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Most of the programs mentioned on this page can now be downloaded for free from the Software Download section of Rotation.org
Visit the Advent and Christmas Lessons Forum at Rotation.org
It has an extensive collection of creative lessons for Sunday School.
Be sure to see the Advent 2020 Forum at Rotation.org too for many ideas and resources especially written or collected for celebrating Advent and Christmas at home during the COVID pandemic.
See a fun presentation highlighting the free Advent and Christmas “at-home” videos, activities, and lesson resources we’ve collected over at www.rotation.org/pages/advent
First, let’s talk about Fluffy …
Years ago we didn’t have much Christmas software. That’s why I created Fluffy & God’s Amazing Christmas Adventure software. This program covers the Advent waterfront for ages 5 to 13.
*See my new “Tossing Fluffy” technique in the toggle below.*
Fluffy & God’s Amazing Christmas Adventure CD has six lesson areas:
1. Old Testament Promise (teaching the concepts of Kings, Messiah, Emmanuel, Isaiah 9 expectations)
2. The Angel’s Announcement to Mary and to Joseph
3. Elizabeth and John the Baptist -including Mary’s Magnificat (Song of Joy)
4. The Trip to Bethlehem, the Birth as told in Luke 2
5. The Shepherds, and Angels
6. The Magi and Herod
Print a graphic handout of the highlights in each of the six areas
► Typically, a church will use TWO sections of the Fluffy program per year. Just depends on what your lesson calls for, age range, the sections you’re using, and how much the teacher slows them down to talk about things. (You’ll notice we “salted” the content with things for the teacher to grab onto.) We also created 3 Fluffy Worksheets a few years back to help your kids be accountable for content while using Fluffy. Look for them in Fluffy CD’s “Doc Box”.
►Fluffy Insight: We specifically set out to build a Christmas CD that concentrated on the story-behind-the-story. In fact, the Old Testament Prophets section of Fluffy is the biggest section on the CD. Fluffy & God dig into “Why” God chose to come into the world, and what it means to us today.
► Despite its “fluffy” name, the humor and the content is very appropriate for older kids and younger youth.
More Lesson Ideas for Teaching with Fluffy:
updated every year
1. Make Advent Road Signs and Billboards for the church to guide it down the Road to Bethlehem. Post in hallway. Possible billboard topics: How to stay on the road! Don’t Detour into….! STOP __________. “Rest and Ponder Stop”. etc. Add captions to signs.
2. Dress up your students as shepherds for your lesson with area #4 on the CD, “Shepherd’s Night” Discuss: “How can we be shepherds to others –bringing the true meaning and message of Christmas.” Note: After you answer the Shepherd’s quiz, there are several roll-over discussion questions to be found inside the manger.
3. Project the Magi section using an LCD projector hooked up to your computer. Several teachers and pastors have projected Fluffy lesson area #6 “Following Yonder Star” to a large group of children, or in children’s worship, using an LCD projector attached to their computer. The sub-sections of this Magi area have numerous discussion questions and interesting background notes about the Magi, their gifts, and Herod. Bring in gold coins, frankincense (available online), and myrrh oil (available online) to “spice up” their memory.
4. Play a “Presents of the Magi” Quiz Game. After learning with Magi Area #6, split into teams and ask questions to each team of “would-be Magi” about the Magi’s story. Each team answer each question on a large card (like final Jeopardy) and a panel of kid-judges decides which team answered best. Each best answer is awarded chocolate gold coin. Grand prize is bottles of perfume for each player (sample vials from local dept store).
5. Toss Fluffy to Prompt Discussion!
This works really well when you have one computer running Fluffy CD, or are projecting it on the wall for a group. It makes responding fun. What you do is bring in a Plush Stuffed Sheep** and after the program stops and displays a question, “toss Fluffy” to one of your kids to have them answer. The first time I did this, we were showing Fluffy CD to a group of K’s and 1’s using my laptop and my LCD projector. I stood by the screen holding a LARGE PLUSH SHEEP while my teaching assistant ran the computer. I told the kids that when a question popped on the screen, or God asked a question, the program would pause and I’d toss the sheep to them to answer. Depending on the type of question displayed, they may get to go to the computer and press the right button on the screen. If the question on the screen didn’t have an interactive choice, they try to answer the question (with help from the class if needed.) They were excited, watched, and listened attentively. We put Fluffy on a shelf in the classroom after that as a memory trigger for their fun lesson, and from time to time a student would ask to “play with Fluffy”.
**In the first church I did this in, we happened to have a plush sheep in the nursery that we borrowed. When we moved to a new church, I grabbed a roll of polyester pillow stuffing and wrapped some clear packing tape around it and drew a sheep face and hooves on it. Kid thought it was hilarious.
OTHER SOFTWARE IDEAS
1. Teach the Order of Advent Events using Cal & Marty’s Scripture Memory Game software
Instead of typing a ‘verse’ in the Cal & Marty Verse Editor, have the kids type a list of EVENTS in the order they happened. Cal & Marty will scramble them and have you put them back in the right order. TIP: Use a hyphen between two-word descriptions so that Cal & Marty keep the words together when scrambling. TIP2: Let the kids create and edit-in the list!
Event Order Example:
Wonderful-Counselor, Gabriel-Mary, Elizabeth, Bethlehem, Birth, Shepherds, Magi, Egypt, Nazareth
2. Turn Isaiah 9 into a Cal and Marty memory verse:
For a child has been born for us,
a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
3. Life of Christ CD has three Advent lesson presentations in it. You can read more about this program by clicking here. Comments: Good for older children and youth. However, if you’ve been using Life of Christ a lot in your lab (and who hasn’t) your kids might be bored with it. Click here to check and/or print the brief listing of Life of Christ’s Advent lesson content.
4. Play & Learn Children’s Bible CD –For preschoolers and early readers…..Play and Learn’s 50 Bible stories and Children’s Activity Bible’s 40 stories include Christmas stories. Click here to view the story list and graphics from each program.
5. Charlie Church Mouse –for preschoolers thru 2nd grade. CD #3 has “Birth of our Savior.” CD #1 has Wisemen. These are short-story with modest activities.
6. Create a Christmas Quiz in Fall of Jericho CD. This program can handle up to FOUR TEAMS of players, making it a great backup plan when class sizes get out of hand during Advent, or when they ask you to open the computer lab during special Advent events. In the Question Editor, you can add text to each question to give away BONUS PRIZES during the quiz, such as gold-foiled chocolate coins, jewel stickers which they must wear on their forehead, and cotton balls that stick on their “team Fluffy sheep” (a willing student) using a piece of cellophane tape. SEE MY CHRISTMAS GAMESHOW QUESTIONS. They can be typed into your Fall of Jericho Question Editor…. or used in any way you want!
7. King Herod the Megalomaniac! …in Pathways Through Jerusalem CD (now out of print). See the Pathways CD’s description. On that page you will also find the links to the free guide to Pathways and King Herod’s tour of Jerusalem.
View and Print My Christmas Story Gameshow Questions
Advent “Computer Station Rotation” Lesson Outline
Open the TOGGLE BELOW for an Advent “Computer Station Rotation” Lesson Outline that uses PARTS of many CDs as “stations”.
Point of View:
It’s quite common for a church computer lab to own one or more of the above CDs. And because Christmas comes around every year, those same churches often return to these familiar titles again and again. That can create “program fatigue” (i.e. “That one again!?”)
This “Advent Computer Station” approach samples a little bit from several familiar CDs at stations you create. This FRESH APPROACH will especially help those who have already used these CDs for Advent in previous years.
“ADVENT COMPUTER STATION ROTATION”
Lesson Outline
In the “Advent Computer Station Rotation,” students ROTATE between different computers, each of which has a different CD. At each station they find a written instruction telling them WHICH PART OF THE CD to use.
For example, say you want to study “THE MAGI” and have 3 computer stations:
Computer #1: Fluffy CD’s Section 6 on the Magi
Computer #2: Life of Christ CD Lesson #8 on the Magi
Computer #3: Play & Learn Bible CD Lesson on the Wisemen.**
See matrix below, and remember, it’s quite common for established labs to already own several of these programs, and have used them independently over this years. This ‘station’ approach is a FRESH WAY for them.
Note: You wouldn’t use all of Section 6 from Fluffy because there’s too much in there for this station approach. Gotta keep the kids rotating! So rather, you’d direct the students to view perhaps only 3 of the Fluffy sub-sections: Matthew 2:1-12 to hear the story, then click on “About the Magi,” then click on “About the Gifts,” …before moving on to the next station. Then, AFTER you finish your entire lesson discussion, send them all back in to play the “Fluffy vs Herod” game (which sneakily, has more questions at the end about “gifts”).
EACH station also has a “question slip” which they pick up and answer. The question is about something they saw in that program. They fill it out, and take the slips with them to the next computers. After they have finished the ‘rotation’ between stations, the group collects for a discussion. I have included some Suggested Questions below.
**Yes, I would use Play and Learn CD’s “Wisemen” lesson even with my “old” kids for this lesson! My question slip at that station would be this: “After using this Preschooler-K CD, write down an explanation of the significance of the Birth of Jesus (why they should care) in terms a 4 year old would understand.” (Sneaky, huh?)
Decor Tip:
Theme each computer with some Xmas decoration based on the CD’s story that will be used. For example, if you’re covering “Shepherds” in Luke 2, drape a shepherd’s headdress over the monitor, or create a simple “shepherd’s tent” over the top using poles. For Magi, decorate one station with stars, another with gift boxes. It’s the rotation model, …you have the time! You should also have your students dress as shepherds and magi to rotate.
Here’s a matrix of which CDs cover which parts of the Advent Story…
| Fluffy & God’s Amazing Christmas Adventure CD | Life of Christ CD | Play and Learn Children’s Bible CD | Charlie Church Mouse CD (#1 Preschool) | Charlie Church Mouse CD (#3 K-1) | |
| Luke 1: Angels Announce to Mary/Joseph | X | X | x | ||
| Luke 2: Birth/Angels/Shepherds | X | X | x | x | |
| Matthew 2: Magi | X | X | x | x | |
| Isaiah 9: Unto us… Prince of Peace | X | ||||
| Luke 1: Mary’s Song | X |
Not all the CDs cover the story at the same depth. Fluffy CD is by far the deepest. Charlie not so much.
Here are some suggested questions for each station’s slip:
| Story: | Suggested Fluffy CD Station Question | Suggested Life of Christ CD Station Question |
| Luke 1: Angels Announce to Mary/Joseph | What did Mary/Joseph have to be afraid of?How does God usually speak to us? | Zechariah at first didn’t believe what he had been told. What do you know about God that would make you really believe that God will do all he promises? |
| Luke 2: Birth/Angels/Shepherds | Name 3 places you can go tell others about Christ’s birth. | After the initial joyful shock wears off, what can the Shepherds do to keep spreading the message? |
| Matthew 2: Magi | What gifts does Jesus want? | What gifts does Jesus NOT want? |
| Isaiah 9: Unto us… Prince of Peace | Come up with 3 other perfect names for Jesus that describe who he is. | |
| Luke 1: Mary’s Song | Write down 3 keywords from Mary’s song that you think “says it all.” |
An Advent Fridge Magnet Computer Project:
This works with many different Advent scriptures and emphases.
An Advent Fridge Magnet Computer Project:
This works with many different Advent scriptures and emphases.
For example, you could use the Luke 2 story of “What the Shepherds Told”, after they visited the Christ child and went out to spread the message.
Or, you could use this project to create, “What the Angels Announced”.
Lesson Objective: Students condense that first Christmas Message into a single pithy quote they can take home and put on the fridge. That magnet might also include some of your church’s Advent info on it.
Printable Magnet Sheets can be found in most office supply stores (or online). You’ll have student design a printable message in WORD and print it on the magnet sheets, one full sheet per student.
- The top part of the printed magnet sheet will have an Advent graphic they have chosen, and an Advent quote/message to their family.
- The middle part of the sheet will have 3 or 4 lines of information from the church’s calendar, including Christmas Eve Service Times.
- The bottom third of the sheet can be labeled: “Thing We Want to Do to Celebrate Christ’s Birth”.
HERE’s THE MAGNET HOW-TO:
After your Christmas Bible study and discussion….
Step 1: Open Word on the computer and have students design a “Christmas Message” to their family on the top third of the page. This Message should be based on the scripture and discussion you just had. It can be as simple as a phrase from a verse, or a more complex “Saying/Quote/Reminder”.
You may want to suggest a few pithy quotes. They don’t have to be from scripture. Encourage older students to come up with their own quote.
Step 2: In the Middle Third of the page, have the students type key Advent Dates/Activities from your CHURCH calendar. Don’t just limit it to Worship or Kid activities. If there’s a Mom’s luncheon, include that too. This is going on the fridge for the family! If you are inspired and have the time, have the students include “activity reminders” such as, “spend time as a family wrapping gifts/collecting food/shoes/coats for the poor.” If you want to save time, you can have these typed in another document and then have the students Cut & Paste from that document into theirs. They can select from the “suggestions” you provide or come up with their own.
Step 3: On the Bottom Third of the page, leave some blank space so that families can add-in their Family Advent reminders/dates/ideas using a marker.
Print and have students share their Advent Fridge Magnets with each other.
Time: 20-25 minutes after your study.
Important Tech Notes:
Check to see if your computer HAS WORD INSTALLED. Also check to see if Word’s clipart package was installed with it as well. It has a lot of nice Xmas graphics.
If you don’t have Word, then you either need to…
Install Word. If your church office uses it, and has a site license to use it, you can install Word in your computer lab for free. OR, if you don’t have a copy of Word or a site license for it, you can install the free copy of OPEN OFFICE from openoffice.org. It works just like Word.
If you don’t have ready-made clip-art…
You can put together your own CD of Xmas clipart gleaned from the internet and copy it to each computer. OR, you can have a copy of Christian Clickart or similar clipart CD which has Xmas images. OR, if you have an internet connection, the kids can do a Google Image search for Xmas images (using ‘safesearch’ option please!).
Make sure your INKJET PRINTER has plenty of colored ink in the cartridge. In fact, probably need to buy an extra just in case.
Do NOT use graphics with heavy colored areas, such as, dark blue nighttime skies. These will eat up your ink.
This goofy graphic has been on our Advent page for 15 years! During our recent reformat, I didn’t have the heart to delete it.
More Advent Software Lesson Ideas:
Mary’s Song ~ Mary’s Magnificat …is a “Fluffimation activity” in the Promises Promises section of Fluffy CD. In that “mad-lib-like” activity, the kids unpack and rephrase the themes and images in her song.
Isaiah 9….wonderful counselor…Prince of Peace…. it’s an interactive activity built into the “Promises, Promises” section of Fluffy & God’s Amazing Christmas Adventure CD.
Jesse Tree…. Jesus’ Family Tree …we made an interactive and printable “tree” in Fluffy & God’s Amazing Christmas Adventure CD. Kids can also make their own using Kid Pix to illustrate and add text. Point: We are part of Jesus’ family tree!
Let’s Talk CD… Create “opposite” responses to questions about “the true meaning of Christmas”. Turn on the Let’s Talk program, assign one computer to be PRO/Positive, and the other to be CON/Negative, then have students at those computers compose a one or two sentence response to play to the class about these questions:
-
- Shopping at Christmas time and buying gifts is a great way to celebrate Jesus’ birth.
- Santa Claus is a wonderful story that teaches the spirit of Christmas.
- Christmas lights and decorations help celebrate the meaning of Christ’s birth.
- Christmas is a time for families to get together.
(Obviously there are positives and negatives to these four statements. The point is to get your kids thinking about them and create discussion.)
Great Advent Video Resources
Teach the Story of the Maccabees (Hanukkah) and the “time between the Testaments” with these VIDEO resources that help explain WHY God promised and sent the Messiah:
Nest’s “Story of the Maccabees” video DVD Two centuries before the birth of Jesus, the Jews, led by the Maccabee family, revolted against their pagan king to assert their right to worship the true God. This story tells the origin of the Festival of Lights we know as Hanukkah.
What’s in the Bible? DVD #10: Jesus –Part 1 of this DVD does a great job of explaining to kids the world that Jesus was born into, and why God waited until just that time and place to fulfill his promise. Also explains the origins and roles of the Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots and Essenes. Good stuff!
The Promise by gloriousfilms.com. This animated movie presents the Advent story as a musical for kids and adults. Really brings emotion to the story.
Mary’s visit to Elizabeth
~A Lesson Sketch~
Mary’s visit to Elizabeth
~A Lesson Sketch~
The story of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth is briefly covered in Fluffy & God’s Christmas Adventure CD. It is not found in Life of Christ CD or Play & Learn CD. We used Fluffy CD and Let’s Talk CD in combination. Total lesson time: 50 minutes.
I wrote this for ages 8-11. When I did this lesson, we had already used Mary’s Song Fluffimation activity the previous year, as well as, the John the Baptist section. So… we skipped those two parts when we got into Mary & Elizabeth section in Fluffy. You don’t have to.
MY LESSON PLAN:
INTRO:
We began at the discussion table looking at the story of Zechariah & Elizabeth in Luke 1. The kids were surprised that Gabriel appeared to Zechariah in the Temple. They had never heard that story before! Then we read about Mary and Elizabeth’s encounter. The thought of the baby John jumping for joy was funny to our kids, and we talked about how scripture often has these “nuggets” of joyfulness. We asked if any of them had ever felt a baby move in the mom’s tummy, or seen it move. Pretty cool! Then we jumped into Fluffy & God’s Amazing Christmas CD to see the story depicted. In that CD, God pretends to do Elizabeth’s voice, and you can see the baby John in her tummy jumping around. Again…the kids really liked that.
DIGGING DEEPER:
Next, we opened up another program called Let’s Talk CD. In Let’s Talk, the kids recreated some fictional dialog between Baby John and Baby Jesus (in Mary’s tummy). We did this using the “Conversation Now” module in Let’s Talk which simulates sending “instant messages” to each other at the computer. Whatever the kids type appears on screen and is spoken aloud by the character they created in the module. (Kids loved that too!) If you have several computers, you can also just use the “Talk Now” module, and have one computer be John, and the other computer respond as Jesus.
Assigning roles…. One person chose to be Baby John, and another at the same computer chose to be Baby Jesus. I stood in the middle of the lab and read several question to the students, and they responded through their Conversation Now module. We also had the kids at the computer take on the roles of Mary and Elizabeth. I love this kind of “thinking through the characters” because it helps our students get inside the conversations and closer to the meanings and emotions of the story. We reminded them to include humor just like the scripture did.
Here are some of the questions we had Baby John and Baby Jesus answer:
•John, ask Jesus what he is planning to do after he is born. (Jesus respond!)
•John, tell us what should people do to prepare for Jesus’ birth. (Jesus, add suggestions.)
Here are some of the questions we asked Mary and Elizabeth to respond to:
•Greet each other and talk about your bellies, how you’re feeling right now. (A fun intro)
•Tell each other how you FOUND OUT about the child you are carrying in your womb.
•Each of you share some of your fears about your child being born and having to preach God’s word. What could go wrong?
•Mary, what does it feel like to have God working through you in your life?
Most of the programs mentioned on this page can now be downloaded for free from the Software Download section of Rotation.org
Visit the Advent and Christmas Lessons Forum at Rotation.org
It has an extensive collection of creative lessons for Sunday School.
Children’s Sermons
-
- A Picture of Baby Jesus’ Friends
- What Would Jesus Give our Sunday School for Christmas?
- The Four Candles and Gifts of Advent
- Shout It Out Loud! (Epiphany)
by Rev. Neil MacQueen So here’s the children’s sermon: One Sunday in Advent, after preparing it, gift wrap a long rectangular picture mirror, —one of those inexpensive non-glass ones you can buy for the back of your kids’ bedroom door. Use acrylic paints to paint some crazy hairdos and beards on it -horizontally across the mirror so that it will show several faces. Add some titles like “Bible Hero”. Wrap it in Xmas paper and ask the kids to guess what it is. After some preliminary guesses, tell them that the gift is a PICTURE OF BABY JESUS’ FRIENDS…. people who wanted to grow up just like he did and obey God, and change the world! Let them unwrap the mirror and have fun letting them position themselves in the mirror as Jesus’ friends. Turn it around and angle it so the congregation can see it too. Then walk it up to a few adults and say, “Look, Mr. ____is a friend of Baby Jesus too!” Point to Make: God came into the world as Jesus at Christmas so that we might be saved and made into the FRIENDS of Jesus, …people who started out as a baby just like he did, people who grow up just like he did, people who love God as he did, and are willing to try and change the world just like he was willing. I’ll leave it at that. Feel free to word-monger to suit your needs. Note: In one church I used to go to, I ‘gave’ this children’s sermon to a pastor to do with the kids. He pulled out a PLAIN HAND MIRROR and showed the kids their reflection. The kids were unimpressed by the tiny mirror that didn’t have anything painted on it. by Rev. Neil MacQueen This Advent children’s sermon could be a one-off, or an Advent series (which is how I originally did it). In brief: On another Sunday in this “What Would Jesus Give?” Advent series, I gave the kids a small gift “from Jesus”. We had found these inexpensive “Jesus dog tags” in a catalog (back when wearing dog-tags were trendy) which said “I belong to Jesus.” We talked about “who Jesus belonged to” (his parents, to God, the world), and who WE belong to if we give ourselves. Celebrating Christmas is about welcoming Jesus into our lives, and seeing that we belong… are part of his family. On the final Sunday in Advent, Jesus gave the kids a new popcorn machine for their classroom. After they unwrapped that, I had a couple of teenagers bring in another big empty box with a bow on it. (It was a refrigerator box on its side.) I asked what was in the box, and they answered “NOTHING YET.” After some back and forth, one of the teens started wrapping up one of the children (with help from the other teens) and said, “Jesus wants US for his Christmas gift, …our hearts and lives and faith.” They put the wrapped kid in the box (it had a door to it), and then asked, “who else wants to give themselves to Jesus?” Over the next 3 minutes, they haphazardly wrapped all the kids and stuffed them in the box. Had to have an adult hold the box and keep the kids from tipping it over. VERY effective sight and experience for all! Yikes! Just remembered another Advent children’s sermon I once did…. by Rev. Neil MacQueen Each week, students help you open a large gift-wrapped box. In it are two separately wrapped items: (1) a candle for the Advent Wreath, and a (2) bag of “reminders” to give out to each child. Your children’s sermon starts with the meaning of that Sunday’s candle (and all previous ones). After you put it in the wreath, you then unwrap the other gift in the box: “reminders” that you will to each child as you talk about them. After the reminders are given out, volunteers come forward to light the candle in the wreath and lead the congregation in your traditional candle liturgy, after which, the children depart. The “reminders” are keyed to the part of the Christmas story that the candle for that day represents. These “reminders” can be of a great variety. Oriental Trading Company is a terrific place to shop these doodads and get inspiration. Here are some examples of the “doodads” you could hand out and describe for each candle, but don’t let my list limit your creativity. The 1st Sunday of Advent symbolizes Hope with the “Prophet’s Candle” reminding us that Jesus is coming. The 2nd Sunday of Advent symbolizes Faith with the “Bethlehem Candle” reminding us of Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem. One year we gave out “donkey ornament craft kits we had assembled into sandwich bags along with a picture of the finished craft.” They are now selling them at OTC under the name “donkey clothespin craft.” You can also see them at many craft websites. The 3rd Sunday of Advent symbolizes Joy with the “Shepherd’s Candle” reminding us of the Joy the world experienced at the coming birth of Jesus. To imagine the shepherd’s excitement, we gave each child a “super bouncy ball” (really inexpensive by the bag). We wrote “shepherd’s joy” on each with a permanent marker. Another year, we made and put shepherd headdresses and headbands on everyone. That was super popular and a great photo-op! The 4th Sunday of Advent symbolizes Peace with the “Angel’s Candle” reminding us of the message of the angels: “Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men.” Angels are God’s messengers, so one year we bought Oriental Trading’s really inexpensive “Christmas Message Pens” for all the kids -one to keep, and one to share with a friend. Another year we gave all the kids small plastic horns to “announce the birth.” All that morning you could hear kids tooting in the halls and it put a smile on everyone’s face. We even asked the congregation to “tell a child to blow their angel horn if you see them.” It was great fun. Again, these are available in bulk online really cheap. by Rev. Neil MacQueen Epiphany Sunday is first Sunday after January 6th -which is the traditional date of Epiphany. Often it is called “Three Kings Day.” In this children’s sermon we’re going to focus on the word “Epiphany” through a fun demonstration. Preparation, your energy, and clue-ing in a few older kids is the key. Ahead of time, pin a posterboard to a very large heavy blanket and write this sentence on it” “As soon as you read this SHOUT the WORD “AWESOME!” Also ahead of time, write on the flip side of the sign the sentence: When “Jesus is our King” Also ahead of time, tell one of your children that they are going to be “in on the joke.” They will get to “go first” to see behind a blanket, and when they do, they will see the sign that says, “Awesome” and should shout it out loud when they do. Go over this children’s sermon with two teens who will be holding the blanket. Tell them to prompt the kids going behind the blanket to do the shouting (in case any are shy) and to shout with them! After welcoming the kids, invite your two teens to stand to the side holding the heavy blanket like a wall so that the kids and congregation cannot see the posterboard pinned to the back of it. Tell them about Epiphany and that it means “surprise” or “revealing.” Then tell them you have a surprise for them behind the blanket, and that you’re going to let them all go see it, one by one, and that when they do, they are to stay there. Next, invite your “pre-picked” student to go behind the blanket, see the sign, and shout Awesome! as you have pre-arranged. Then, one by one invite the seated younger children to go stand behind the blanket. As you send the kids one-by-one behind the blanket, they stay back there until everyone is behind the blanket. As you hear each kid shout, talk to the other kids about what could be so exciting. Once all the kids are behind the blanket, go with them and stir it up a bit. Ask the kids “What’s so exciting back here? What have you discovered?” …At that question, have your student helper FLIP OVER card on which you have written in big letters: “When I say shout, I want you to Shout Together as loud as you can: JESUS IS OUR KING!!” (You need to quietly whisper the instruction for non-readers.) Now say “shout” to them and point to the words on the card, “Jesus is our King!” Say, “I can’t hear you,” and point to the words again. Shout it a third time. Now have your helpers drop the blanket. As they do this, the kids will have big smiles on their faces, as will the congregation. You can provide some concluding remarks now, or use this EXTRA ENDING. I did this ending the second time I used this children’s sermon and it went over big: Split up the kids, half in front of one side of the congregation, and half in front of the other side to lead a cheer. The first half shouts: “Jesus is Our King” and the second half shouts, “Awesome!” Do that a couple of times and have fun with it. They will shout it out loud, guaranteed! Wrap it up by saying, “The gift Jesus wants from us, is to not HIDE our love for him. Now you could shout about it, but that would get pretty annoying very quick! So here’s the idea: Instead of shouting your faith with words, I want you to PUMP UP THE VOLUME on your love and generosity, PUMP UP your compassion and care for each other. PUMP UP your worship attendance And Shout Real Quiet by spending time in prayer and reading the Bible. Those are the kinds of “wise and loud gifts” Jesus would really like. AMEN? — I can’t hear you. AMEN??? (Wait until they shout AMEN!!!) (Note: This is what I “approximately” said, as I wrote this down afterwards. Feel free to word monger it.)
Advent Children’s Sermon 1:
A Picture of Baby Jesus’ Friends
I love this children’s sermon! Years ago on vacation my kids had a great time playing in front of a PAINTED horizontal mirror in a restaurant playground. Painted on the mirror were crazy hair-dos and beards that the kids could walk up to and position themselves so they looked like they were wearing them. My kids loved it. (Since then, I’ve always wanted to put a LONG MIRROR in a hallway of my Sunday School with the same effect, only this time with costumes/hair/beards and titles of Bible heroes, …so they could “see themselves in the picture” and realize that “they were the Bible heroes the world needed now.”)
Advent Children’s Sermon 2:
What Would Jesus Give our Sunday School for Christmas?
One Sunday… The children “unwrap” several things for their Sunday School that Jesus has given THEM for Christmas. Kids (and adults) love the anticipation, the humor, and the poignancy. After each gift is unwrapped by the kids and passed around, the pastor asks, “Why would Jesus give us THIS for Christmas? What can we do with it?” The setup up is that some of the things are mundane and merely useful. Markers and toilet paper, how thoughtful of Jesus! (Point: Jesus cares about our every need. Nothing is too little for Jesus.)
We bought these plastic “creche” figurines for kids. Oriental trading company, I believe really inexpensive. We SET ASIDE two of the characters and used them this way. Our church had this really fancy Creche (manger) scene in the Sanctuary. For the children’s sermon we went to look at it, and I asked a trick question: “We have all the important people from the story, right? But who else are we missing in this manger scene? They are really important and we’re missing them!” Of course, the answer was THEM, …THEY were missing in the scene. At that point we produced the character figurines and a couple of MARKERS. We had the kids write their name on their figure and place it in the creche.Advent Children’s Sermon 3:
The Four Candles and Gifts of Advent
EPIPHANY Children’s Sermon:
Shout it Out Loud!
Celebrate Epiphany by making “King Cakes”
King Cakes are heavily cinnamon bread cakes that are decorated to represent the 3 kings and their gifts, then exchanged and shared with gusto! It’s traditional to put a food-grade baby Jesus somewhere in the dough and hope to be the one who finds it in their slice. I’d make sure EACH of my kids “got Jesus.”
This tradition is not widely known outside of New Orleans and parts of the South. They are very popular in Mexico.
For more on this tasty lesson idea, wiki “King Cakes.”
Tip: Use pre-made dough and make loaves smaller/flatter so that they bake faster on Sunday morning. Shop online for baking “jewels” and edible gold dust (and such) to make the loaves special.
Ritual Things to Do with Old Christmas Trees
Christmas trees have a lot of meaning to them for most people, so why not harness the tree’s natural benefits for teaching during your Post-Advent lessons? Open this toggle to learn more…
Ceremonial Things to Do with Old Christmas Trees:
Celebrating the New Year
Celebrating the New Year
Leviticus specifies the celebration each fall of Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year with the blasting of ram’s horns, worship, and the sharing of special foods. Many of us in the Christian Church have transported these celebrations to January 1st when most of the world celebrates the promise of a new year.
Two parts of this ancient New Year’s celebration are particularly fun with children: the making and blowing of the “Ram’s Horn,” and the dipping of apples into honey. Here’s a great link about the wonderful tradition and ritual of dipping apples. Children can create an “apple bowl” to take home and share this tradition, or prepare it for each other or the congregation.
Google “apples and honey” and “blowing the ram’s horn” for more details on that theologically rich tradition.
This teacher has come up with a great way for kids to make their own ram’s horns using a party horn, paper tube and colorful masking tape. My Tip: cut the party horn tube and insert it into the paper tube then tape together, rather than just using the mouthpiece. Why “horns”? To announce the coming of the King into his Temple and his bestowing of a new year upon us!
Copyright Neil MacQueen, www.sundaysoftware.com
You’re welcome to use what you find here for your teaching.
Also visit Rotation.org’s Advent 2020 forum, ideas for celebrating during the COVID pandemic with social restrictions. Include some really neat “Live Nativity” ideas.