Hilltop Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 what does your church do to include children in the Christmas Eve service? Does your church have a Christmas play? Do the children sing songs? We attend a small church and last year I took on the role of planning Advent activities and lessons for the month of December. This year several of the children have expressed an interest in doing a play or some sort of Christmas program. Most of the resources I've found for Christmas plays are either out of our budget or require more participants than we have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Random Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 I attend a small church, and we've had a lot of fun with puppet shows. There are no lines to memorize and one person can play a bunch of characters. Merry (early!) Christmas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrincessMommy Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 In the two small churches we attended in the past we had a children's Christmas play. It was a simple affair. In the 2nd church (which was liturgical) they also had a Children's service on Christmas eve. That always seemed like a bit of overkill - especially considering the size of the church, but that is what they did. The other small church wasn't liturgical and didn't have anything special for the kids on Christmas eve - but it was a "Family" Christmas Eve service. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dinsfamily Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 what does your church do to include children in the Christmas Eve service? Does your church have a Christmas play? Do the children sing songs? We attend a small church and last year I took on the role of planning Advent activities and lessons for the month of December. This year several of the children have expressed an interest in doing a play or some sort of Christmas program. Most of the resources I've found for Christmas plays are either out of our budget or require more participants than we have. I don't know what you consider a small church, but I consider ours small. We do a play-type thing with the kids in the middle of December. We also don't have the budget (or interest) in doing a big production. A couple of years ago, we started something new. Our children's pastor comes up with a theme and each class does an age appropriate performance. This year, she has the whole thing anchored on the third graders. She wrote a little play (simple...each child-6 of them-have a few lines) about how "it's true" Jesus was born and what joy we can have in that. My classroom (I volunteer to head up the 2/3yo room) are little this year, so we are just going on stage with a banner and will say, "happy birthday, Jesus." Last year, The class makeup was older, so we sang a song. Classes have done a dance number, song with sign language, and verse readings in the past. Then there are always 2 group songs one traditional and one just fun. The idea is for the kids to minister to the congregation. Super low budget, but great. If costumes are needed, they are simple and inexpensive. Most classes have a black, white, denim, khaki, red, or green dress code depending on the class so that the parents don't have to buy new clothes. It all comes together very well and isn't time intensive for the parents or kids. In contrast, Christmas Eve is a candlelight service and we provide a little coloring page and crayons for the kids in service. It has a lot less sermon and more carols than a typical service so the kids usually love it. I hope that helps give you some ideas. Simple and heartfelt can be great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MIch elle Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 (edited) Joint child/adult Christmas pageant as well as children's choir during the Eve early service. Christmas pageant is with simple costumes. Edited November 8, 2012 by MIch elle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liz CA Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 The pastor would gather the littles to the front where they sat in front of a nativity scene and he would tell them the Christmas story - a little reworded to be understandable by tots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carol in Cal. Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 We have the children present the Christmas story in word and song the Sunday before Christmas. Usually there are about 25 kids involved--more than we usually have, because we send out a letter asking for participation in mid-November, and this brings some extra ones in. I have written and directed these for years, building on what the kids already know but changing it a bit each year with available talent. Then on Christmas Eve we have our traditional Candlelight Service, one at 6 and one at 11. The kids all love this, and since they did the service the prior week they know all the verses of all the songs by heart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomatHWTK Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 Our kids will be singing part of the Christmas songs. We are doing Christmas Grace and another that feature snippets from Away in a Manger and the children will sing those parts. If I were to have them do readings, I might select a few parts of the Christmas story and have the kids dress for those parts. You could use the verses where the angel appears to Mary, Joseph and the Shepards and that would probaby give you enough parts for just a few children. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theYoungerMrsWarde Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 Our church is tiny, and older. Our kids are the only kids nowadays. Have you considered a song, or a collection of songs? Our choir sang "Mary Did You Know?" one year. I was up front, dressed like Mary, and holding ds#2 who was 9 months/7 months gestationally. He fell asleep during the song. :001_wub: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cindergretta Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 On the Sunday before Christmas, we have a pageant after service. On Christmas Eve, there are two services - the family service and the choral service later. During the family service, children who have been chosen ahead of time hand out bulletins, read the scriptures, bring the Eucharist elements forward, pass the collection plates, etc. The Children's Choir (which we have for the whole school year, not just the holidays) sings with the Chancel Choir... OH! And the priest calls all the children forward and they sit around him on the chancel steps while he reads them The Christmas Story. This part is quite interactive as he greets them by name and asks them questions, etc. I love the Christmas Eve Family Service. I get goosebumps just thinking about it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrissiK Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 In years past I've had the kids learn a handful of carols, each child had a short recitation and they dressed up in shepherds and angel costumes. It was cute. We've had anywhere from 7-12 kids involved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a27mom Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 We combine adults and children for a Christmas program since we only have a small group of children. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilltop Posted November 9, 2012 Author Share Posted November 9, 2012 Thank you so much for all of your replies and suggestions! They are very helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinder Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 what does your church do to include children in the Christmas Eve service? Does your church have a Christmas play? Do the children sing songs? Our church's Christmas Eve service is open to the entire family but there is no special children's presentation. The service includes a lot of music, a short drama, and a sermon. Then the traditional closing with Silent Night and the candles being lit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edithcrawley Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 Our church doesn't have that many kids (maybe 10 total between infant-14 years). Last year they did a small pageant with adults playing Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth, and the angel Gabriel (who was also the toddler wrangler). Several of the kids played more than 1 part. Our 2 innkeepers (both around 9 years old) were also 2 of the kings as well as the main shepherds, as they were the 2 kids who were old enough to remember that much, and not frightened of singing in front of people. Our youngest actor was right around 2 years old, and he just followed the other angels and looked cute. We didn't use a real baby for Jesus because the manger that we were using was not sturdy enough for anything more than a baby doll. Our church did a pageant called "Strange way to Save the World" which was the basic nativity story set with fairly contemporary music. I'd recommend something similar if you're short on children, as many of the main song parts were sung by the adults, and the kids mainly did choruses and had a few solos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommaduck Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 Our small parish is writing its own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carol in Cal. Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 The ones I wrote are all Bible passages, a tiny bit of narration (as little as possible, and always read by someone who is a strong reader of middle school age), and mostly familiar Christmas music. What this means, crucially, is that apart from the narrations most of the congregation is already more or less familiar with the words they are hearing. I still do emphasize clear speech and clear singing, but also realize that if a word or two is mumbled in the heat of the moment it is less critical than it would be during, say, a sermon. What is also means is that the actual Word of God is the main focus, and since the Word has power, that is as it should be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milovany Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 Our small parish is writing its own. I dream of writing a play for parish use from this book: The Miracle of St. Nicholas by Gloria Whelan. At present, we don't have a children's program. They do seem to love the midnight service on Christmas Eve just as much as the adults, so that is wonderful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mazakaal Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 Last year we got all the kids and youth involved in the Christmas service. They walked to the front while singing, then they did a retelling of the Christmas story. One child was narrator and between her narrations were interspersed Bible verses that helped tell the story. Each verse was read by a different child. It was like a 24 hour countdown to Christmas, and after each Bible verse, the youngest child would count down the hour. Then two kids played keyboard and violin while the rest sang. It was all very cute. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momofkhm Posted November 9, 2012 Share Posted November 9, 2012 what does your church do to include children in the Christmas Eve service? Does your church have a Christmas play? Do the children sing songs? We attend a small church and last year I took on the role of planning Advent activities and lessons for the month of December. This year several of the children have expressed an interest in doing a play or some sort of Christmas program. Most of the resources I've found for Christmas plays are either out of our budget or require more participants than we have. We have one Christmas Eve service at about 5 pm. The youth or children do the readings. Then during the sermon time, kids read a passage of scripture pertaining to the Christmas story and kids dressed as characters appropriate to that part process in from the back while the congregation sings a song appropriate to that character(s). Then the kids sit up front until everyone comes in. I think it's Mary and Joseph, angels, shepherds, then wise men. We don't assign parts and yes sometimes we end up with 2 Marys. We're ok with that! We even have extra angel and shepherd costumes for visiting kids. We've had your standard dressed in white angel and we've had your fierce angel warrior with a sword. We've had your standard wise man in a bathrobe and we've had a "play on words" wise man with a cap and gown (think college graduate). It's very loose, requires no practice time ahead and for our definition of children's program (birth to 6th grade) it works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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