If you’re searching for a meaningful and engaging way to bring the heart of the holiday season into your classroom, Gift Giving Day is the perfect theme day to add to your December plans. This celebration is centered around kindness, generosity, and the joy of giving—making it an ideal activity to pair with watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas as you explore the true meaning behind the holidays. It also fits perfectly into a 12 Days of Christmas classroom countdown, especially during the final days before winter break when excitement is high, and you want to keep learning purposeful and joyful.
Gift Giving Day transforms your classroom into a warm, compassionate learning space where students practice key literacy, math, writing, and word work skills while engaging in activities that promote empathy and gratitude. With simple prep tools like themed banners, parent letters, center signs, and checklists, you can set up your room effortlessly and jump right into a full day of academics wrapped in holiday magic. Students begin with a festive poem, “The Gift of Giving,” and work through rhyming, illustrating, sequencing, fill-in-the-blank activities, and comprehension questions that help them internalize the theme of kindness from the very start.
Literacy becomes the heart of the day with rich, meaningful read-alouds by Peter Reynolds, including The Gift of Words and The Smallest Gift of Christmas. These stories guide students through important comprehension work such as Somebody-Wanted-But-So-Then summaries, character analysis, making connections, determining story messages, identifying main idea and details, analyzing problem and solution, and responding thoughtfully to text. With a variety of graphic organizers, posters, reading responses, and even a class book option, students build deep understanding while connecting personally to the messages about gratitude, giving, and what truly matters.
Use the Amazon links above to purchase these gift-themed books for your classroom. (As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.)
Math centers come alive with seasonal games like Add 3 Bingo, Ten Combinations, subtraction board games, True or False comparing numbers sorts, two-digit number ordering scoots, and Roll & Add practice. Students also complete no-prep worksheets that reinforce essential first-grade skills such as place value, graphing, doubles facts, telling time to the half hour, counting by 2s, missing addends, and comparing numbers. All activities are designed to be hands-on, highly engaging, and easy to differentiate—perfect for center rotations or whole-group practice on a busy December day.
Your word work and phonics stations carry the giving theme as well, with Bingo games for glued sounds and punctuation, long vowel CVCe scoots, subject/predicate sorting, syllable practice, ABC order, making words, unscramble activities, and word searches. These literacy tasks help students stay focused and practice foundational skills through structured, meaningful activities that fit beautifully into your December routines.
Writing is another powerful component of Gift Giving Day, allowing students to reflect on what giving looks like—both gifts you can wrap and the gifts from the heart that you can’t. Students complete list-writing activities, opinion writing about “The Greatest Gift,” wish lists, and reflective writing on meaningful gifts. A class book titled The Greatest Gift of All brings student reflections together into a keepsake that captures the theme of the day perfectly.
To add a hands-on creative element, students complete adorable present crafts with writing extensions and festive bulletin board options like “The Greatest Gifts Don’t Come Wrapped.”
You can even incorporate the included snack donation letter to encourage generosity and a snack activity that ties beautifully into the giving theme, and gift a snack to the staff.
Teachers love using Gift Giving Day as a heartwarming anchor to their December instruction. It brings intentionality, compassion, and rich academic practice into the classroom while giving students a joyful, memorable experience before the holidays. If you want to inspire kindness, spark conversation, and keep students engaged during the most magical time of the year, Gift Giving Day is a must-have.
Bring warmth, meaning, and festive fun to your classroom this season with this theme day available in several bundles for several days of learning. Gift Giving Day is included in my Christmas Theme Day Bundle 2 and 12 Days of Christmas Bundle. I also have a bundle that includes both Christmas and Winter theme days.
You can also read more about these holiday theme days here:
