How to Teach Kindness to Children During the Christmas Season

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Inside: Learn how to teach kindness to children during the Christmas season with The Kindness Elves! Our world needs kindness now more than ever. Let’s build a good foundation for our kids!

The Christmas season can be such a “I want that” time of year.

It seems like as soon as we’ve said goodbye to our last trick-or-treater, the holiday ads begin. For real. Don’t get me started on the lit Christmas trees adorning our department stores before we even carve our pumpkins.

Imagine how young children interpret all of this. It really can feel like a season of “gimme this, gimme that”.

I have good news for you! While we cannot control how the media and retail companies handle the holidays, we can control what we choose to focus on in our homes and classrooms.

And last year I made a change in my classroom that was amazing.

So amazing that I kept the tradition going long after we packed up our Christmas ornaments.

I added kindness to our preschool curriculum.

Disclosure: I was given some of The Kindness Elves pieces as part of my partnership with the program. Affiliate links are provided for your convenience.

How to Teach Kindness to Children During the Christmas Season

Let me back up a bit. I have always been a firm believer in focusing on kindness and empathy in our toddler and preschool classrooms. We work hard on modeling how to be kind to one another, how to help a friend who is sad or who got injured during school time. It doesn’t take long before being empathetic comes naturally to them.

Last week, for example, one of our 2 year olds fell while we were running outside. A second later 2 little friends were at his side, asking him if he was okay.

It touched my heart, and I knew that our hard work was paying off. All those moments we had spent modeling how to be kind to our friends was working.

And it does every single year.

So, when Anna from The Imagination Tree asked if I wanted to be a partner in a new idea, an idea that would reinforce focusing on others during the Christmas season, I jumped at the invitation. How could I not? It would be the perfect addition to what we were already teaching in our classroom.

Starting the Tradition

Anna has made it super easy for parents, grandparents and teachers to begin the tradition of using The Kindness Elves with young children.

You can buy 14 different color options and combinations – multi-cultural, too!
There is a beautifully illustrated, hardback story book to accompany the tradition.
An amazing accessories pack is available to make it even easier to add The Kindness Elves tradition to your home or classroom.
You can now buy bundle sets which offer a nice discount on the total price.

A Great Alternative to the Elf on the Shelf

While the traditional Elf on the Shelf loves to be naughty, the Kindness Elves love to spread love to everyone they meet and encourage children to do the same.

And as we all know, the world truly needs kindness now more than ever.

Using The Kindness Elves in the Classroom

It was super easy for us to add kindness to our curriculum with the help of The Kindness Elves. I turned one of our shelves into a Kindness Area. I displayed The Kindness Elves on the shelves along with their home, some pieces from the accessory pack, and a Kindness Mail Box that I simply made out of a shoe box.

I also painted a heart on a small stone that we would pass around during circle time, sharing nice words about our friends.

You can read more about that here: How to Create a Kindness Classroom

Spreading Kindness Throughout the Year

While originally I thought we’d only use The Kindness Elves during the Christmas season, they ended up being a part of our classroom the rest of the year. After all, kindness in ongoing, right?

Once school was finished, I let our preschool families know that they could continue the kindness tradition during the summer break with Camp Kindness.

Adding kindness to our home or our preschool curriculum is important now more than ever. By providing activities that teach our young children how to spread kindness, we are building a platform that will stay with them throughout their lives.

Kind is the new cool.

Are you ready to join the kindness challenge with your children?

I strongly suggest you order your Kindness Elves early so that you allow enough time for them to be shipped from the UK. You can join the “12 Days of Kindness” on December 13th, or you can begin on December 1st. (Since we have no school for 2 weeks during our winter break, I have chosen to start our Christmas kindness lessons on December 1st.)