Last-Minute Holiday Ideas for Your PTO or PTA

The winter holidays may be fast approaching, but it’s not too late to plan some holiday fun for your

school. Here are some fun and easy ways your PTO or PTA can celebrate the holiday season without

spending a lot of money or wearing out your volunteers with a lot of planning.

Family Activities

Tacky sweater contest: Ask families and staff members to wear their ugliest holiday sweaters

to an event already on the school calendar. Gather sweater wearers together and take a vote on

which sweater is the tackiest. Be sure to take photos to share later!

Fun in the snow: If commercial snow tubing or tobogganing are available in your area,

arrange for a group discount for school families, or book the facility for a few hours. Ask the

principal (or another familiar school figure) to make the first run down the hill, to be cheered on

by students.

Skate night: Arrange for a group discount at an ice-skating rink and invite school families for

an evening of fun. Ask a rink staff member to lead a brief ice-skating lesson for beginners. Don’t

have an ice-skating rink in your town? Try a roller skating night instead.

Student Activities

Holiday wishes: Send volunteers into classrooms to talk to students about holiday wishes that

do not involve toys. For example, one child might hope to see his grandparents over the break,

while another child might wish for fairy wings and a mermaid tail. Have kids write about their

holiday wish and illustrate their work. The only rule is that their wish can’t involve a toy. Mount

the students’ work on construction paper and display it in the hallways.

Holiday boredom-buster list: Have volunteers visit each class for a brainstorming session of

the best ideas for winter holiday fun. Create a list of all the ideas offered by students, teachers,

and parents. Come up with separate lists for younger and older students. Include some

educational activities and some ideas that are fun for the whole family. Focus on low-cost,

simple ideas. Send the master list home with every child on the last day of school before the

break.

Gifts for Teachers

Gift-wrapping service: Enlist parents to bring wrapping paper, ribbons, gift bags, tape,

scissors, and gift tags. Offer teachers the opportunity to drop off their gifts for wrapping. Parents

wrap during the school day, and teachers can pick up their gifts as they're leaving. Place a sticky

note on each wrapped gift, reminding the gift-giver what it is.

Teachers lounge makeover: Recruit parents to come in over the weekend to clean the

teachers lounge and decorate the space for the holidays. Set up a basket of snacks, and include a

note thanking teachers for their hard work. When teachers arrive on Monday, they’ll be in for a

big surprise!

Cookie exchange: Give your teachers an easy way to partake in this holiday tradition by doing

the baking for them! Set out a variety of homemade cookies. If there is a personal story behind a

cookie, be sure to include it. Also consider providing recipe card, and give each teacher a

disposable plastic container to fill.

Hot cocoa bar: Fill one coffee dispenser with traditional chocolate cocoa and another with

white chocolate cocoa. Provide marshmallows, whipped cream, sprinkles, chopped nuts,

chocolate syrup, caramel sauce, maraschino cherries, and peppermint sticks.

Healthy breakfast bar: The holiday season is drenched in rich, sugary foods, leaving many

people craving lighter fare. Set up a simple, healthy breakfast bar in the teachers lounge that

includes fresh fruit, yogurt, granola, nuts, whole-grain muffins, banana bread, and juices.

Gifts for Others

Candygrams: Give students the chance to buy candygrams for classmates and teachers, to be

delivered on the last day of school before winter break. Download our candygram cards from the

PTO Today File Exchange. Attach a candy cane to each candygram. Keep the cost affordable for

kids; many groups sell candygrams for 50 cents or $1 each. Consider donating the proceeds to a

local food bank or children’s charity.

Coins for a Claus: Enlist school staff members to participate in a fun charity drive. Display

one jar for each participating staff member. Have students bring in coins and place them in their

favorite staff member’s jar. The staff member who collects the most cash dresses as Santa, an elf,

or other holiday character for a day. Donate the money to charity.

Bird feeder ornaments: Talk to students about ways they can help the environment during

the holidays. Make ornaments out of bird seed that can be hung outside. Find step-by-step

instructions by searching online for “bird seed ornament.” Students can take their ornaments

home or hang them on tree branches on the school property, picking up litter as they go. For a

simpler craft, paint pinecones with sunflower seed butter, roll them in birdseed, and tie them

with a string.

Creative cards: Provide supplies for students to create cards for people away from home

during the holidays, such as hospitalized children or military service members. The American

Red Cross delivers holiday cards to deployed soldiers and to veterans hospitals through its

Holiday Mail for Heroes program.

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