Last Christmas, our “children’s program” was a little different. But very meaningful.
Normally, during the Christmas season, our kids are expected to do some sort of “Christmas play,” and over the years, we have done many things, but like many other churches, we beg kids to show up to practice, have kids who struggle to memorize their lines, and on our worst days end up yelling at the kids to be quiet so we can teach them silly songs and push them to do things many of them are not interested in doing.
So I stopped.
What was our goal? What did we want them to get out of this?
I don’t need them to learn cute songs or what it means to be in a performance. They can get that at school or in community plays.
What I do need is for them to come away with a deeper understanding of Christmas and Christ’s gift to us.
Yes, I also need to keep my parents and grandparents happy, which means they need cute pictures of their kids doing something.
So, after much prayer, God gave me this…
A Worship service where everyone, young and old alike, bring their gifts to Jesus, our king.
HOW?
We set the stage: at the front of our church, we put up a stable and a manger. We also had an area that looked like a kingly court.
We printed special bulletins and announcements and encouraged our Sunday School classes, and small groups to each give Jesus a gift.
As people walked into the service that day, they also had the opportunity to pick up a “gift card” for Jesus, on which they could write something they did as a gift to Jesus.
We began the service with an “introduction of the king” and the kids acting out a short version of the nativity scene while singing away in a manger.
After that song, the kids went and sat with their Sunday school class or their parents.
Baby Jesus – a doll – was left in the manger, and we proceeded to bring gifts to Him.
As each gift was brought up, they addressed not the crowd but Jesus, saying, “Jesus, our King, we present to you this gift of… and laid it at the foot of the manger.
Our toddlers made cards, and our older kids sang him a song. Some of our adult classes sponsored needy families or purchased items for the church. Each gift had a beautifully wrapped box that was laid at Jesus’ feet.
While we did have songs to practice, they were songs the kids had learned for Christmas caroling or had practiced during their regularly scheduled Sunday school (which took no more than 8 minutes each week). It was a very low-maintenance program.
Overall it was a space to remember that Jesus is our King, and we prize Him as such. Christmas is about Him, not about us.
We did one practice during Sunday school that same day. It went really well. I will put our bulletin and our service script down below. You are more than welcome to use it but will need to adjust depending on what gifts your church brings to Jesus.
Want to watch our service so you can see how it went?
It’s on our church YouTube page here you may want to skip to about the 23 minute mark when we actually start our service..
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