The Christmas Fool

Ages: 5-11
Contributor:
Sam Collins

The Christmas Fool is out to spoil Christmas, playing pranks on everyone! Will Christmas be spoilt, or will the Fool get their comeuppance?

Watch this video with your children, and then try some of our teaching and activity ideas below.

Teaching Ideas and Resources:

Stop the advert at 0:03. Who is that in the photo? Why do you think it is there? What might someone find in your attic? What would it tell them about you?
Make a list of adjectives to describe the Christmas Fool.
If you were the Christmas Fool, what pranks would you play?
Choose another character and retell the story from their point of view
Stop the advert at 0.26 – what is fool thinking?
Write the prequel. Where did the fool come from? What is their motivation?
Stop the advert at 0:58 when the Fool steals the instructions. Can you write some instructions for the doll’s house?
Stop the advert at 1:17. Discuss what prank the fool is going to play before they get squashed.
Stop the advert at 1:26. How do you think all the other Fools in the van got caught?
Write a newspaper report about the strange incidents in the advert.
The advert uses the alliteration “Good to go”. Can you suggest some other alliterative phrases that could be used?
Choose an adjective to describe the Fool and look up some synonyms, for example, “mischievous”. Put the adjectives in order of their “strength”; e.g. naughty – mischievous – troublesome – malevolent.
The hashtag for this campaign is #FoolproofYourChristmas. Why do you think they chose that? Can you think of an alternative?

At 0:24, the man buys a pack of 20 new Christmas lights. They cost £20. How much would it cost if he needed 40 lights? Or 70? Can you make up your own questions?
Stop the video at 0.34. Use an Argos catalogue to work out the price of all the items shown.

Stop the video at 0:59. Is the forecast showing snow in your area? Research the conditions necessary for snow.
At 1:10, the Fool is washed down the gutter. Experiment with lengths of guttering and water.

The soundtrack for this advert is a version of Povero Rigoletto by Verdi from the opera Rigoletto. In the opera, the character of Rigoletto is a jester. Listen to the beginning of another version of it (for example, this one). How has it been changed to make it more Christmassy?
Compose an alternative soundtrack. What instruments would you use?