Festive Fun for the Drama Classroom

Looking to bring some seasonal fun into your drama classroom? We’ve rounded up quick and creative activities — improv games, writing prompts, and ensemble exercises — that will keep your students engaged and energized during the holiday season.

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Warm-ups & Movement Exercises

The Winter Weather Walk
Guide your students through a physical exploration of the season. Have them move around the space as if they are:

• Trudging through knee-deep snow.
• Slipping and sliding on a patch of ice.
• Trying to catch a single, perfect snowflake on their tongue.
• Warming their freezing hands over a crackling fire.
• Huddling together for warmth like penguins.

The Holiday Machine
The goal is for students to work together to create a machine that will make a holiday task easier. Have students choose a holiday activity (drinking hot cocoa, wrapping a gift, bringing home a tree and decorating it) and break it down into individual steps (choosing a cup, heating water, putting the cocoa in, stirring the cocoa, picking up a marshmallow, putting it in the cup). One student will start a repetitive sound and motion that represents one of the actions.
One by one, other students will add their own connected sound and motion until the whole class becomes one clanking, whirring, festive machine.

Then, divide the class into groups, have each group go through the process, and present their machine in front of the class. The class has to identify what the machine is used for and what steps are being visualized.

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Improv Games

The Gift Exchange
Get everyone to pair up and decide who's A and who's B. A will mime handing B an imaginary box. Based on the size/weight/shape of the 'box', B will open the box and pull out the gift, stating what it is (e.g., "A goldfish bowl!”). B will then put the gift on an imaginary shelf behind them before handing A a box to open. Continue going back and forth. After a while, they may start getting more scenic: talking about why they got someone a particular gift or playing with the object. Then change the situation so the gifts are unusual (a snow globe full of bees). How does the person receiving the gift react?

Winter Weather Report
One student is the “weather reporter” describing extreme seasonal weather while others act it out behind them onstage.

Holiday Travel Chaos
Have students improvise a scene set in a crowded airport, bus station, or train terminal during the busy season. Add escalating obstacles (delayed flights, lost luggage, mistaken identities).

Gift-Giving Experts
One student is a customer at a bizarre specialty store. They must describe an impossibly difficult person they need a gift for (e.g., “My aunt who is a retired astronaut and only likes the color beige”). The other players are the “experts” at the shop who must invent, demonstrate, and justify the perfect absurd gift.

The Uninvited Guest
Have each student create a character who is crashing a holiday party. They need to decide:

1. Who they are.
2. What their relationship is to the host.
3. Why are they crashing the party? What do they want (to get warm, steal the best snacks, profess their undying love, etc.)?

Then, in pairs or small groups, have them improvise their arrival and attempt to blend in.

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Writing Prompts

A Gift They Didn’t Expect
Write a monologue from the perspective of someone who receives the strangest gift ever. How do they react to the gift?

Season of Secrets
Write a short scene in which two characters each try to hide a seasonal surprise from the other.

New Year, New Me?
Have students create a character who makes a bold resolution… then act out what happens when they try (and fail, hilariously) to stick with it.

Festive Scene Starters
Give these opening lines to pairs or groups and see what kind of scene they create:

• "Did you regift that sweater I gave you?”
• "I’m telling you, the snowman winked at me."
• "This is the last one in the entire store. We have to work together."
• "Okay, on the count of three, we all start singing and hope they let us in."

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Ensemble Activities

Snowball Scene Starter
Have students write short scene prompts on slips of paper, crumple them up like snowballs, then toss them around the room. Each group will pick one “snowball” to perform.

Winter Tableau Challenge
Have small groups create frozen pictures (tableaux) of seasonal scenes (sledding, decorating, winter markets, etc.) with exaggerated emotion and physicality.

Seasonal Soundscape
Divide students into groups to create layered soundscapes of wintery settings (a bustling market, a forest in a snowstorm, a fireplace gathering).

The Perfect Gathering… GONE WRONG
In small groups, have students create a two-part tableau:

• Picture 1: The perfect, postcard-worthy image of a holiday gathering (a family dinner, friends opening gifts, carolers singing in harmony).
• Picture 2: On your signal, they instantly switch to a second tableau showing the moment it all falls apart in a hilarious or dramatic way. Encourage big, bold physical choices!

The Assembly Line
Divide the class into groups representing workers in a magical workshop. Give them an impossible toy to build (e.g., a "self-walking, cheese-making unicycle"). In a silent scene, they must use physical comedy and teamwork to assemble, test, and package this ridiculous invention.

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Just-for-Fun Activities

Festive Commercial Parody
Students will create short parody commercials for outrageous “seasonal” products (e.g., glow-in-the-dark snow boots, self-singing mittens).

Twelve Days of Drama
Instead of “12 Days of Christmas,” brainstorm “12 Days of Drama” (e.g., “On the first day of drama, my teacher gave to me… one stressed-out stage manager!”). Students will then act out their version.

The Great Cookie Debate
Students take sides in an improvised debate: Which cookie reigns supreme this season? (Chocolate chip, gingerbread, sugar cookies, etc.) Each side must argue passionately in character.

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NOTE: Be sure to frame these activities as “seasonal” or “end-of-year” fun, so they’re inclusive for everyone while still capturing the festive spirit.

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