A Way in a Manger

Jed: "People don't come to church at Christmas anymore."

Zeb: "Nope."

Jed: "People don't even know what Christmas is about."

Zeb: "Sure don't."

Jed: "And if you try to tell them - whooee, does they get mad, they don't want to know."

Zeb: "Huh. They come to my house to find out."

Jed: "What, come to your house?"

Zeb: "Yep, drive right up and stop out the front."

Jed: "And they find out what Christmas is all about?"

Zeb: "Yep all of their own accord."

Jed: "And how do you manage that?"

Zeb: "I've got a nativity scene and a few Christmas lights."

I have had a nativity scene out the front for the last few years. I made cut outs from 8mm mdf with a jig saw. (using an overhead projector to trace the outlines) Painted them with a sealant (Bondcrete) and then painted the colours. These guys have poles to stand them up each year.

I build a rough shed which they go under, line the floor with straw and set a floodlight with a timer onto the whole stable.

Then I've got a few lights strung up on the house and fence, and most importantly a star hanging on the highest point of the house behind the stable.

A couple of things to note:

You want to keep the focus on the Christ so don't go overboard with the barnyard or the lights. I think you don't want to let it get tacky. (Remember - no pigs in a Jewish stable)

Think about where people will stop as they drive past and what obstacles you've got (trees etc) and put the stable in the best location to be viewed.

Enter in any local Christmas lights competition. Even though a tasteful and theologically correct entrant has no chance of winning, it might put you on any maps or directions.

Have fun with it, but don't let it take over.

You can just see some angels I put on the roof one year using an overhead projector and a cut out from a piece of paper. It was a pain because I had to take it down each day because the overhead projector is like a magnifying glass for the sunlight during the day.

Through all of December until Christmas cars are stopping out the front all the time (for a small town) I try to add something each year to encourage tem to come back. But I didn't add anything last year because I couldn't think of anything tasteful and relevant to the gospel.

God Bless,

Michael

Christmas Puppet Skits

I already have a link to this website over there.

But there are some really great Puppet Plays on the Puppet Resources Website. At Christmas time you can go there and do a search with the word "Christmas" or browse through the Christmas category or just click on the Christmas hat. You will find something for church or for use at school. You will also find a little bit of junk (scripts are not moderated) but it doesn't take too long to sort it out and the good scripts are well worth it.

This is my favourite:

Christmas

These others are very good:

Christmas Carols

On the Scene

Toy Time

These are some I knocked together:

Honk The Hairy Angels

Silent Knight, Holey Knight

The Season of Good Fill

Hope you can use them somewhere to help someone connect Christmas to Christ.

Coming Soon

Christmas tree decorations
Craft at school
item at local carols
Giving Tree in church
Christmas Hampers
Mall opportunities
christmas article
Christmas pagent
Christmas Carols in the Park

The Mystery Gift

Next year our family is going to have a "Surprise Present"

It will be the first present we all open. An envelope. None of the kids will know what is in this envelope or who it is for. I think we'll do it every year.

A charity gift from our family to a community or family overseas that has real physical needs. I would like our family gift giving (which is still important by the way) to start off by thinking of others.

I know this organisiation operating in Australia does these kind of things:

Baptist World Aid

I'm sure other organisations do these too. If you are in a different country you can find a local charity by doing am internet search for "charity, gift, Christmas" in your country.

Grace and Peace,
Michael

Good Gifts

Charles Colson has another good article about using your gift giving to give meaning at Christmas.

Giving Gifts

Creating Culture

A Good Article

Charles Colson has a good article to think about ways of changing and challenging our culture. I suspect a lot of the tacky stuff that happens out there happens because no one has any better ideas. It's all happening in a vacuum. There's no real meaning so no one knows any better. (That and the driving force of retail sales)

I also think Christians whinging about what's wrong with the hijacking of Christmas are not going to change it. The pagans aren't going to say, "Oops, sorry, well change it back right away."

We need to be active in finding better ways of expressing the meaning of Christmas that capture the glory of the incarnation and communicate it to our neighbours.

I like the idea of creating a family tradition that displays the gospel at Christmas

Grace and peace,
Michael

Carolling Carolyn

Carolyn wants to go carolling!

We took our church youth group to a church in the big city for the evening service, then we went and looked at the Christmas lights on the well known streets.

For a bit of a laugh we stood in front of one particularly bright house and sung a christmas carol (Away in a Manger). And then we did it again, and again and again, and loved it. Next year we are going to take our song books and do it again.

This is how it turne out - Here on Youtube

You could do it too.

* Choose a street or two that are well known for their lights. Especially one where people get out of their cars and walk around.

* Choose a night when lots of people are out and about (before the serious family dinners start)

* Choose carols that tell the real meaning of Christmas.

* Go and enjoy the lights and the evening and sing a few songs in front of random houses as you go.

It worked impromptu this year. I'll let you know how it goes next Christmas.

God Bless,
Michael.