Sorry this breaks into the boundary of no religious discussion, but this isn't to really discuyss religion, but get some song suggestions. I teach children, 4-8 year old Vietnamese kids. In general my kids are Catholic and Buddhist, probably more Buddhist, but not by much. Vietnamese are very accepting of people believing in who they choose to believe in.
 
My school would like me to focus on Christmas and the kids will love it, so I'm happy to. I would like to play some songs on my guitar with them, I'm a beginner and can play a range of open chords. I'm looking for songs that focus more on Christmas than on Christianity. For example, We wish you an Merry Christmas and Happy New year, doesn't directly mention God or Jesus. It's not really appropriate here though, as new year, even for the Catholics is TET (Lunar New year) in late February (this year). 
 
All my Kids started learning English just over a week ago, so Lyrics need not to be too complex
 
Cheers 

As xmas's origins is actually pagan that got hijacked by christianity maybe look at that direction as most of these songs will focus just on the winter elements.

http://www.whychristmas.c...s/carols_history.shtml

Cheers..

Yeah, same as most of Englands traditions, Easter etc. 
I was hoping for more suggestions than recommended places to look. I've spent enough time looking at lyrics, then searching for chords.
 
Lyrics > simple, repetitive, avoiding reference to Holy/Lord/Jesus, and not use arcane or complex vocabulary
Song structure > Upbeat, Major Keys, easy to play with open chords for a beginner guitarist.
 
I'm not really a christmassy person, but I do like the melody to God Rest Ye merry Gentlemen, I like it's dark edge. For so many reasons it's not really suitable for these kids.
 
So far I'm stuck with 'We wish you a merry Christmas.

i'm dreaming of a white Christmas (perfect for South Asia!)
jingle bells
little donkey
i saw three ships come sailing in
let it snow
merry Christmas everybody (Slade)
rocking around the Christmas tree
Deck the halls
O Christmas tree (O Tannenbaum)

Thanks, Maybe there just isn't a range that suit these kids.
 
Jingle bells and We wish you a merry Christmas it'll have to be be I guess.
 
 

Sting gets a lot of flack, but I liked his Christmas album a lot. This has a couple of religious references, but not overtly Christian, and it's catchy.
 

We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Jingle Bells
Rudolf the Red Nose...
12 Days of Christmas
Let It Snow
Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
White Christmas
 

Rudolf the red nosed raindeer.
 
 
To be honest though,  it's hard to sing about Christmas without mentioning Jesus,  the clue is in the title...  By definition there surely can't be a non-Christian Christmas song.
 
Winter songs, Snow songs,  or mid summer songs if you're in the southern hemisphere..
Holiday songs.
Fighting in the shopping malls over $5 discount on $1000 flat screen TVs songs...

It's also a lot more difficult to comprehend the ability of children with an average age of 5 1/2 and are just starting out with learning English. I'm worried this is coming across as a dig at everyone who made a suggestion, but it's not. 2 years ago I don't think I would have got it, and I haven't really made this aspect clear enough.
 
Part of the difficulty is teaching them extra curriculum songs, whilst not letting it take away too much time from still teaching them the curriculum. They are still t the point where they are happy echoing nearly everything I say, which is good for teaching songs, not so good when a third of them will answer 'my name is Scott'

Scoot
I teach children, 4-8 year old Vietnamese kids. In general my kids are Catholic and Buddhist, probably more Buddhist, but not by much. Vietnamese are very accepting of people believing in who they choose to believe in.
 
My school would like me to focus on Christmas and the kids will love it, so I'm happy to.

Just stick with the classics for 5 year olds, like Away In A Manger and ignore the religious part.
 
You're teaching music, not religion.