The holiday season provides time for us to connect with family, friends, and our community in meaningful ways. It is an ideal opportunity to learn about and share in each other’s cultural celebrations and traditions and feel part of an inclusive and diverse community. This includes our school community.

Connecting with others and learning about their cultural celebrations and traditions is an important part of developing intercultural understanding. Celebrations occur throughout the year and provide opportunities for all of us to learn about the different beliefs, religions and festivals celebrated by the children and adults in our schools, and around the world.

Children learn from each other how and why people celebrate, and begin to understand that everyone’s traditions and practices hold special meaning for them just as theirs do for themselves. Including parents, colleagues and yourselves extends and enriches the learning. It helps us all to learn about and appreciate diversity, our differences and similarities, and to understand more about our own and each other’s identity.

Some families may adopt aspects of different cultural celebrations into their own, and multicultural families often celebrate a mix of the cultural traditions in their unique family backgrounds. In December these celebrations may include Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Bodhi Day, Christmas, Omisoka, the Winter Solstice, Las Posadas and many others.

Source: Debra Rader