Goal: Thematically-linked stations that incorporate fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for engaging ways to review+practice reading, writing, speaking, listening, vocabulary, and grammar concepts

December in middle school ELA has its own special kind of magic. 

Between holiday concerts, hot chocolate in travel mugs, and students counting down the days until Christmas break, the classroom energy is unreal. 

This is the perfect month to lean into that energy with Holiday Spirit Stations—literary, nonfiction, and poetry lessons that keep students engaged while giving you a breather from constant prep. 

Here’s a peek at how these seasonal stations come to life in my classroom. Steal my ideas, or click here and I’ll just send you all of it ready-made (PDF printables + Google slides versions, too)? 

🎄 December Fiction Stations for Middle School ELA

Your students get to experience the magic of Dickens without feeling like they’re drowning in 19th-century sentences. This month’s stations pair an excerpt from A Christmas Carol (original + modern translation)

My stations include hands-on reading, writing, grammar, and vocab activities that make the text feel alive and seasonal.

📖 Fiction Reading Station → Compare & Connect

• Students read both Dickens’ 1843 passage and a modern translation side by side
  
  
• Prompts push them to notice:
  
  • How language has changed over time.
    
  • The way Dickens builds atmosphere with long sentences and vivid detail.
    
  • Why even gloomy streets still “feel” joyful at Christmas.
    
• Purpose: Practice textual comparison + deepen comprehension through context.
  

✍️ Writing Station → Modern Rewrite Challenge

• Students pick a section of Dickens’ original and re-write it in modern language
  
  
• Tips include: swapping archaic words, breaking up sentences, and even sprinkling in modern slang.
  
• Purpose: Build paraphrasing + translation skills while boosting creativity and ownership.
  

📝 Grammar Station → Dickens’ Sentence Secrets

• Focus: sentence fragments, punctuation choices, and rhythm
  
  
• Students identify complete vs. incomplete sentences, break down Dickens’ famously long lists, and explore how commas/semicolons shape pacing.
  
• Purpose: Make grammar analysis authentic by connecting it to a literary master.
  

📚 Vocabulary Station → Holiday Word Hunt

• Words include plumping, ruddy, vanished, severe, diffuse
  Dec Fiction Vocabulary Practice
  .
  
• Students tackle multiple-choice practice, synonyms, and contextual meaning.
  
• Purpose: Strengthen vocab skills with words straight from the text—no random word list here.
  

✨ Result: Students engage with Dickens in a way that feels accessible, festive, and skill-based. By the end, they’re reading closely, writing creatively, editing thoughtfully, and expanding vocabulary—all wrapped in holiday spirit.

🦌 December Nonfiction Stations: The True Story Behind Rudolph

This nonfiction station set lets students uncover the real story of Rudolph—beyond the TV special and catchy tune. Robert May’s tale of turning personal struggle into holiday magic becomes the anchor text for reading, writing, grammar, and vocab practice.

📖 Nonfiction Reading Station → Dig Into Rudolph’s Origin Story

• Students read about Robert May, the advertising writer who created Rudolph during a tough time in his life
  
  
• Questions push students to analyze:
  
  • Why May wrote the story for his daughter.
    
  • How his childhood struggles shaped the character.
    
  • How Rudolph became a cultural phenomenon.
    
• Purpose: Practice identifying theme, author’s purpose, and text evidence
  
  

✍️ Writing Station → The Summary Challenge

• Students tackle summarizing in three rounds
  
  1. Full paragraph summary.
     
  2. Condense into 3 sentences.
     
  3. Shrink it further into 6 words.
     
• Purpose: Build summarizing skills while pushing students to zero in on main ideas.
  

📝 Grammar Station → Grammar in Context

• Students explore punctuation, sentence structure, and style through targeted practice (connected to the nonfiction passage).
  
• Example: noticing how commas/periods change pacing, and where long sentences could be broken up.
  
• Purpose: Make grammar instruction meaningful by anchoring it in real text

🎲 Vocabulary Station → Holiday Word Games

• Key words: charmed, mocked, distributed, desperate, generations
  
• Practice through Charades, Pictionary, and Telestrations (yep, vocab meets game day).
  
• Purpose: Students internalize word meanings through movement, drawing, and play.
  

❄️ December Poetry Stations: “Winter-Time” by Robert Louis Stevenson

This poetry station set captures all the frosty feels of the season. Students explore imagery, rhythm, and winter vocabulary while practicing core ELA skills in approachable, hands-on ways.

📖 Poetry Reading Station → Imagery & Mood

• Students read Stevenson’s “Winter-Time”
  
• Discussion prompts push them to notice:
  
  • “Frosty pepper” up the nose → sensory imagery.
    
  • Frost as a “wedding-cake” → figurative language.
    
  • How tone shifts from cold misery to cozy enjoyment
    
• Purpose: Practice identifying mood, figurative language, and tone shifts in poetry.
  

✍️ Writing Station → Response Prompts

• Students pick a writing prompt and create a short response
  
• Options include: analyzing imagery, comparing beginning vs. ending tone, or describing the mood.
  
• Purpose: Strengthen written analysis skills and personal interpretation.
  

📝 Grammar Station → Poetry Mechanics

• Focus: punctuation, rhyme, and sentence structure
  
• Tasks include numbering lines/stanzas, marking punctuation, and identifying rhymes.
  
• Purpose: Reinforce grammar and mechanics through authentic poetry study.
  

📚 Vocabulary Station → Winter Word Poems

• Seasonal vocab: frosted, solstice, snowdrift, permafrost, blizzard, hibernation, blanketed
  
• Students create mini-poems (haiku, acrostic, cinquain, or concrete) using these terms.
  
• Purpose: Blend creative expression with vocabulary mastery.
  

✨ Result: Students practice analysis, writing, grammar, and vocabulary through a wintry poem that feels both timeless and accessible—perfect for keeping engagement high in December.

The December Holiday Spirit stations bring together rigor and joy—students get to read, write, analyze, and build vocab skills while also soaking up the festive theme. 

And the best part? You don’t have to build them yourself if you don’t want to. My Ready, Set, Stations™ collection includes every December activity (plus stations for the rest of the year), so you can bring the holiday magic into your ELA classroom without losing your evenings to planning.

👉 Grab your December set here: Ready, Set, Stations™ and spend this month sipping your favorite seasonal bevvy of choice instead of puzzle-pieceing lesson ideas together.