Holidays

Holidays are perfect for learning about cultural differences and traditions. These questions give students a chance to share their own experiences and compare celebrations from around the world.

Questions are organized by level from beginner to advanced. A printable PDF of all the questions is available at the bottom of the page.

Beginner (A1-A2)

1. What is your favorite holiday? Has your favorite holiday changed since you were a kid?
2. On what holiday do people in your country eat a lot of food? What kinds of food do they eat?
3. Do you give gifts on any holidays? What kinds of gifts do you usually give?
4. What foreign holidays do you know about? What happens during one of them?
5. Does your country have parades during holidays? Have you ever been to a parade?
6. What is the most important holiday in your country? Why is it so important to people?
7. What holiday do you celebrate with your family? What do you usually do?
8. Do you decorate your home for any holidays? Tell me about it.
9. Who do you spend the most time with during holidays? What do you do together?
10. What are three things people do to prepare for a big holiday in your country?
11. Do you get time off work or school for holidays? How many days?
12. What holiday is coming up next in your country? What do people do?
13. What do you wear on special holidays? How is it different from what you wear every day?
14. What holiday do you spend the most money on? What do you buy?
15. Do people in your country have a special New Year’s tradition? What do they do?

Elementary (A2)

1. What is the strangest holiday or festival you have heard of? What makes it so unusual?
2. Are there any holidays that you really don’t like? Why don’t you like them?
3. What holiday food do you love? What’s so good about it?
4. What is a holiday that children really love in your country? Why do they love it?
5. Do you travel during holidays or stay home? What’s good about your choice?
6. Have you ever celebrated a holiday in another country? What did you think of it?
7. What holiday gift have you gotten that you didn’t like? What did you do with it?
8. What’s the loudest or most exciting holiday celebration you’ve been to? What happened?
9. What holiday do you wish lasted longer? Why?
10. Have you ever worked on a big holiday? How did you feel about that?
11. Is there a holiday you used to like as a child but don’t like anymore? Why?

Intermediate (B1)

1. Do you think that all countries have similar holidays? How so?
2. Talk about your best memory from a holiday.
3. Do you think your country should have more, or less, holidays? Why?
4. Do you prefer giving gifts or receiving them? Why?
5. What holiday traditions confuse people from other countries?
6. Do you think holidays are too commercialized today? Why or why not?
7. Should people celebrate holidays from other cultures? Why or why not?
8. What do you think makes a holiday meaningful? Give me some examples.
9. If you could create a new holiday, what would it celebrate and why?
10. What do you think is better – celebrating holidays with extended family or just your immediate family? Is it common in your culture or country?
11. Should children believe in characters like Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy? Why or why not?
12. If you could spend a holiday anywhere in the world, where would you go and what would you do?
13. Do you think people feel too much pressure to spend money during holidays? What are some examples?

Upper-Intermediate (B2)

1. Do you prefer big family gatherings or small celebrations? What are the upsides of each?
2. Are religious holidays losing their meaning in your country? What’s changing?
3. How have holidays in your country changed over the last 50 years? What do you think about those changes?
4. How do companies use holidays to market their products? How much do those marketing efforts affect you?
5. Compare how your generation celebrates holidays versus how your parents’ generation celebrated them. What factors caused those differences?
6. How do holidays help preserve cultural identity in immigrant communities? What challenges do they face?
7. What role do holidays play in maintaining family relationships across distances? How has technology changed this?
8. How has social media changed the way people celebrate holidays? What do you think about those changes?
9. How do holidays affect people who live far from their families? Have you ever spent a major holiday alone or away from home?
10. Why do some holidays become popular worldwide while others stay local? Can you think of examples of each?
11. When people from different cultures marry, how do they decide which holidays to celebrate? Do you know anyone in this situation?
12. How does the tourism industry change the way local holidays are celebrated? Is that always a bad thing?

Advanced (C1)

1. How do economics and politics shape which holidays a country chooses to celebrate? Can you think of a holiday that was created or removed for political reasons?
2. Many traditional holidays were originally tied to agriculture or religion. As societies modernize, what happens to the meaning behind these holidays?
3. How do holidays both strengthen national identity and exclude people who don’t share the majority culture? Give me some examples.
4. Companies now create their own holidays like Black Friday and Singles’ Day. What does the success of these corporate holidays tell us about modern culture?
5. Why do you think holidays and celebrations have existed in every human culture throughout history? What human need do they serve?
6. When governments declare a new national holiday, they’re making a statement about what matters. How do these decisions reflect a country’s values, and who gets to make them?
7. Some argue that globalizing holidays like Halloween and Valentine’s Day is cultural imperialism. Others call it natural cultural exchange. Which side do you lean toward?
8. How does the way a country treats its workers during holidays — paid time off, mandatory work, overtime pay — reflect its broader attitudes toward labor and quality of life?
9. Memorial days and remembrance holidays ask people to reflect on difficult history. How well do these holidays actually achieve that goal, and when do they become just another day off?
10. How might mandatory participation in workplace or school holiday celebrations conflict with principles of religious freedom and personal autonomy?

PDF: Download a PDF of all the questions