Ideas for Christmas and Advent

Here’s an un-edited list of ideas for you to use in your Christmas service. Some of the ideas are for Advent, some ideas more generically for Christmas or Christmas Eve. If you have more ideas – comment below!

Advent

Hand out LED or battery powered candle tea lights. (real candles are best but Fire regulations can often prevent the use of open flame)
Use a candle app on phones for a candle light service effect
Get every drummer in the church to play some type of drum for the song Little Drummer Boy. (This is really fun by the way, just have them all selectively play a small rhythmic part, it sounds amazing!)
Make Advent a prayer of how we continually need Love, Joy, Peace, Hope
Play O Come O Come Emmanuel instrumentally, i.e. violin, piano, while advent candles are being lit
Use the song O Come O Come Emmanuel each week during the Candle lighting but don’t sing the chorus until Christmas Eve or Christmas morning
Multi-Generational Advent
- Have both a senior and young child read scripture or the advent reading
Focus on a character for each week of Advent
- Ie. Joseph, Mary, Wiseman, Shepherds
Have 4 gifts under the tree and have a child in their pyjamas run up and unwrap 1 gift each Sunday
Advent of Waiting
- Have 2 minutes of awkward waiting before the lighting of each Candle, acknowledge that waiting is difficult and uncomfortable.
Missional Advent
- How can we bring Love, Joy, Peace, Hope to those around us each week
Love, Joy, Peace, Hope
Have a manger at the front of the stage, invite people to come and place a piece of paper in the manger…
- Could be an area of their life where they need to feel God’s ‘Emmanuel’ like presence.
- Write down a worry or fear on the paper
- Write down accolades and worship on the paper while the band plays ‘O Come Let Us Adore Him’
Sing the whole service with no musicians – just acapella
Have musicians spread out throughout your congregation for the Christmas Eve service
1. Have several guitarist on acoustic guitars
Sing Silent Night and have a deliberate minute or two of complete silence at the end
Have the Christmas Eve service start in complete darkness except for the 4 advent candles. Symbolize Christ birth with the lighting of a candle and then have it slowly ‘spread’ with the lighting of other candles in the congregation.
Find a quartet to sing all four parts of a Christmas Carol
Have some 2 or 3 kids read the Christmas nativity story from Luke 2
Do a readers theatre of the Nativity story, with a narrator and different voices for the different characters
Serve Communion at your Christmas Eve service or the Sunday before Christmas Eve
1. Just another way to make sure people realize this is only the beginning of the Kingdom of God coming to earth story.
For Advent, highlight all the prophecies about Jesus’ birth
Testimonies from members about how the message of Jesus has been ‘Good News’ in their life
Have your youth group do a flash mob for one of the carols or one of the songs
David Crowder has a song “All this Glory” with the lyrics – “In the middle of the night… ”
1. Something about Majesty in the Mess… there’s a sermon in there somewhere
2. Where in the darkness and unexpected places do you find God?
Are you ready for Christmas? Be comforted that God came to a world that was ‘un-prepared’ for him to come… he might just surprise you
Sing the Christmas Carols in ‘order’ of the Nativity, read scripture from the nativity story in between carols