A Pedagogy of Celebrations
Celebrations carry meaning. Cultural. Social. Political. Faith Based. They include some stories, and leave others out.
In early childhood settings, celebrations can easily become familiar. Expected. Repeated. Handmade cards made from identical templates. Preplanned take home items with set instructions.
But what if we paused here for a moment? What if celebration didn’t need to result in a product?
An anti-bias approach invites us to shift the question, from What are we making? to What are children making sense of?
What are they curious about? What ideas are they exploring? How are they coming to understand identity, belonging, and the world around them? This is where celebrations begin to feel different. Less about producing…and more about connecting.
And so, the place to begin is not the event itself—but relationships. With children. With families. With community.
Who is here, in your space? What matters to them? What do they celebrate—or choose not to celebrate? What feels meaningful, uncomfortable, or irrelevant?
When we come to know our community deeply, our decisions begin to shift. They become more responsive. More thoughtful. More just.
And then, we might begin to notice something else. That celebration is not confined to the calendar. It is already happening.
In the everyday. A child exploring something new. A shared moment of joy in play. A relationship deepening over time. Cultural knowledge offered by a family. Rituals that matter—quietly, consistently—to children.
These moments don’t always leave something behind to take home. But they leave something that matters. If we widen the lens, celebration becomes something we pay attention to – not something we add on.
So perhaps the question is not: Should we celebrate this? But instead: What becomes possible when we rethink how we celebrate?
How do celebrations in our setting reflect the identities of children and families?
Who is included—and who might be left at the edges? Are we holding onto tradition, or responding to the community in front of us? What everyday moments are we overlooking? How might an anti-bias approach support our decision making?
Want to explore celebrations further?
Moon Festival: A Celebration of Abundance and Togetherness
Wattle Day and Indigenous Literacy Day in Early Childhood Settings
How do Events like Fathers Day fit within our Curriculum and Philosophy
Celebrating International Women’s Day
If these questions are sitting with you, you’re not alone. The Anti-Bias Approach in Early Childhood (4th Edition) offers practical guidance for navigating these decisions—supporting educators to think critically about inclusion, identity, and equity in everyday practice.
And Becoming With Art invites us to move solely beyond product-driven experiences, offering ways for children to use art as a language for meaning-making, expression, and connection.
Together, they open up different possibilities for how celebrations can be understood and felt. More than something we produce – but as something we live, notice, and co-construct with children.
