Christmas and Winter Games for Dance Class
- Dec 8, 2021
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 7, 2025
December is such a beautiful season to celebrate creativity, joy, and connection through movement. With just a few themed games and activities, you can keep your classes fresh, festive, and meaningful without adding extra stress. This blog gives you a not so common list of classroom-friendly Christmas/winter themed games and skill-building activities that bring holiday fun into your lessons without overwhelming your class time.
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Christmas Dance Activities and Games:
Try adding in one of these themed movement-based activities to encourage creativity and collaboration:
1) Elf Socks Knock Down
A silly, high-energy coordination game that gets dancers moving and laughing.
How to Play:
Preparation: Gather several pairs of over-sized festive knee high socks (each group will need 1 pair of socks). Stuff 1-2 sock balls down into the toes of each sock to make it pointy. Place a line of cones or plastic cups across the floor (1 line per group).
One dancer at a time puts on the socks, runs backward to the cones, and knocks them over using only their sock-toe.
They run backward to their group, remove the socks, and pass them to the next person. First team to knock everything down wins!
*Optional: Add a plastic cup inside the sock for toe protection.
Alternative: Make it a timed contest. Have one student knock over all of the cones in a line. Time them and see who can do it in the least amount of time.*
2) Snowman Knock Down
Who wouldn't like a little snowball fight (without the cold) to release seasonal stress? This game is a winter twist on a classic pin guard game.
How to Play:
Decorate plastic cups like snowmen and stack them on both sides of the room. (perhaps even in the 4 corners)
Spread giant cotton balls, pom-poms, or other soft “snowballs” objects across the floor. (Here's an Amazon option)
Dancers stay on their side and try to knock down the snowmen cups by tossing snowballs.
Alternative: Have a contest to see who can knock down the most cups mid leap.
First team to knock down all of their opponents snowmen wins.
*There are many modifications you can make to this game. It could be tag based where people get out or freeze if they're hit, there could be safety zones, the options are up to your creativity!*
Keeping it Dance Related
1) The Rockettes!
December is the perfect time to introduce students to a famous dance company and to highlight precision and unity! The Rockettes provide many tutorials that will give you great choreography for your classes. A favorite of mine is the "Rag Doll" dance perfect for beginner tappers.
2) “Naughty or Nice” Mirror
A playful partner activity that builds spatial awareness and improvisation skills.
Partners face each other practicing improvisation skills by mirroring each other. Assign a leader and a follower. The leader's job is to create movement. The follower's job is to be the mirror reflection of the leader.
When the teacher says a sentence with the word "nice" in it (Example: "It's such a nice day outside today. Isn't it?"), followers must mirror the leader's movements. When the teacher says a sentence with the word "naughty" in it (Example: "Make sure you share your toys with your friends or else you might end up on the naughty list!"), the mirror breaks and the follower must do the opposite of what the leader is doing.
3) “12 Days of Christmas” Choreography Activity
A collaborative activity perfect for group creativity.
Assign each dancer (or pair) one of the 12 days of Christmas verses.
Each student creates a movement that represents their verse.
Play the song and have dancers perform their movement each time their verse appears.
*For added difficulty, have everyone learn each other's verse movements. It will become a fun, cumulative group dance that builds memory and teamwork.*
Also, check out this video example: It's one of my favorites that causes me to giggle every time I watch their creativity.
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Have a happy Christmas!
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