image credit: over the river holiday decoration, via flickr

I don’t know if it’s the colorful lights, temporary ice skating rinks or roasted chestnut stands on every corner, but Madrid becomes a magical place at this time of year. The streets of Madrid are always bustling with people, but during the holiday season the masses just seem a bit friendlier than usual (someone may even say “excuse me” if they run into you!). With this holiday cheer in mind, I’ve been thinking a lot about holiday traditions and what a great opportunity they are to teach children about their own cultural background or backgrounds. The holidays also provide all sorts of opportunities bilingual families can use to strengthen the minority language. Here are just a few suggestions to get you started:

*Get singing! Each country and culture has it’s own musical traditions, and over the years the holidays have inspired a lot of cool songs. Use this music as a tool to teach your children the Christmas carols and other traditional songs of your youth. They’ll not only be learning culture, they’ll also be learning a lot of new language in the process.

*Holiday crafts. Crafting is a great way of developing fine motor skills, creativity and specialized vocabulary. Who doesn’t love making paper snowflakes or strands of popcorn? And you can also end up with some really original decorations for your home. Kids love to create new things and they’ll be so proud to see their work on display.

*Read holiday stories. Although Bilingual Readers doesn’t offer any specific holiday-themed stories (yet), there is an abundance of great holiday literature out there. So whether you’re reading about Santa Claus, los Reyes Magos or the Grinch, take advantage of books to help your children understand more about their culture.

*Make traditional foods. It seems like most celebrations around the globe are largely centered around food and feasting, so make the most of this to teach your kids about food vocabulary and special holiday dishes. This will not only help your child’s language skill, it will also teach him a bit more about who he is and where he comes from.

Have fun celebrating!