Winter Holidays Event Planning Guide for PTOs and PTAs

Winter Holidays Event Planning Guide for PTOs and PTAs

The winter holidays are a perfect time for parent groups to showcase what they do best: plan fun events, thank their teachers, give back to their communities, and show spirit and goodwill to other parents.

Download our winter holiday planning guide for PTOs and PTAs for lots of thoughtful, creative, and fun ideas (and loads of free downloadables like gift tags, candygrams, and more) to show your holiday spirit as a parent group and school community.

Inside the Winter Holidays Event Planning Guide:

Ideas for Winter Events
Fun and easy ways to celebrate the holiday season without spending a lot of money or wearing out your volunteers with a lot of planning.

What Teachers Really Want for the Holidays
Suggestions vetted by teachers and other PTO leaders, plus links to our free downloadable gift tags and labels.

Winter Holiday Community Service Ideas
The holidays are a natural time for PTOs and PTAs to pitch in and help their communities. Focus your efforts with this roundup of projects.

Ways To Help Parents During the Holidays
Ease stress by filling a need for moms and dads, from gift-wrapping to solo shopping time.

Tips for Classroom Games and Parties
For any holiday or occasion, the first step to planning a successful classroom party is to communicate with the teacher.

Last-Minute Holiday Ideas
Options for whole families or just for students, plus some downloadable tools.

Ideas for Simple Winter Celebrations

It’s not uncommon for a school district to set a policy prohibiting holiday-specific events. Fear not! There are many general winter themes that can be a lot of fun, from snowmen to blizzards to penguins. Use the theme in your decorations, assign fun names to snacks (crisped rice treats could become iceberg chunks, for example), and add a couple of games to entertain families. Here are a few ideas to add winter spirit to an existing event:

Snowball relay: Children carry “snowballs” (cotton balls) on a spoon and drop them into buckets. The team with the most snowballs in a bucket wins.

Indoor ice-skating relay: Set up an area to race; kids slide on paper plates along the track. Or set it up as an obstacle course to make it more challenging.

Pin the nose on the snowman: Like pin the tail on the donkey, but you’ll be pinning a carrot nose made from orange construction paper.

Freeze dance (get it??): Dancers must freeze like statues whenever the music stops.

Snowflake hunt: Hide paper snowflakes at your event. Add a value for a small prize on each one. Snowflakes can be traded in for a prize after they’re found.

Project snowman: Team members must dress each other as snowmen using toilet paper; then, snowmen must to get to a designated spot with as little melting (ripped toilet paper) as possible.

Penguin relay: Waddle like a penguin to get the “egg” (a small ball) safely to your partner on other side.

Still have questions? Call us at 800-644-3561; we’re here to help.

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