traditions and  supporting food literacy:

• Have each child contribute to the creation of a class/group collage or poster by adding pictures of their family’s traditional holiday foods.

• Have each child share a favourite holiday food idea or recipe that is a part of their holiday traditions. Gather the ideas or recipes into a holiday booklet for each child.

• Make holiday trail mix; brainstorm what will go in the mix and have each child bring in a food item to contribute (e.g. cereal, granola, popcorn, dried fruit, yogurt chips etc.).  Set out bowls of ingredients and let children make their own holiday trail mix by combining spoonfuls of their favourite ingredients in a decorated zip-top bag or small jar.

• If you are having a holiday party, invite children to bring in foods that they feel represents their holiday traditions. Invite families too!

Use any or all of these fun activities to support children’s (and your) enjoyment of traditional holiday foods. Happy Holidays!