Serve and pray for others this Christmas! For this Advent Outreach activity, have kids in your ministry collect baby items for a local shelter. This activity centers on the truth that prayer can lead us to acts of service during the Christmas holiday.

Prepare for the Advent Outreach

You’ll Need:

• wooden or cardboard box
• hay or shredded paper

Easy Prep:

• Make a manger from a wooden or cardboard box. Fill it with hay or shredded paper.
• Contact a local woman’s shelter or pregnancy resource center, and ask what types of items they need.
• Then coordinate a time for you (and the kids in your ministry) to stop by and deliver the items.

Christmas Cradle Prayers and Service

On the first day of Advent…

On the first Sunday of Advent, gather kids around the empty manger.

Say: On Christmas, Jesus was born as a baby in Bethlehem. Just as in Jesus’ time, when babies are born nowadays, there are a lot of things people need to do to get ready for the babies to be born. Let’s pray, thanking Jesus for coming to our world as a baby. Then, let’s ask Jesus to be with the moms and dads who might be getting new babies soon.

Allow time for prayer.

Say: Prayer is a great way to help moms, dads, and babies. But we can also help families by serving them. Each Sunday before Christmas, you can bring in a small baby gift to help the families we prayed for. The Bible talks about why we want to serve others:

Read aloud Matthew 25:40.

Say: When the verse talks about helping the “least of these,” you can think about people who need help. By helping new moms and dads with their babies, it’ll kind of be like we’re giving a present to baby Jesus!

Make sure to share specific items that the shelter or resource center said they need. If the shelter didn’t have specific items in mind, you could suggest small items such as pacifiers, knit booties, bibs, rattles, bottles, or cans of formula.

For the rest of Advent…

• Let children lay their Christmas gifts in (or around) the manger each week.
• Each week ask a different child to offer a prayer and thank Jesus for coming to the earth as a baby. Kids can also pray for the families that will receive their gifts.
• On the Sunday before Christmas, pack all the baby items in a box, and have the kids wrap and decorate it. Lead the children in a final prayer for those who will receive the gifts.

Take the box to a local shelter. If possible, have the children go with you when you make the special Christmas delivery.

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