5 eco-friendly Christmas activities for your primary classroom

Christmas is such an exciting time of year in primary schools. From Nativity plays and carol concerts to exchanging Christmas cards and enjoying Christmas parties, there’s always something going on. But all this Christmas fun can have a significant impact on our planet.

Here’s an example: if everyone in a class of 30 children gave a card to everyone else, you’d end up with nearly 1,000 cards – just in one class! And it takes one whole tree to make about 3,000 cards. So in a typical primary school that's four whole trees that need to be cut down. That’s a lot of trees we could save by finding new, creative ways to share holiday cheer.

So how can we celebrate Christmas in school in a greener, kinder way?

Here are our top five eco-friendly Christmas activities for primary children:

"Re-Gift It" Secret Santa

Re-Gift Secret Santa is a wonderful way to teach children the value of reusing and sharing while spreading festive cheer. Instead of buying new gifts, encourage children to bring in a pre-loved item from home, such as a toy, book or game they no longer use but think someone else would enjoy.

This twist on the traditional Secret Santa not only reduces waste but also promotes the idea that giving isn’t about spending money—it’s about finding joy in sharing and giving something a second life.

To make it even more fun, kids can wrap their secret santa gifts using old newspapers, magazines or even old book pages to add an eco-friendly touch.

Eco-Friendly Gift Tags

What do you do with your Christmas cards once Christmas is over? Instead of throwing them away, keep them to make eco-friendly gift tags. Provide children with a pile of old Christmas cards and challenge them to cut out the different shapes, words or images to create gift tags. Scissors that make wavy or spiked patterns when they cut are a fun twist for these! Use a hole punch to make a hole in one end and thread with wool so that the tags can be added to gifts. Children can then take their tags home to use on the presents they wrap.

Old Christmas cards make brilliant recycled gift tags!

Classroom Christmas Tree

Artificial Christmas trees require significant resources to produce and often contain non-recyclable materials like PVC. Instead, why not create your own Christmas tree with your class using books, cardboard tubes or CDs?

Book tree: Stack books in a spiral, with the largest on the bottom and smaller ones as you go up, to create a conical tree shape. Add fairy lights and tuck natural ornaments like sprigs of holly between layers.

Cardboard tube tree: Ask children to bring in cardboard tubes from kitchen roll and toilet paper. Arrange these in triangular tree shape on a large sheet of paper or cardboard and glue in place, with the largest at the bottom and the smallest at the top (you can cut some down to create different sizes). Decorate with paint and homemade ornaments, such as stars from recycled tin foil.

CD tree: Let’s face it, CDs and DVDs have had their day but there are so many still floating about! Give them a second lease of life by arranging them in a triangular shape on a large sheet of paper or card to create a shiny Christmas tree. You can tie baubles or other decorations through the CD holes to decorate.

When Christmas is over, store away the resources to use in another craft project.

Give your Christmas tree a literary twist!

Make a Christmas outfit

Christmas Jumper Day is popular with primary schools across the country but 95% of Christmas jumpers contain plastic materials like polyester and many are only worn a few times before being discarded, contributing to the fashion industry's already significant environmental impact.

Instead, why not set your class the challenge of upcycling old items of clothing to give them a Christmas twist? Hats, scarves, T-shirts, jumpers, leggings…anything goes! Children could use scraps of fabric or other old items of clothing to add Christmassy patches in different shapes to their garment (such as stars, presents, Christmas trees). They could also use fabric paints or markers to decorate them, or stick on pom poms, sequins or other items. This is a great way to encourage both creativity and sustainability.

Nature Wreaths

Making a Christmas wreath is a wonderful activity to do with your primary class. Take children on a nature walk to gather twigs, leaves, holly, pine cones or any other naturally-fallen foliage then take your haul back to the classroom.

Cut out a circle from recycled cardboard to use as the base and challenge children to arrange their foraged items to create a Christmas wreath. These can be hung up in the classroom before being taken home to be enjoyed over the festive period!

Make a Christmas wreath out of foraged materials

There are so many other ways you can celebrate Christmas in a more sustainble way. For more ways to make your school Christmas more eco-friendly, find out about The Greener, Kinder Christmas Pledge for Schools.