With partners from Portugal, Germany, Italy, Malta, North Macedonia, Spain and Czechia, the“Holidays without borders” is an eTwinning project, in which we will exchange postcards - but with a twist! To avoid Covid-19 limitations, instead of mailing them, we will send our postcards digitally and, when possible, print them again in our countries, so we can keep the “magic” of holding a card in our hands alive. We want to overcome all the restrictions and borders that these unforeseen times have imposed on all our schools and keep cooperation between teachers and students active and inclusive!
 

Basic principles/ideas:

• Who will receive each person's postcard? It’s a surprise!;
• Teachers and staff are highly encouraged to join too :) ;
• You can participate even with just 1 class of students!
• Encourage students to respect and embrace diversity, different faiths and share their own traditions - the strangest is also the most interesting ones;
• The goal of this project is for each student in it to receive a Christmas postcard and for that, we must all commit to meet the deadlines agreed on.

The project in 7 steps:

1. Prepare

One or more teachers of each school join the TwinSpace and each one creates a short text, images and or videos about their school, country and its Christmas traditions’. ECP will organize who is sending postcards to whom using a “buddy system” and publish it there too;

2. Create

Present the project to the students selected to participate and ask them design the cover of a postcard  on Canva, another platform or even by hand. They can include photos, drawings, words, stickers, etc, related to their holiday celebrations, and be as free as possible in this process. If none are possible, they can also buy a pre-made postcard;

3. Write

The cards are printed (if possible) and in the back, students should write a message by hand. The fact that the message is handwritten will be the only “personal” part of it, so we highly encourage it. If it is not possible, you can also have the students write digitally. The message should include: 

• - Identification: name, age, and studies;
• - A short description of what Holidays they celebrate and/or how;
• - Holiday greetings in their native language;
• - A way to be contacted back (optional).
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4. Send

Once all postcards are ready, send them to your buddy by email or upload them on the Google Drive folder that will be available for this. Each school/class must do this by 11th December so there is enough time to distribute the postcards before Christmas.

5. Receive

When you receive the postcards of your buddy, print them out and give out one postcard per student randomly. If you are teaching at distance, email one postcard to each student, also at random.

6. Give back
When you give out the postcards, gather your students in the classroom/Zoom, and ask them to help someone else have happy Holidays with a simple and quick gesture: join Amnesty International's “Write for Rights” Marathon. 

7. Celebrate
Make a quick video with your students with some holiday cheer - singing a song, saying “Merry Christmas” or something else, etc… (Be creative!) and share it on the TwinSpace so we can all “see” each other.