Classroom Holiday Door Decoration Ideas

The holiday season brings families and friends together as feelings of cheerfulness and giving thanks flow through the air. However, as the school year draws closer to the extended break, every teacher faces hyperactive students who are getting increasingly restless with excitement. Although you want your students to focus on their schoolwork, encouraging them to celebrate the holidays can help them to recenter their attention while providing essential mental breaks.

Decorating your classroom door can be an excellent way to help your students expend some energy and refocus in the classroom. It’s also a great way to encourage your students to get excited about the upcoming break and stay in the holiday spirit. Check out these classroom door decorations to get you and your students excited about the holiday season.

1. Festive Snowman

With foam cups, fake snow, snowflakes, construction paper, black felt flat sheets and a scarf, you can create a smiley snowman to greet your students as they prepare for another day in class. The festive snowman makes a great classroom project that allows your students to participate in the fun.

Ask them to color the cups with fun designs or encourage them to create small snowflakes for the background. Use hot glue to set the 3D snowman against a construction paper background on your door. Use the felt to craft a smiley face and a tall top hat. You can use orange construction paper to construct a bright nose. Then, glue the snowflakes and fake snow to the background and enjoy your new classroom greeter.

2. Gingerbread House

Creative ideas for your door can be simple and fun while making an impact on your students. Many children love the idea of walking into a real-life gingerbread house, so decorate your door to bring their fantasies to life. Grab some brown butcher paper, bulletin board borders and construction paper. You will also need scissors for your students, coloring supplies and candy to celebrate your finished door.

Begin by wrapping your door and the wall around it with butcher paper. Ensure you cut spaces around the knob and hinges, so the paper doesn’t catch when you open or close it. Use the bulletin border to outline the roof and sides of the house like icing. Provide candy stencils for your students or encourage them to create large colorful gumdrops to glue on the top of the house. Use brown construction paper to craft one large gingerbread man, or have each student make a unique one.

Place them on the door to welcome your students inside the classroom.

3. Giant Reindeer

Some classroom door decorations are sweet and simple, but this idea is larger than life. Use brown and red construction paper to craft a simple reindeer face on your door. Make large antlers protrude from the top and cover part of the wall. You can make your eye-catching door even more beautiful by asking your students to paint or color paper ornaments to hang from the antlers.

4. Walking in a Winter Wonderland

If you’re not afraid of getting messy in your classroom, you can decorate your door with a visual representation of one of the well-known classic Christmas songs. Use a large roll of blue paper and lay it on the floor. Prepare a plate of washable white paint for each student to step in. Have them remove their shoes and socks, dip the bottom of their foot in the paint and make a noticeable footprint on the paper.

After all the footprints dry, encourage your students to decorate their marks by adding felt pieces and using markers to make little snowmen all over the paper. Finish the decoration by gluing the song lyrics at the top of the paper before taping it to your door.

5. Personal Snow Globes

Using clear plastic plates and construction paper, your older students can make their own snow globes. Choose a plain background for your door to make the snow globes stand out. Then, pass out the clear plates and art supplies. They can paint, draw, sketch, color with vibrant markers or otherwise decorate their globes however they want to. Glue the globes to the door and write each student’s name underneath them or on the construction paper snow globe stand.

If your students want to do a personal project, have them cut out pictures of themselves to glue on the plate. You can make it a classroom activity by stepping outside in the snow to take each student’s full-body picture to print out later. They can glue themselves into the snow globes and showcase themselves next to Christmas trees, snowmen and other winter landscapes.

6. Swinging Snowman

To make a swinging snowman door, you only need to have your students color or design a paper light bulb. Tape plain colored paper to your door to create a backdrop, and use bright colored markers to draw a string of lights. Ensure you make a closed string with a flat bottom to act as the swing.

Tape your students’ bulb creations or ask them to draw directly on the paper. Then, use a giant sheet of construction paper to craft a happy snowman swinging among the light bulbs.

7. Take an Elfie

Classroom holiday door decorations can be interactive and fun. You can encourage your students to celebrate your classroom instruction and promote their excitement for the holidays by creating a door they can take pictures in. This idea only works if you have a window in your classroom door, but it requires a few other materials.

Cover the front of the door with Christmas-colored paper and tape the body of an elf below the window. On the back of the door, tape a small elf hat or ears. Then, use a dark-colored piece of paper to hang over the back of the window above the hat. This way, when your students peak through, their pictures won’t have any classroom materials or other people.

8. Chemis-tree

Christmas door decorations can reflect your area of expertise in unique ways. Science teachers can get in the Christmas spirit by making a Chemis-tree. Teachers and students can construct a geometric Christmas tree using squares from the periodic table. You can use pipe cleaners or fun sparkle stems to decorate the tree with makeshift tinsel and use more elements to make miniature Christmas presents under the tree.

9. Handprint Tree

Each student can lend a hand in creating this Christmas tree. Using green construction paper, your students can trace their hands and cut out their prints to make the tree. It will take quite a few handprints to craft this decoration, so ensure you have enough paper to make plenty of handprints and get multiple handprints out of each sheet.

Make sure the handprints point the fingers to the ground to mimic the look of pine trees. You can use varying colors of dark green, light green and some black to add depth to the tree and use other colors to create ornaments and tinsel once you finish it.

10. Rudolph Door

Rudolph is a favorite of many adults and children, and crafting a cute version of the classic character for your door is simple. All you need is brown butcher paper, red tissue paper, construction paper and a red garland.

The butcher paper will serve as the giant face of Rudolph. Brown construction paper can make the antlers, while white and black pieces will make the eyes and mouth. The red tissue paper will act as the bright red nose, and the garland will add the sparkle it needs to stand out.

11. Your Students Are Worth Melting For

Another favorite holiday character is Olaf from “Frozen.” Using his famous line, “Some people are worth melting for,” you can create a cute door decoration that shows your appreciation for all the work your students are putting in.

Print a giant cutout or draw and cut your own Olaf and paste it against a blue background. Swap out the wording so it reads that your students are worth melting for. For instance, if you teach third grade, write, “Third graders are worth melting for.” Add a bright sun to the corner and cover the rest of the door with snowflakes your students make.

12. Snoopy’s Christmas

Transform your door into Snoopy’s doghouse to pay homage to Charlie Brown. With red paper and fake snow, you can make your door appear as Snoopy’s doghouse, sitting on top of a snow-covered landscape. You can use cardboard and paper to create the roof of the doghouse and make it pop out above your door.

If you have a blank wall next to the door, you can add the cast of characters to bring the scene to life. Paint Christmas lights and tinsel, or get creative with your classroom materials to deck Snoopy’s doghouse in holiday style.

13. Advent Calendar

Many families enjoy doing an advent calendar during the holidays to count down to the final days before Christmas and other celebrations. You can put a fun twist on the tradition by putting one in your classroom. You can use a picture or name tag of each student and hide them behind pieces of paper. Count your students and how many days of school you have left before the holiday break begins to determine when you need to have your calendar ready.

Each day, remove one piece of paper to reveal the student’s picture or the name behind it. At this point, you can implement some prizes, rewards or speaking opportunities. Perhaps you set out a candy bowl, and each student can choose a piece when you show their name or picture. You could also ask each student about their holiday break or favorite holiday tradition. You can add fun activities and prizes or find creative ways to celebrate your students and their family traditions.

14. Thankful Tree

Christmas isn’t the only holiday to celebrate as the year comes to a close. Thanksgiving also falls into the holiday season, and there are plenty of ways to get your students excited about it. With construction paper and stencils, you and your students can create a cute tree that expresses what they love most. Use brown construction or butcher paper to create the tree. Make sure you include lots of branches and leave space on one side of the door for a pile of leaves.

Draw a leaf stencil or print a few for your students to trace. Make sure they’re big enough to write at least a few words. If you have a small class, consider asking them to complete three or four leaves. If you have a large class, one or two leaves a person should suffice. Use red, brown, orange and yellow construction paper to reflect fall colors. Once your students finish their leaves, glue them to the tree branches and add a couple to the bottom for a colorful pile of leaves.

15. Minion Pilgrims

Minion pilgrims are an excellent idea for your classroom door because you can easily transform them into little elves for a seamless transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas. To make the pilgrim version, you will need yellow paper to cover the top half of your door. Black paper will cover the bottom half and help you construct the brim of the hat above the door, the minion’s eye and the goggle strap.

Use white paper to complete the minion’s eye and to create the flaps of a shirt or jacket. Add three small circles of white paper to look like buttons. Then, use brown paper to complete the rest of the top hat above the door and add a small white buckle to the front.

To transform the minion pilgrim into an elf, swap out the hat and black shirt for some Christmas colors. Give your minion a red and green elf hat and dress it like Santa Claus. You can stretch cotton balls to make a fluffy beard and for extra stuffing to keep your minion warm under their red suit and festive hat.

16. Ringing in the New Year

As the school year comes to a close, a new year is right around the corner. Your students will be preparing to kickstart their resolutions and you’ll be ready to dive into new materials and finish the academic year strong. You can celebrate the incoming year by decorating your door with bells that showcase your students’ New Year’s resolutions. This classroom door decoration is very simple. All you need is high-quality masking tape, colored paper, a bell stencil and whatever coloring or writing utensils your students need.

Ask your students to trace and cut a bell from construction paper. Have them write their names at the top and their New Year resolutions below them. Tape each bell to your door and encourage your students to check their goals as the year progresses. You can use stickers or cut letters from paper and tape “Ringing in the New Year” to the top of the door. You can also make it stand out by adding gold glitter to each bell.

Decorate Your Door With The Classroom Store

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From essentials like classic composition notebooks and high-quality educational resources for students with special needs to the fun materials you want for classroom decorations, we have everything you need. You can support your students from early education to graduation by finding the best materials to enhance their academic experiences.

Shop our classroom materials and find the supplies you need to support your students and create an enriching and fun environment for learning.