The textbook is the worst one I've worked with. But I suppose I don't mind the cute cartoon stories. And the attempt to include different facts from around the world has been interesting (mainly for me... I'm not sure about the kids. my co-teacher has such a bad attitude about this book which she shares with them, that the kids don't care about anything in it even more than her *sigh*).

So what activities are you going to do then? what will you use?

We made a Christmas tree today. The kids wrote a letter to Santa using "will you?" and "I will" and a bunch of Christmas vocab. They wrote the letter on a cut out of their hand. the hands will all be stuck together for the class and made into the shape of a Christmas tree with a couple of colourful stickers, a star and some actual tinsel for decortion. rescue-idea!

I need more ideas. My co-teacher's demands are intense. nothing's ever good enough. And you can see why after the students' trained attitude that it's ok to completely dislike everything...

Found the bucket list idea on one of those threads you posted. I'm gonna do that. We'll make an actual bucket too: http://www.origami-kids.com/paperairplanes-2-popcorn-cup.htm
Oh there's also a cool video for motivation... a TV show called "The Buried Life" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRexWE9yBVA
Then cut strips of paper, write sentences and fill up our buckets. It'll be a bucket list for what they want to do in the vacation. Like a timecapsule, they can come back and check how many they've achieved after the Winter Break :)
Maybe this can be useful for others stuck with this textbook! enjoy :)