Seasonal activities for Christmas festivities - Vicki Howie

Seasonal Activities for Christmas Festivities is ideal for children's leaders looking for lively, thought-provoking session material in the run-up to Christmas. The resource provides three years' worth of exciting programme ideas designed to unpack the true meaning of Christmas with 7-11s. Each programme contains five sessions that fit readily into the autumn half-term leading up to Christmas, and includes an optional short presentation for a Christmas service or related event. Choose from three stand-alone but inter-related themes, each unpacked through icebreakers, discussions, games, crafts, dramatised Bible stories, prayers and take-home activities. Christmas unwrapped Explore the parts played by five nativity characters in the Christmas story and discover how we can reflect their gifts and attitudes today! Christmas unpacked Link five key Bible stories from Creation to Easter to tell the great story of God's love for us and to discover why we celebrate Christmas! The gift of Christmas Find out how five nativity characters symbolise the people Jesus came to befriend and think about those God wants us to remember at Christmas time! Within each programme, the five sessions follow the same pattern and include the following sections: Ready, steady... Sets out the aim of the session and provides a short Bible reflection to aid the teaching of the material. Go! An introduction to the theme, designed to stimulate thinking. Icebreaker An activity to get the children talking, moving and thinking about the theme. Dramatised Bible story A Bible reading designed to be divided among several children, with two questions to puzzle out, to encourage careful listening. Drama games A choice of simple games, some lively and others more meditative, to explore the theme further, introduce humour and enjoyment and use up energy in a controlled way. Many of the suggestions are followed by a discussion to link the game to the theme and its relevance for today. Follow-up discussion Suggestions to tease out the theme and teaching of an activity. Craft activities (group and individual) A choice of simple crafts based on the theme. Prayer Suggestions for prayer to draw together the threads of the session and ask God for help in putting the ideas into action this Christmas and beyond. Party bag An activity providing something that the children can take away with them to try out at home. Includes photocopy permission on the dramatised Bible stories and craft template

Vicki is well established as a Barnabas author with her range of popular Easy Ways titles including Easy Ways to Christmas, Easy Ways to Seasonal Plays, Easy Ways to Bible fun for the very young, Easy Ways to Seasonal fun for the very young and Easy to say… easy to play! with its accompanying CD. She is also the author of Knock, Knock! Who's there?, a board book for the under fives.

Church Times, Nov 2012 Seasonal Activities for Christmas Festivities offers three five-week programmes exploring Bible characters and what their attitude to God can teach us, what incarnation means through the history of the Bible, and how we might respond to Christmas through social action. The usual games, drama, discussion points, crafts, and prayer suggestions are included; but I was particularly impressed by the introduction to each session, which had theological depth and perception. Those leading Junior Church on Sunday morning can sometimes feel that they are missing out on the adult learning. These introductions mitigate that, and in fact could form the beginning of a sermon series to run alongside the children's learning. The Revd Dana Delap is Assistant Curate of St James and St Basil, Newcastle upon Tyne