• Are you still meeting your obligation to teach based on goals and standards every day? If you have completed the lesson plans for the day that continue to address state standards and have time left over, you can do something holiday related.  It is imperative that the lesson plans are done, and we don’t abandon our usual teaching routine. We are obligated to teach the core standards.  
• What goals and objectives will the activity meet?  Even when creating holiday items, we should be teaching toward the goals and objectives set forth by our school and state.  The holiday items must a meaningful teaching tool.
• How can you ensure that core and state standards are being met?  If children are ripping paper, for example, they are practicing fine motor skills.  If children are drawing a pumpkin based on looking at a real pumpkin, they are documenting their own observations.  There is a very fine line between craft for the sake of decoration and activity that had a process based on early childhood teaching goals.  Ask yourself:
• Is it based on a real item that children have seen and can have a hands-on experience with?  I was in a school last year and all of the children were asked to decorate a menorah. I asked if they have seen a real menorah and learned about it from someone who is Jewish or is knowledgeable in its use.  They had not seen one and, when I asked them, they did not understand how or why it is used. Hands-on experience still matters.  Want to have children do something that looks like a pumpkin?  They should be examining a pumpkin.
• How can I communicate that this activity had an educational, goal related purpose? Your displays should be labeled with the objective(s) being taught and the process the children experienced.  
• Does it include all children – are you doing all of the holidays celebrated by families in your class?  In my diverse area of the country, focusing on Christmas and Chanukah simply isn’t good enough.  What about the children who celebrate Diwali or Eid or other traditions?  They have a right to feel that they belong.  When their holidays are happening, do we make an equal occasion of acknowledging them, creating for them and celebrating their heritage?  The obligation we have to ensure the healthy development of all children is one of the reasons that many schools have opted only to focus on national celebrations.  

“Just because we did it a certain way for 20 years, that doesn’t mean it was the best way. We know better now.” “You may be feeling strongly about this because of your own culture, beliefs and natural biases.  The children and their families might not feel the same.” “When we know better, we do better.”