How To Involve Kids In Your Services This Christmas

Hooray it’s Christmas!

The tinsel is twinkling, the carols are loud, the buzz is palpable and then the panic sets in! How do I involve kids in the many all age services that are about to happen?!

Slow down! What if we didn’t think just about squeezing the “kids bit” into a service Christmas service this year? What if we reminded ourselves that an extraordinary child is at the center of this story, and instead of just regurgitating a story in an ordinary way, we did something different to see something extraordinary ourselves. Let’s get the kids involved in it all!

So here are a few ideas for how to reignite the awe in this awesome story and involve the kids as much as we can.

(1) Use voices in your church that you wouldn’t normally hear from the front to read the Christmas story. Young people, old people, people from different nationalities. Rehearse with them to really bring out the passion and excitement in the story, so it is both engaging and exciting to hear and watch for all ages.

(2) Why not include actions and movement throughout your services. For example, every time someone says “angel”, everyone makes a ding sound and points to their halo. Or every time someone says "baby", everyone cradles an imaginary baby and says "ahh!" It will definitely bring some fun (and maybe chaos!) to your service.

(3) How about going interactive? Different members of your congregation can embody the characters from the Christmas story and then ask children to ask them questions / interview them. Choosing people on the outskirts of the story will provide a whole new way of seeing the Christmas story!

(4) Christmas is a great time for children (and big children!) to have a bit of fun and dress up. Why not start to find some second-hand or cheap dressing-up items and have a 'costume rail' at the back of your church building? Children can come and grab something to wear or use whenever they want to really feel a part of the service.

(5) Sugar, spice and all things nice! Ask the families in your church to bake some Christmas biscuits alongside their children to share with people visiting Church during the Christmas season. Christmas is about the gift God gave us in Jesus, so let's give little gifts of deliciousness to each other and share the joy!

I’m sure you'll have loads of other ways to get children and people of all ages involved in your services and church life this season, but hopefully this sparks a creative twinkle in you to get your Christmas bauble rolling!

We hope you have a fun, creative and joy-filled festive season!

Merry Christmas!!