Christmas Similes & Metaphors KS2 🎄✨ | Festive Figurative Language Made Fun
Christmas is a magical time of year — frosty mornings, twinkling lights and the excitement of presents and performances!
Teaching Christmas Similes & Metaphors KS2 is a wonderful way to help children deepen descriptive writing, expand vocabulary and bring festive imagery to life through poetry.
Through Christmas figurative language lessons, pupils can:
✨ Compare winter scenes using similes and metaphors
❄️ Build powerful sensory vocabulary
🎭 Perform verses with expression and humour
📝 Create atmospheric winter poems
🎤 Share their work in assemblies or Christmas showcases
If your pupils enjoy practical, lively poetry activities, you can book me for Online Poetry Workshops or Poetry Days in school.
💡 Why Teach Christmas Similes & Metaphors?
Christmas provides rich imagery that children instantly connect with — snowflakes, stars, reindeer, presents, firesides and festivities.
Similes and metaphors help KS2 pupils:
Add colour and imagination to their writing
Describe emotions and scenes in more depth
Develop confidence using figurative language
Understand comparison, symbolism and mood
Christmas poetry is also perfect for linking English with Art, Music, PSHE and even Science (states of matter, winter weather, light and shadow).
🔗 Related:
Teaching Figurative Language KS2 |
Winter Poems KS2 |
Christmas Shape Poems KS2 |
Funny Christmas Poems KS2 |
KS2 Poetry Vocabulary Mats | Word Banks for Better Poems |
Frozen-Inspired Winter Poems KS2 |
Performance Poetry in Primaries |
7 Creative Poetry Starters for KS2
Great for teachers looking to save time!
🎄 Poem 1 – A Christmas Morning
by Ian Bland
The snow is as soft as icing sugar,
The air as crisp as bitten toast.
The tree stands like a sparkling tower,
Glittering more than most.
The presents are soldiers on parade,
All waiting for the fight,
To see which child will choose them first,
At the dawn of Christmas light.
💡 Activity Ideas for Poem 1
1️⃣ Festive Similes Hunt
Ask pupils to find all similes in the poem (“as soft as icing sugar”, “as crisp as bitten toast”).
Then challenge them to create three new Christmas similes, for example:
“as bright as Santa’s smile”
“as red as Rudolph’s nose”
“as cold as the North Pole wind”
Perfect for working with adjectives + sensory vocabulary.
2️⃣ Build-a-Metaphor Christmas Tree 🎄
Use the line “The tree stands like a sparkling tower” as inspiration.
Ask children to write metaphors describing a tree:
“The tree was a lighthouse of glitter.”
“The tree became a glowing forest giant.”
Display their lines on paper baubles.
3️⃣ Present Patrol! 🚨 (Drama + Performance)
Children choose one “present” metaphor (presents as soldiers on parade).
In groups, they rehearse a short performance showing:
marching
waiting
revealing
excitement building
This turns figurative language into movement and voice expression.
🔗 Related:
Performance Poetry KS2 |
Teaching Powerful Verbs Through Poetry |
🎁 Poem 2 – The Christmas Classroom
by Ian Bland
Our classroom is a snow globe,
Shaken by December cheer.
Our laughter rings like silver bells,
That everyone can hear.
The teacher is a shining star,
Guiding us through festive fun.
And we are elves on secret tasks,
Until the holidays have begun!
💡 Activity Ideas for Poem 2
1️⃣ Simile vs Metaphor Sorting Game
Provide pupils with cut-out lines from the poem:
“a snow globe” → metaphor
“rings like silver bells” → simile
“a shining star” → metaphor
Add extra challenges:
“My jumper is as itchy as holly.”
“The playground was a frost-covered kingdom.”
Sorting activities are great for retrieval and mastery.
2️⃣ Write Your Own “Christmas Classroom” Verse 🎄✏️
Use this simple structure:
Line 1: Setting as a metaphor
Line 2: Sound-based simile
Line 3: Teacher or friend metaphor
Line 4: Character action (elves, reindeer, snowflakes)
Example scaffold:
“Our hall became a winter cave…”
“Voices echoed like distant sleigh bells…”
3️⃣ Festive Sound Effects Task 🔔
The line “rings like silver bells” is a perfect cue for exploring onomatopoeia.
Challenge children to write festive sound words:
“jingle”
“crunch”
“whoosh”
“crackle”
This links beautifully to Cross-Curricular Poetry KS2.
🔗 Teaching Rhythm and Rhyme KS2 🔗 Christmas Poems For Assemblies KS1 & KS2 🔗 Festive Poetry Ideas KS2
🔗 International School Poetry Workshops For KS1 And KS2
Hundreds of FREE poetry ideas, activities and resources-ready to download!
❄️ Poem 3 – Winter Night Magic
by Ian Bland
The moon is a frosted lantern,
Hanging in a midnight sky.
The stars shine like tiny snowflakes,
Drifting silently by.
The world becomes a silver blanket,
When winter starts to glow.
And every dream is wrapped like presents,
Underneath the falling snow.
💡 Activity Ideas for Poem 3
1️⃣ Atmosphere Builder: Light & Shadow
Explore images like:
“frosted lantern”
“silver blanket”
Ask pupils to:
note the mood (calm, peaceful, magical)
sketch the images before writing
create their own winter metaphors using colour vocabulary
Perfect cross-over with Art & Design.
2️⃣ Simile Switch Challenge 🔄
Take “stars shine like tiny snowflakes” and challenge pupils to write:
a NEW simile for stars
a NEW simile for snowflakes
This encourages flexibility:
“stars twinkled like fairy torches”
“snowflakes fell like whispered wishes”
3️⃣ Gift-Wrapped Feelings 🎁💭
Use the line “every dream is wrapped like presents” to help pupils write metaphors about emotions:
“My excitement was a racing sleigh.”
“My nerves were a shivering snowman.”
This ties in well with Poems About Feelings KS2.
🧪 Teacher Pedagogy Notes
Curriculum Links
English: figurative language, comparison, atmosphere, performance
Art: winter scenes, light/shadow illustration
Science: winter weather, solids/liquids, moonlight
PSHE: emotions, celebrations, community
Speaking & Listening: group performance, expressive reading
Differentiation
Support:
Provide simile starters (“as cold as…”, “as bright as…”).
Use a picture prompt of a tree, present, star or snowflake.
Challenge:
Write a 3-verse poem mixing metaphor, simile and personification.
Include at least one extended metaphor.
Extension:
Turn their poem into a Christmas Shape Poem.
Add it to a class display with glitter-pen highlights or tissue-paper art.
Engagement Tip
These poems are brilliant for final-week lessons.
Children are excited, the imagery is vivid, and the creative tasks feel festive but still purposeful.
🌟 Final Thoughts
Teaching Christmas Similes & Metaphors KS2 gives pupils the tools to turn winter scenes into sparkling imagery.
From snowflakes to stars, presents to classrooms, similes and metaphors bring Christmas writing to life — with humour, warmth and imagination.
Festive poetry encourages:
✨ creative comparison
📚 rich vocabulary
🎭 expressive performance
🎄 a joyful end-of-term atmosphere
🎅 Bring Festive Poetry to Life in Your School!
Book a Poetry Day or Online Poetry Workshop and let me help your pupils create magical Christmas poems full of figurative language, fun and confidence.
👉 Find out more about in-person Poetry Days »
👉 Book an Online Poetry Workshop »
