Commercial Christmas or Christmas commercials?

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It’s not easy to come up with Christmas-themed lessons, especially when you teach the same bunch of students yet another year and they’ve already had enough of Christmas at school (be it their own or their children’s). This year, I accidentally went for a pretty nice Christmas theme inspired by commercials and a fellow teacher’s blog post.

The theme of my Christmas-related classes is its commercial aspect. For some people it’s the most dreadful thing in the world, but for me the season starts with John Lewis’ TV spot (my absolutely favourite is the 2013 one, the Bear and the Hare with Lily Allen’s nostalgic voice in the background). It’s quite easy to run a short debate on commercials and their influence on our lives, and then it’s just perfect to use the film I found On The Same Page (it’s just brilliant! thank you!).

After watching these inspiring ads I initiate a discussion about the commercial side of Christmas – how annoying it is to go into a shop fully decorated for Christmas right after Halloween, how some commercials can be real tearjerkers (yes, I still want to share some cheesy Christmas spirit even if I’m the Evil Empress of the World in the Making). I’m sure everyone has at least one spot they’ll watch whenever it’s on (like We All Need Warmth by Quechua, awww!).

You may pick some commercials from my padlet here. (Please do not hesitate to add some if you know any nice Christmas-themed commercials!) Each video may be used to ask some questions connected not only with commercials, but also with social issues – mostly family and friends, but also animal care etc.

The last Christmas commercial I have in mind is the one that already went viral – made for Allegro, a Polish auction website.

The discussion that follows this short film may be connected with various aspects. With elementary levels we may talk about difficulties we have while learning, with pre-int students we may talk about our own learning methods, with intermediate+ levels we may discuss the difference in learning (or language acquisition) between younger and older students, and more advanced groups can talk about the impact of migration on family lives and the decisions migrants face.