Creative Classroom Door Decor Ideas for the Holidays

As the holidays near, the excitement can start building in classrooms. Long breaks get closer, people’s thoughts start turning to gifts and students can lose concentration on their schoolwork. But the holidays don’t have to burden your teaching — you can use them to help you in the classroom.

Decorating your door acknowledges the holidays and brings some of that excitement into the learning experience. By blending some fun decorations with the daily learning process, you can help your students concentrate and become more involved in the classroom.

Why Decorate Your Classroom Door?

Decorating your classroom door might seem like a small detail in your daily life as a teacher. But this simple task can have many benefits and help your students build a better relationship with learning as a whole. Here are some ways decorating your classroom door can benefit your students:

• Build an engaging atmosphere: Door decorating helps students become active in the learning process. A blank door doesn’t do anything to stimulate a student. But, a colorful poster or picture can engage someone and allow them to start the learning process even before they enter the room. The door acts as a symbol of what the rest of your classroom will be like, so you should put the effort in to make it a representation of an engaging environment.
• Inspire growth: Students can learn by simply looking at a poster. Their concentration may naturally wander and fall on the posters lining the classroom door. If these posters contain valuable material, the learning process continues almost by accident. The door could also showcase artwork the class made together, expressing the importance of teamwork and creating a way for students to make the classroom an extension of themselves. Decorating your door is about more than looks — it’s about inspiring your students to embrace a continuous journey of growth in their lives.
• Make learning fun: Lastly, classroom door decorations will make learning more fun. Blank doors and white walls can harm even the most inspired student’s mindset. Decorating your door takes some of the stress out of their day and tells students they’re entering a classroom where learning doesn’t have to be strenuous and boring — it can be enjoyable.

Door Decoration Materials

You can decorate your door in endless ways, but before you begin, you’ll have to find the right materials. You’ll want a good range of materials to offer to your students. If you already have a decoration in mind, buy materials that align with this. But if you’re going for more general decorations or would like to see what your students’ imaginations can create, you can also choose a wide variety of materials. Even for these general decorations, you can still be confident in ordering the basics, such as:

• Construction paper
• Art paper
• Poster boards
• Colored pencils
• Crayons
• Glue and adhesives
• Markers
• Oil pastels
• Paint and paint brushes
• Scissors

The materials may differ based on the ages of your students, but these options are a great starting point for door decorations. You can also add your own accessories and materials, such as glitter, pipe cleaners, stencils, buttons and feathers, to make your designs stand out.

How to Involve Your Students in Door Decorating

Door decorations are great ways to engage your students and create fun learning environments. To really inspire them, you can involve your students in the door decorating process. This will give them a genuine connection with their environment and let them take pride in what they’ve created. Here are some ways to involve your students in door decorating:

• Create a decoration contest: A door decoration contest is a great way to inspire your students’ imaginations by involving friendly competition. You can have multiple classrooms compete against one another for the best door. It will add some fun to your students’ day and help them bond over a focused goal.
• Collaborate for decorations: Make door decorating an involved, collaborative experience. Have your students talk amongst themselves to develop a general idea or theme to decorate the door with. Write ideas on a whiteboard and have them vote or gradually narrow down their choices. You can take a leading role or simply survey how the brainstorming progresses. Collaboration lets students cooperate and settle on one decoration they can all be content with. Though some people probably won’t get their favorite choice, the process will show the importance of compromising for a shared benefit.
• Pick a theme: You can also guide your students and pick a theme yourself. Depending on your design idea, it can give students a loose framework that can spark their imagination without being too constricting. Your chosen concept can involve a holiday category like Christmas or the New Year, or it can be as simple as using certain colors. This simple detail of picking a theme will often give the little boost your students need to start coming up with decoration ideas.

Whatever method you choose, involving your learners in door decorating is a rewarding experience. Students will work together, use their imaginations and create something you can display on the classroom door. It gives them something to be proud of and expresses their personality in the classroom through creativity.

11 Classroom Holiday Door Decoration Ideas

You know you want to decorate your door, but sometimes you might have trouble coming up with ideas. On the other end, you might have so many ideas that you don’t know which one to choose. It helps to have a solid, concise list to sift through so that you can select the most fitting concept for your classroom to keep learners engaged.

Here are 11 holiday door decoration ideas to jog your mind:

1. Snowman Books

For a more involved holiday-themed door decoration with multiple layers, have your students draw snowmen from a stencil and cut them out. They can color in and personalize their snowmen and then draw the snowmen holding their favorite book. The book could be Christmas-themed or just their favorite book in general.

This concept is the ideal decoration to pair with a book report and offers an awesome way for students to personalize their snowmen with something school-related. You can stick these snowmen on your door for a colorful, personal holiday decoration that encompasses your entire class with each student’s literary interests.

2. Poster Frame

Convert your door into a giant poster of a familiar holiday book or movie. You can do so by getting some butcher paper to cover your door with and picking your favorite Christmas cover to remake. This idea doesn’t just have to be from a movie or book — simply decorate your door with snowmen, polar bears or the elves in Santa’s workshop to make a unique environment in your classroom.

3. Snow Globes

This concept offers another great way to involve the whole classroom. Each student can craft a unique snow globe. Simply have them trace out a snow globe, color it and fill it with whatever they wish. They can add a drawing of their family, the gifts they want for Christmas or a sketch of Santa’s workshop and his team of elves.

If you don’t have time for a classwide art project, you can turn your whole door into a giant snow globe by adding the borders of fake glass and some snowflakes. Then, your door will give the impression of walking into a magical atmosphere.

4. 3D Tree

A 3D tree might seem complex to make, but it isn’t so challenging with the right materials. Get some construction paper, use a stencil to cut out the rough shape of a rhombus and curl and stack the pieces of paper. Soon, you’ll start to see the image of a tree popping off your door. For some personalization, you could even have each student claim their own piece of the tree with their name or favorite design.

From there, you could add some 3D presents under the tree or a fireplace for even more detail.

5. Snowflakes

Snowflakes are a classic way to decorate your classroom door. There’s a reason why they’re so popular — they’re fairly easy to make, and your students can personalize them any way they want. All you’ll need is some scissors, colored pencils and crayons, and you can let your students get creative crafting their snowflakes. Then, glue them onto construction paper and put them on your door. This design will add some color and personality to your classroom, and your students can add a personal touch to the environment.

6. Beach Holiday

Short days and cold weather can start to impact a learning environment. If you live in a colder climate, the holiday months could be particularly dreary. You can liven things up with a holiday-themed tropical door decoration.

Add a beach, palm trees and some crystal-clear water to some fadeless paper and display it on your door. This beach getaway can give the classroom simulated warmth and tranquility that can inspire learning.

7. Personalized Tree

This decoration can bring your whole class together. To create the tree, each student can trace and cut their handprint out of construction paper. You can then place these paper handprints together so they resemble the fur needles on a pine tree. For further personalization, learners can add their pictures or create ornaments to hang on the tree.

8. Movie Themes

Everyone loves a good Christmas movie. See if your class can decide on their favorite one, or choose a film you may have watched in the classroom. Here are a few ideas for movie-themed holiday door decorations:

• “The Polar Express”: As a Christmas classic, “The Polar Express” can offer a fun and unique way to decorate your door. Using pencils, paint and pastels, you can create the train from the classic movie and design it so that it’s speeding outside or inside the classroom. You can also make the door into a giant Polar Express ticket with the word “Believe” across the front.
• “A Charlie Brown Christmas”: Decorate your door with those familiar, favorite characters from the Charlie Brown holiday special. You can even recreate the iconic scene with Snoopy and Charlie Brown and their tiny Christmas tree.
• “Elf”: “Elf” gave us a classic spin on holiday cheer. Celebrate this Christmas film using green and yellow fabric and a quill to bring the protagonist to life, and decorate the background with snowflakes and a winter wonderland. You can also plaster one of Buddy the Elf’s classic lines on your door for all to see.
• “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”: There can’t be a Christmas door decorations list without mentioning this idea. The Narnia plot plays directly into opening up a door into a new world, where you can learn, become inspired and grow as a person. For an immersive and fun design, decorate your door with aspects of Narnia, such as the classic light post surrounded by snow and pine trees. Use paints and pastels for a colorful design, or try colored pencils for precision and intricate detail.

9. Gingerbread House

A gingerbread house can be an easy decoration to pull off if you can find large sheets of brown butcher paper. From there, line your doors with white paper resembling frosting, and add some gingerbread men and women, candy canes, peppermints and windows. The key to a great design is to go beyond the door — add multiple sections around the door and incorporate a roof for a realistic holiday door decoration.

10. Ugly Sweater

Make your classroom door into a giant ugly sweater. Have your students add buttons, glitter, confetti, pony beads and gemstones to create a truly personalized Christmas sweater with a bit of creativity from everyone. It may not look neat, but it will be the product of the whole class working together to create something unique.

11. Kindness Mittens

This last tip presents a great way to celebrate the holidays and promote kindness in your students. Have your students use a stencil to draw and cut out a mitten, and let them color and design their mittens. They can then cut out a piece of white construction paper and glue it onto the mitten. For this piece, have them write something kind they’d like to do for someone in the future or something kind someone has done for them in the past. Attach the mittens to your door or onto a class-made Christmas tree decoration.

This idea celebrates small acts of kindness and promotes those warm, fuzzy feelings that the holidays are all about.

Buy Door Decoration Materials at The Classroom Store

Classroom holiday door decorations are an awesome way to engage students, create a fun environment and celebrate the holidays. Now that you have ideas for what you can craft, all you have to do is get the materials.

The Classroom Store offers a huge selection of supplies and art materials for classrooms, including coloring and paint supplies, glues and adhesives, craft materials and so much more. Our unique products will give you all the decorative elements you’re looking for. Shop our art materials today, or contact us for any questions you may have.