Christmas Decor Ideas for Kids Church

Children look forward to visiting our children’s church year round because they never know what to expect—especially during Christmas. I’ll admit it, I have a love/need to display creative decorations and I’m always looking for new ideas to incorporate into our facility’s décor. One week, my team and I hung giant paper flowers from the ceiling because we were all “Growing in God’s Garden.” Another time, during a one-night kids’ blowout, we recreated Jurassic Park, compete with a 9-foot paper mache dinosaur for a “Stomping Good Time.”
This year, when decorating your kids’ church for Christmas, think outside the box. Throw away the red and green standard and take some time to present the “good news” in a new way.  Get kids thinking about the true meaning for the holiday and show them how this special time should be celebrated.
Giant Stocking
Jesus is the best gift ever, but that message gets lost when kids are focused on receiving other kinds of presents. One year, I found a jumbo, red Christmas stocking at a flea market. I found a box that fit perfectly inside the stocking, then placed baby blankets and a baby doll inside. We hung the stocking on a wall at eye level for kids to see. Next, we filled the base of the stocking with wads of newspaper. We wrapped the box and box lid, then placed it just inside the top. Lastly we created a giant gift tag that read, “To: You, From: God.” Kids loved the display and really began to talk about the gift that God sent us. You could make a giant stocking with red flannel or felt and some hot glue!
Around the edge of the giant stocking, we placed the kids gifts and as each came to receive their presents, we allowed each to look inside the box. They had to promise to keep what they saw a secret until everyone saw baby Jesus.
God’s Candy Kingdom
For this one, we went with a Candyland theme, sort of. Since candy is such a big part of the Christmas holidays we found this idea to be easy to implement. We bought large plastic flower pots and filled the bottom with rocks. After placing a foam disc on top of the rocks, we made giant lollipops to display. We bought 10-inch wide foam discs from a hardware store and poked a wooden dowel into the base of each one. Lastly, I wrapped the foam with colored cellophane and cinched the cellophane with ribbon around the neck. I stuck three suckers in each bucket and placed them at the entrance of children’s church.
Next, we salvaged some plain, brown cardboard to make gingerbread men and women. Since the cardboard was already brown, we only had to paint on buttons and a face. We hung the gingerbread people all over the walls of the children’s church.
Our Christmas tree was covered with gumdrop Christmas lights and tons of fake candy. Lighted peppermint candy canes were arranged all over our central stage. It was an exciting time!
Read from Mimi by visiting her blog, “Encouragement for Christians.”