12 Joy-Filled Christmas Ideas to Use in Children’s Ministry

These 12 Christmas ideas will really welcome the Christmas spirit in your children’s ministry. Use one to enhance your lessons or combine a few to make an entire service’s worth of Christmas celebrations!

3 Ideas to Deck the Halls for Christmas

1. Hang a string of small white lights around your classroom doorway to welcome children. Get even more creative and write a special message with lights or trace the outline of a star! If you don’t have an electrical outlet near your door, use a string of lights with a battery pack.
2. Take an instant photo of each child or have children bring in school photos you can keep. Cut each photo to fit inside a clean round juice lid and glue the photo onto the lid. Then cut a wreath-shaped base from cardboard and glue the juice lid photos around the base to make a wreath of photos for your classroom door.
3. Cut star shapes from silver or gold cardboard, or use plain cardboard and spray paint the stars. While the paint is wet, sprinkle glitter on the stars. Attach threads and hang the stars in the hallway at different heights.

2 Christmas Ideas for Giving to Others

1. Plan a sock drive to collect new socks for children who may need them. Check with a local clothing bank to see if there are certain needs. Or contact an orphanage or other organization in a Third World country to see if school children must wear certain kinds of socks with their school uniforms. Decorate a large cardboard box to look like a chimney with stockings hanging from it. Collect the socks in this box.
2. Make paper bag luminaries and line the sidewalk to serve your church during your evening Christmas worship service. Fold down the edges of lunch-size paper bags, place a layer of sand in the bottom of each bag, and set a small votive candle inside. Note: If it’s windy, it’s best not to use the luminaries.

4 Yummy Christmas Snack Ideas

1. Make a mug of hot cocoa extra-special by using peppermint sticks as stir sticks.
2. Use purchased bread dough or a favorite bread recipe to make some star- or snowflake-shaped pretzels. Brush the pretzels with egg white or butter and sprinkle coarse sugar crystals on them for decoration.
3. It’s easy to make sugar cookies of all shapes using refrigerated sugar-cookie dough. These cookies will bake quickly during class time so everyone can enjoy them. Or bring prebaked cookies and have kids decorate them in class.
4. Most families have special foods they enjoy during the Christmas season. Invite different families to share their traditional or favorite holiday foods with your class.

3 Ways to Tell the Story

1. Fill a jar with small candies wrapped especially for the Christmas season. Pass the jar around and have each child take a candy as he or she tells part of the Christmas story. Continue until the story is told or the candies are gone.
2. Retell the Christmas story by planning a “Walk to Bethlehem” for your class. Map out a walk through your church grounds or building, placing signs along the way to help retell the story. As you walk, talk about the sounds Mary and Joseph may’ve heard, how tired they might’ve been from walking, where they might’ve stopped to find water for the donkey, and so on. Plan your walk so you’ll reach Bethlehem when you return to your classroom.
3. Cut five identical triangle shapes that are large enough to write on. On each shape, write a Bible verse reference to the Christmas story. Use one triangle each Sunday before Christmas to tell that portion of the Christmas story, and attach the triangles together to form a star as shown. Verses to use might include Luke 1:28, Luke 2:1, Luke 2:7, Luke 2:9-10, and Luke 2:15.

Check out all these Christmas ideas!