Bring history to life this Christmas holiday season with a fun and engaging stations activity your students will love!

In this festive critical thinking activity, students will travel through time as they uncover which famous historical figures wrote 25 intriguing holiday wish lists to Santa! Blending creativity, historical context, and problem-solving, this activity is perfect for middle school or high school social studies classes.

Each wish list includes a mix of both physical items and abstract ideas, giving students clues about the personality, accomplishments, and aspirations of notable figures from both world and U.S. history. Students will match the wish lists to their corresponding figures as they rotate through stations, completing an answer sheet with their guesses.

What’s Included:

• 25 unique holiday wish lists written from the perspective of historical figures
• A student answer sheet for tracking guesses
• A teacher instructions page with setup and modification suggestions
• A detailed answer key for easy grading
• A blank wish list template for an optional extension activity where students create their own historical wish list

*Includes both color and black & white versions of all sheets!*

Uses:

• Interactive lesson or station-based activity
• Holiday-themed class event
• Review or enrichment for history topics
• Collaborative or individual learning

Extension Idea:
Wrap up the activity by having students choose their favorite historical figure and create a wish list from that person’s perspective. Then, let classmates guess the figure based on their creative clues!

Perfect for:

• Middle and high school world history or U.S. history classes
• December lessons or holiday-themed units
• Sub plans, early finishers, or enrichment

Add some historical holiday cheer to your classroom with this engaging activity!