The changing nature of Christmas in the UK
Lesson details
Learning outcome
To understand how celebrating Christmas in the UK has changed over time.
Key learning points
- Social scientists are people who study how worldviews are lived today.
- Christmas is celebrated in a variety of different ways in the UK. Often families have developed their own traditions.
- Some people mark Christmas by attending churches and services as one of the only times they attend church.
- Ancient traditions still influence what Christians do when celebrating the birth of Jesus.
Keywords
Traditions - special things people do again and again, like decorating a tree at Christmas
Nativity - the birth stories of Jesus
Celebrations - to do something special to remember or enjoy an important event
Carols - songs sang at Christmas to celebrate and remember the birth of Jesus
Common misconception
All UK Christmas traditions are linked to the nativity.
There are many traditions associated with Christmas that come from outside of the nativity story, for example having a Christmas tree, santa and spending family time together.
Teacher tip
Discuss as a class how they spend Christmas, can they pick out any traditions from the past that their family still do today? Play some traditional carols to your class to bring another element to your lesson.
Licence
except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
4 Questions
Q1.We can use to understand how people celebrate Christmas.
Q2.What do social scientists study?
Q3.How do most people in the UK celebrate Christmas?
Q4.Who celebrates Christmas in the UK?
Assessment exit quiz
4 Questions
Q1.Christians have sung at Christmas since the Middle Ages.
Q2.What is the nativity story about?
Q3.Which of these is a Christmas tradition from the Victorian era?
Q4.Are all UK Christmas traditions linked to the nativity?
To help you plan your 3 religious education lesson on: The changing nature of Christmas in the UK, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 3 religious education lesson on: The changing nature of Christmas in the UK, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 2 religious education lessons from the Festivals: How do ancient stories influence modern celebrations? unit, dive into the full primary religious education curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.