Christmas Resource Guide - From the Diocese of Chichester Youth and Children's Team (YES)
Hi all,
The following is my "E-news" which I send out around the Diocese of Chichester, hope it is of use here too . . .
So, in no particular order:
www.youngpeoplessunday.org.uk This is a great website from the Frontier Youth Trust, encouraging churches to have a Sunday during the year when they focus on young people. So there are dramas, activities, talk ideas etc. As you visit the site you will notice a topic called “Christmas”.
www.liquidleadership.tv/LIQUID/Its_A_Wrap_Christmas_Preview.html. This is from Craig Jutlia, a great kids worker from America. Click on the link and it will take you to his Christmas Resource, “It’s a wrap”.
www.paperlesschristmas.org.uk. If you are looking for something completely different, this creative take on the Christmas story, in the form of a Road Movie needs to be seen . . . tells the story in nine entertaining and informative episodes. The videos, produced in a collaboration between Jerusalem Productions and BRF, - the videos will work well in churches where this ‘nativity with a modern twist’ will prompt children and adults think afresh about the story.
www.childrenssociety.org.uk/what_you_can_do/fundraising_appeals/chr.... There are shed loads of resources on the “Christingle” pages of the Children’s Society website. Children’s and youth resources, school material and for general church use.
www.givingingrace.org/preaching/children_P6.html. Although not especially about Christmas, the “Giving in Grace” website, from the Diocese of Liverpool has some great ideas about how to encourage children to give and think of others – what better time to look at that than Christmas?
www.simplyyouthministry.com/freebies-images.html. Simply Youth Ministry has, for years, produced quality bible based resources, which - with a little translation - work well. They are also amazing at offering free resources via their website – everything from full sermon transcripts to video clips. For Advent or Christmas presentations using PowerPoint, they have a number of free background image downloads which will life your presentation from drab to dramatic in a moment. Follow the link above, and take a while to browse their huge catalogue of free stuff. A tip, if you look back through the various zip files with images in them – when a file has a “beginning of December” date, it is often a Christmas or Advent themed series of images.
www.sgmlifewords.com/christmas/?page_id=6. The guys at “Scripture Gift Mission”, now called “Life Words” always produce Christmas Resources – for not very much money you can buy the things they have produced and make them your own – the link takes you to their dedicated Christmas pages.
www.authenticmedia.co.uk/AuthenticSite/product/311459.htm. The Veggie Tales newest Christmas movie is all about 'Saint Nicholas - A Story of Joyful Giving'. This is the story of the man who has become known as Santa Claus and teaches giving. Laura Carrot's Christmas stocking might be empty this year because her dad is in danger of losing his job. While Larry thinks a letter to the North Pole should fix the problem, Bob knows what will really help... and tells the story of a little boy, named Nicholas who made a discovery in Bethlehem that changed Christmas forever. However, what did Nick learn and how can it possibly help Laura and her family? Find out as the Veggies discover the true joy of giving to others - at Christmas time and throughout the year! “Authentic Media” are the UK distributor for Veggie Tales, so you can be assured that you buy the right format DVD for your viewing pleasure! Follow the link above.
www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/ten_ages_gallery.shtml. Depending on your group or church, a journey through the “Ten ages of Christmas” will illustrate how things have changed, you could use this as the basis of your Christmas day message – much changes around us, even how we approach Christmas in this country has changed . . . but what has not changed is that God sent his son to be the Saviour of the world. As there are ten ages you might want to pick a couple of distinctive ones – or be extremely snappy in your presentation style!
www.spikyheaded.com/category/xmas. Beef Frankland has been involved in youth work for over 20 years, and has a website dedicated to sharing free resources . . . the link here is to his Christmas selection of ideas.
www.familyministry.co.uk/Shop/Sections/Section.aspx?section_id=7292. And, finally, here is the Christmas selection of titles from “Family Ministry”. You have to buy these titles – but some good stuff on there – my personal recommendations would be: “Bethlehem Carols Unpacked”, and “A Children’s Christmas”.
www.scriptureunion.org.uk/resource/OutlineArchive/2003/Christmas/32.... This link takes you directly to Scripture Union’s free, downloadable resources, the “Behold I stand” is a powerful poem which would work brilliantly for a “9 Lessons and Carols” or a “Family Nativity” as a thought provoking reflection on where we will place Jesus Christ at Christmas.
Just to add my own three “ideas”, although there is nothing new under the sun – I think Christmas is a time to keep it simple and straight.
1. The three gifts from the wise men, give you three natural points on which to reflect. Myrrh, for sacrifice; Frankincense, for priest; Gold, for King. Reflecting on those three aspects of Jesus’ calling – to be our priest (the high priest as he is called in Hebrews chapter 5), Jesus’ calling – to be our sacrifice (the shadow of the cross over the crib and prophesied in Isaiah chapter 53), Jesus’ calling to be our King (you could link all three of these by looking at Philippians 2 to finish, and at the end of the passage on Christ’s attitude He is given the name above every name . . . our King, but also everybody’s King. What will our response be this Christmas time?
2. The “Three Trees” works brilliantly as a parable for Easter or Christmas, depending where you place the emphasis. Again three points can be made (read the story on the link here www.word4life.com/threetrees.html if you don’t know it): They revolve around “us” and what we want out of life, or maybe what we want at Christmas – firstly, the tree made into a crib (rather than a treasure chuest), has an amazing treasure placed in it – namely Jesus – question, “what will we treasure most this Christmas?” secondly, the tree made into a fishing boat (rather than a huge ocean going liner), has the most important person in it – when just on the sea of Galilee - rather than having many rich and famous people, is Christmas going to be “all about us?” Finally, the third tree just wanted to point, straight and true, up to God – he wanted his life to be about pointing others to Jesus, he was turned into the Cross. At Christmas, where are we pointing people to as they look at our lives, our attitudes, the way we celebrate – will they see Jesus?
3. Although not a book by a Christian publisher, this is a cracking present – I think to buy for fathers, but anyone really . . . from Geraldine McCaughrean, www.amazon.co.uk/Father-Son-Geraldine-McCaughrean/dp/0340882093/ref..., “Father and Son” is what I would call a hidden classic. A quick synopsis – it has Joseph looking down at the son who is (and is not) his, wondering what on earth he has to offer the King of creation etc. It is poetic and beautiful a great ending and superbly illustrated.
There you go, hope some of the above is useful to you in your work with children and young people. Do not forget to take a moment yourself, in all your preparation for Christmas to enjoy and reflect on the wonder of “God becoming man” to call us back into relationship with Him. It is at the heart of all that we are and do with children and young people.
The following is my "E-news" which I send out around the Diocese of Chichester, hope it is of use here too . . .
So, in no particular order:
www.youngpeoplessunday.org.uk This is a great website from the Frontier Youth Trust, encouraging churches to have a Sunday during the year when they focus on young people. So there are dramas, activities, talk ideas etc. As you visit the site you will notice a topic called “Christmas”.
www.liquidleadership.tv/LIQUID/Its_A_Wrap_Christmas_Preview.html. This is from Craig Jutlia, a great kids worker from America. Click on the link and it will take you to his Christmas Resource, “It’s a wrap”.
www.paperlesschristmas.org.uk. If you are looking for something completely different, this creative take on the Christmas story, in the form of a Road Movie needs to be seen . . . tells the story in nine entertaining and informative episodes. The videos, produced in a collaboration between Jerusalem Productions and BRF, - the videos will work well in churches where this ‘nativity with a modern twist’ will prompt children and adults think afresh about the story.
www.childrenssociety.org.uk/what_you_can_do/fundraising_appeals/chr.... There are shed loads of resources on the “Christingle” pages of the Children’s Society website. Children’s and youth resources, school material and for general church use.
www.givingingrace.org/preaching/children_P6.html. Although not especially about Christmas, the “Giving in Grace” website, from the Diocese of Liverpool has some great ideas about how to encourage children to give and think of others – what better time to look at that than Christmas?
www.simplyyouthministry.com/freebies-images.html. Simply Youth Ministry has, for years, produced quality bible based resources, which - with a little translation - work well. They are also amazing at offering free resources via their website – everything from full sermon transcripts to video clips. For Advent or Christmas presentations using PowerPoint, they have a number of free background image downloads which will life your presentation from drab to dramatic in a moment. Follow the link above, and take a while to browse their huge catalogue of free stuff. A tip, if you look back through the various zip files with images in them – when a file has a “beginning of December” date, it is often a Christmas or Advent themed series of images.
www.sgmlifewords.com/christmas/?page_id=6. The guys at “Scripture Gift Mission”, now called “Life Words” always produce Christmas Resources – for not very much money you can buy the things they have produced and make them your own – the link takes you to their dedicated Christmas pages.
www.authenticmedia.co.uk/AuthenticSite/product/311459.htm. The Veggie Tales newest Christmas movie is all about 'Saint Nicholas - A Story of Joyful Giving'. This is the story of the man who has become known as Santa Claus and teaches giving. Laura Carrot's Christmas stocking might be empty this year because her dad is in danger of losing his job. While Larry thinks a letter to the North Pole should fix the problem, Bob knows what will really help... and tells the story of a little boy, named Nicholas who made a discovery in Bethlehem that changed Christmas forever. However, what did Nick learn and how can it possibly help Laura and her family? Find out as the Veggies discover the true joy of giving to others - at Christmas time and throughout the year! “Authentic Media” are the UK distributor for Veggie Tales, so you can be assured that you buy the right format DVD for your viewing pleasure! Follow the link above.
www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/ten_ages_gallery.shtml. Depending on your group or church, a journey through the “Ten ages of Christmas” will illustrate how things have changed, you could use this as the basis of your Christmas day message – much changes around us, even how we approach Christmas in this country has changed . . . but what has not changed is that God sent his son to be the Saviour of the world. As there are ten ages you might want to pick a couple of distinctive ones – or be extremely snappy in your presentation style!
www.spikyheaded.com/category/xmas. Beef Frankland has been involved in youth work for over 20 years, and has a website dedicated to sharing free resources . . . the link here is to his Christmas selection of ideas.
www.familyministry.co.uk/Shop/Sections/Section.aspx?section_id=7292. And, finally, here is the Christmas selection of titles from “Family Ministry”. You have to buy these titles – but some good stuff on there – my personal recommendations would be: “Bethlehem Carols Unpacked”, and “A Children’s Christmas”.
www.scriptureunion.org.uk/resource/OutlineArchive/2003/Christmas/32.... This link takes you directly to Scripture Union’s free, downloadable resources, the “Behold I stand” is a powerful poem which would work brilliantly for a “9 Lessons and Carols” or a “Family Nativity” as a thought provoking reflection on where we will place Jesus Christ at Christmas.
Just to add my own three “ideas”, although there is nothing new under the sun – I think Christmas is a time to keep it simple and straight.
1. The three gifts from the wise men, give you three natural points on which to reflect. Myrrh, for sacrifice; Frankincense, for priest; Gold, for King. Reflecting on those three aspects of Jesus’ calling – to be our priest (the high priest as he is called in Hebrews chapter 5), Jesus’ calling – to be our sacrifice (the shadow of the cross over the crib and prophesied in Isaiah chapter 53), Jesus’ calling to be our King (you could link all three of these by looking at Philippians 2 to finish, and at the end of the passage on Christ’s attitude He is given the name above every name . . . our King, but also everybody’s King. What will our response be this Christmas time?
2. The “Three Trees” works brilliantly as a parable for Easter or Christmas, depending where you place the emphasis. Again three points can be made (read the story on the link here www.word4life.com/threetrees.html if you don’t know it): They revolve around “us” and what we want out of life, or maybe what we want at Christmas – firstly, the tree made into a crib (rather than a treasure chuest), has an amazing treasure placed in it – namely Jesus – question, “what will we treasure most this Christmas?” secondly, the tree made into a fishing boat (rather than a huge ocean going liner), has the most important person in it – when just on the sea of Galilee - rather than having many rich and famous people, is Christmas going to be “all about us?” Finally, the third tree just wanted to point, straight and true, up to God – he wanted his life to be about pointing others to Jesus, he was turned into the Cross. At Christmas, where are we pointing people to as they look at our lives, our attitudes, the way we celebrate – will they see Jesus?
3. Although not a book by a Christian publisher, this is a cracking present – I think to buy for fathers, but anyone really . . . from Geraldine McCaughrean, www.amazon.co.uk/Father-Son-Geraldine-McCaughrean/dp/0340882093/ref..., “Father and Son” is what I would call a hidden classic. A quick synopsis – it has Joseph looking down at the son who is (and is not) his, wondering what on earth he has to offer the King of creation etc. It is poetic and beautiful a great ending and superbly illustrated.
There you go, hope some of the above is useful to you in your work with children and young people. Do not forget to take a moment yourself, in all your preparation for Christmas to enjoy and reflect on the wonder of “God becoming man” to call us back into relationship with Him. It is at the heart of all that we are and do with children and young people.
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