Respect everyone's values. Living in a public dorm at college means being surrounded by students of other races, cultures and backgrounds. Some of these students may not celebrate Christmas as a holiday, or they might have traditions that are more or less religiously oriented than others. Make sure that everyone feels included in the holiday celebration and take these differences into account. Ask openly of Jewish or Muslim students if they would like to share their forms of holiday celebration.
Go caroling. Caroling can be a fun activity that all members of the dorm can participate in and that will allow you to share your dorm's Christmas spirit with other dorms and faculty houses. Vote as a dorm on some favorite carols, make copies of the music for any dorm dwellers that don't know all the words and spread your Christmas cheer around campus. Go to other dorms, visit the sorority and fraternity houses or even visit local hospitals or convalescent homes and offer to sing for residents.
Give back to the community. Another great way to celebrate Christmas in a dorm is to organize a charity drive in the Christmas spirit that can be run out of a central location in your dorm. Contact local shelters and food banks and find out how to go about holding a food, blanket, toy or clothing drive. Students living in the dorm can all help by organizing volunteers to sort donations, creating flyers and advertising the drive to get the word around campus and manning the donation station so that there is always someone available to take valuable donations. Helping others in need is a great way to come together as a dorm in the true spirit of Christmas.
Have a decorating contest. One of the best things about Christmas is all the festive decorations, so brighten up your ordinary dorm by decking its halls for the holidays. Organize a friendly competition between floors or sections and see who can come up with the craziest or most creative decorations or give certain groups a holiday-related theme that they can use to decorate their part of the dorm together.
Eat a Christmas dinner together. Just about everyone misses home-cooked food when they're away at college, and it's even worse during the holidays when Mom's mashed potatoes are replaced in the dining hall by something that resembles wall spackling. Beat this part of the holiday blues by eating together as a dorm. Most dorms don't allow hot plates or stoves but be creative; borrow the stove of a friend who has an off-campus apartment nearby, get a pre-cooked turkey from the grocery store and make microwave-friendly side dishes. Everyone can contribute something to the meal, and eating together will bring the dorm residents that much closer together as a sort of surrogate family.