children are often restless just before a big holiday. These Christmas mazes ought to calm them a little. Use the mazes to teach strategy, to form cognitive connections to architectural features, to demonstrate passages from literature, or just for fun!

Christian churches started to include mazes at the beginning of the Middle Ages. These weren't Christmas mazes. Their purpose is a mystery. The Basilica of Reparatus in Orleansville, Algeria has the oldest painted maze that has been found. It is at least 1600 years old. One of the largest mazes found in christian churches was at the Amiens Cathedral in France. It was a circular labyrinth 42 feet wide! http://www.unmuseum.org/maze.htm

During the Roman occupation of England, people dug turf mazes in parks just outside their villages. Some of these still exist. Some are as small as 25 feet across, but others are more than 80 feet across. They have names like "Shepherd's Race" and "Mizmaze". http://www.unmuseum.org/maze.htm

By the 13th century, it was popular among the wealthy in Europe to grow hedge mazes. The most famous hedge maze that still exists today is in England at the Hampton Court. It was built in 1690 at the site of an even older hedge maze. http://www.unmuseum.org/maze.htm

Teachers have been printing Christmas mazes and other holiday mazes on paper for students in the US since the beginning of public education in the 1850s. http://www.servintfree.net/~aidmn-ejournal/publications/2001-11/PublicEducationInTheUnitedStates.html Christmas mazes are usually made in the shapes of Christmas concepts, decorations or items from Christmas carols.

Examples:

Santa Claus, reindeer, Rudolph, Frosty the Snow Man, ginger bread men, winter, presents, Christmas Tree, sleigh bells, caroling, toys, tinsel, Nutcracker, ornaments, candles, holly, angels, poinsetta plants, wreathes, church bells, icicles, cookies, elves, Santa's workshop, baking, Mistletoe, chestnuts, Santa's sleigh, garlands.

It may be helpful to suggest that students pretend they are walking through the maze. Suggested strategy is to put your hand on one side of the maze and continue walking without removing your hand. The theory is you are less likely to get lost this way! http://www.unmuseum.org/maze.htm