Student Behavior During the Holidays: 5 Potential Stressors
Student behavior during the holidays can shift for reasons that aren't obvious from the outside. This teacher's account describes five potential stressors she has observed in her own classroom: inconsistent structure, overstimulation, calendar countdowns, unsupportive classrooms, and too many special events. What helps one student may not help another.
It's here, it's here! My favorite time of the year! I love the hustle and bustle of shoppers and crowds. I love that everyone comes home to be together and that I get to play Christmas music twenty-four hours a day and sit in the glow of my twinkly tree. I love the baking and making plates of cookies for all my friends and family. I love celebrating with my kids in my classroom. Making gifts, teaching them about the holidays, kindness, and how it is better to give than receive. Until one day after school in 2013, I had a student come to my room when he had been sent out of class and told to go walk laps to try to regulate himself. He came into my Sensory Room, and we began talking about his triggers. He said that he hated Christmas music (yes, I had it playing in my room) because it made him sad. He was never happy and couldn't wait for this time of the year to be over. When I pressed him as to why, he responded that it reminded him that his family had no money; they always fought during this time of the year, and he hated getting excited and then not getting anything at Christmas. What was even worse was listening to everyone in his class talk about all the wonderful things they were going to do or get for Christmas, and he did not want to let anyone know he was getting nothing. He always felt like he was doing something wrong.
That story hit me hard because I always felt that everyone loved Christmas and the holiday season, and I never stopped to think that there were some out there that had nothing positive to look forward to. I began to do some research and found that I was shocked by some of the statistics I discovered. According to the USDA's Economic Research Service, there are 3.3 million households in America in which both adults and children are food insecure-which means they have limited or inconsistent access to food that is both nutritious and safe.[1] We go home for a full week during Christmas break, and a stretch of days away from school can mean something different to one student than it does to another. Some students rely on meals provided at school. Some families are making hard financial decisions in December. But which student is which is not something I can read off a face, and I have stopped trying to guess. Some kids will tell you exactly what they want for Christmas. Others answer, "I don't know", or "I'm okay, I don't need anything." There are plenty of reasons a child might say that, and only some of them have to do with money.
It is also worth remembering how much students carry that we never see. Over the course of a school year, public schools identify more than 1.5 million children and youth experiencing homelessness. Child protective services agencies confirm roughly 546,000 children as victims of abuse or neglect. And about one in five students ages 12 to 18 report being bullied at school. Those numbers tell us how common these experiences are. They do not tell us which student in front of us is living one of them, or what any particular student needs. What I can say is that some students do better when they know what the day holds, and a classroom that runs on clear procedures gives them one less thing to wonder about.[2]
Stress shows up in classrooms, and sometimes it shows up as behavior we do not immediately understand. Behavior has many possible causes, and without individual information about a student, we are guessing at which one applies. We think it will be so much fun to make gifts and write cards for our families or to create Ugly Sweater Art and share with our classes. If we are not paying attention, we may miss that these activities land differently for different students. Here are five factors I watch when student behavior during the holidays starts to change in my room.
Inconsistent Structure
When teaching, do you ever feel so tired that you try to find something "easier" to do with the students? This simply means you do not want to have to do an activity or lesson where you are "on" the entire time. For a student who relies on knowing what comes next, an unplanned change adds one more unknown to the day. For example, if they usually have math at 10 am and now you are scrapping math and watching a movie, they may start to wonder when you are doing math, whether you will take away their favorite writing time, or whether math will now happen while they are out of the room for pull-out services. Predictable routines can help some students, particularly those who do better with advance notice and structure. During the holiday season, fight the urge to change a lot of things around during your school day. Pick some special activities ahead of time and put them up on a visible daily schedule. It will keep you and your students on track. When you randomly change events in your day, these changes lead you to be less prepared. You may scramble around the room finding materials or rounding up supplies needed for the new change. Less prepared time often means more downtime, and more downtime gives behaviors room to surface. Some students also worry about the class getting in trouble, and that worry can be a hard one for them to put down.
Chaos and Overstimulation
A lot of students do not do well with chaos, even though sometimes it feels like they bring on the chaos. A busier, louder December can coincide with more behavior in the room. Some students find a noisy, crowded environment harder to work in than others, and that can show up as restlessness, a short fuse, trouble getting started, or trouble staying with a task. The holidays are full of potential situations, as there are schedule changes with holiday programs and practice, gift and card making, Christmas parties, the anticipation of Santa, and being home for the entire break. A lot of these events you do not have much control over, so find your power in other places. Lower lighting, a slower and quieter speaking pace, one-step directions, and capping the extras at one activity a day are all worth trying. None of them work for every student, and for a student with an IEP or 504 plan, the accommodations written into that plan come first. A quick and sometimes very negative trigger proves to be when students are not given ample time to complete a task. If they are engaged and working hard, consider letting the activity continue if time runs out so that kids can feel closure with the assignment.
Calendar Time
Counting down to break is not the same experience for every student. While you are counting down to Christmas and most of the class is celebrating almost being done, another student may hear "Only three days left until break, yay!" as "Oh no, only three days left until break." Two weeks away from school is a known quantity for some kids and an open question for others. Around this time of year, you may see more of what I call "oozing." Students make noises, roll on the floor, hide or run. They tear papers up or scribble all over a worksheet or notebook page. They get into fights at recess or become aggressive. These are worth treating as possible signs that a student needs support, and the reasons behind them vary widely. Some have nothing to do with the season at all. Rather than guessing at a cause, I treat the behavior as information and go looking for the rest of it through the people who actually have it, which usually means the family, the counselor, and whatever team already knows the student. I find myself talking slower and quieter during this time. I also offer choices where I can, which gives students a say in how the work gets done. I add in more quiet work time, Daily 5 rotations (because they are my students' favorite part of their day), and any other calming activity that engages their thinking. I offer more partner work too, because when a student is struggling to get work done alone, a partner can help them keep going.
Unsupportive Classrooms
I spent the whole month of December using my read-alouds that focus on character development. I also teach Zones of Regulation for a few minutes each morning and really work on my Olweus anti-bullying class meetings during this month. I also started projects earlier in the year that support my students in noticing each other doing something kind. I always tell my students that we will get what we pay attention to, and therefore, I want to pay attention to all the positive things that are happening in our classroom and our school. Do you find that during the holidays behaviors amp up? Do you find that students go through and cause a lot more drama? It seems sometimes they just keep grumbling and complaining or tattling. Their stamina struggles just like ours. Since I have been consistent in focusing on a classroom where we highlight positive actions and recognize them when I or someone else notices, my room has felt calmer to me. I cannot tell you that one caused the other. It is what I have observed. I started an Affirmation Wall[3] at the beginning of the year that I read about on a great site called www.cultofpedagogy.com. I have my students write letters to each other every day, and then they "mail" them in our class mailbox. I then go through the letters for content and appropriateness and mail them out for students the next morning. I have since refined the focus by having the students choose one person each day that they have never or seldom ever written to or talked to before. The letters stay on ordinary, voluntary actions a classmate chose to take: helping someone, giving a compliment, inviting a left-out student to play. Students are not asked to watch, track, or comment on a classmate's behavior, self-control, or anything connected to a disability, and I read every letter before it goes out. I have seen students rush to help someone pick up dropped books or papers, invite others to play, sit with different kids in the lunchroom, and stay in at recess to help someone finish a math assignment. Those are the moments I want the class to notice.
Too Many Special Events
Special events are fun for a lot of kids and parents and teachers. They can also be hard for some families, and the reasons vary from family to family. A caregiver may not be able to get time off work, or may not have a way to get to the school. A gift exchange, a class party, or a dress-up holiday program can land in a week when the money for it is not there. I do not assume any of this about a particular student, and I cannot tell from the outside which families are in which situation. What I can do is plan events that do not require anyone to explain themselves in order to take part. While I believe we should still have these special events, I believe we should use grace and empathy to drive our planning of these events. Try to plan a super-fun-you-don't-want-to-miss-it art project or activity after the program, so students who are still at school have something to look forward to. Have a plan for supplementing a gift exchange so all may participate. Give all families plenty of heads-up, because more lead time helps everyone. One caution from experience: if your school runs a fund, a donation drive, or a family assistance program, route this through it. Identifying families who need help, collecting donations, and matching sponsors touch on student privacy and district policy, and those are decisions for your school rather than for an individual teacher working from impressions. Your counselor, social worker, or family liaison will know what the procedure is.
Holidays can be stressful and expensive, and for some kids they bring more worry than enjoyment. Keep these five potential stressors in mind when you plan. Communicating your expectations from the first day of school and working on empathy across the year will not guarantee anyone a smooth December, but it can make the classroom a more predictable and supportive place to be when the season arrives. As students support each other and show more empathy, the season has a better chance of feeling like the most wonderful time of the year for more of them.
[1] "Household Food Security in the United States in 2024." U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. ers.usda.gov. Accessed 3 Sept. 2026.
[2] Homelessness figure: "Education of Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness in the United States." U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Homeless Education. nche.ed.gov. Abuse and neglect figure: "Child Maltreatment 2023." U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children's Bureau. acf.gov. Bullying figure: "Student Bullying." National Center for Education Statistics. nces.ed.gov.
[3] "Classroom Eye Candy 1: A Flexible-Seating Paradise | Cult of Pedagogy." 19 Nov. 2015, cultofpedagogy.com. Accessed 3 Sept. 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I handle holiday activities when some of my students don't celebrate?
Start with your district's curriculum and religious-holiday policy, which usually sets the boundaries for what can happen in a classroom. Keep activities academically grounded and do not require any student to take part in religious observance. Seasonal framing can help, but it is not automatically neutral, since winter, light, and giving activities carry cultural and religious associations of their own. When you are unsure, ask your administrator or curriculum coordinator before you plan it.
What should I expect the first week back from winter break?
Plan to reestablish routines rather than assume students remember them. Reteach the schedule and review expectations the way you would in September. Adjust pacing based on what students actually show you that week rather than deciding in advance that the class needs a lighter load.
Should I cancel special events if some students can't participate?
Not usually. Canceling removes the event without addressing what made it hard to attend. Plan for participation instead: keep a supply of extras on hand so nobody has to bring their own, work through your school's existing assistance channels rather than arranging help yourself, and give families enough notice to plan around it.
How far ahead should I tell students about schedule changes?
As soon as you know. Put the change on a visible daily schedule and walk through it during your morning routine. Advance notice helps some students more than others, and reactions to a change in the day are individual, so pay attention to which students in your room benefit from the heads-up and which ones do not need it.
- Routines can help some students - Predictable days give a student who does better with advance notice one less unknown to manage in December.
- Countdowns land differently - "Three days left" is not good news to every student in the room.
- Turning the volume down is worth trying - Lower lighting, a slower pace, and one extra activity a day may help some students, and IEP or 504 accommodations come first.
- Plan events so nobody has to opt out - Keep extras on hand and work through your school's assistance channels rather than arranging help informally.
- Behavior is information, not a diagnosis - A student struggling in December may need support, and the reason is rarely something you can read from the outside.
If you're weighing coursework in special education, behavior support, or school counseling, the sponsored programs on this page include options built for teachers who are already in a classroom. Certification/licensure and endorsement requirements for special education and school counseling vary by state and may include approved preparation, specific degrees/coursework, supervised experience, and assessments. Verify that a program meets your state's requirements before enrolling.
- 11 Strategies to Encourage Students to Own Their Learning - January 19, 2018
- Student Behavior During the Holidays: 5 Potential Stressors - December 21, 2017
- 10 First-Year Teacher Struggles That Catch Veterans Too - November 27, 2017
