Family Ministry Ideas for Christmas

Here are some simple ways for Christian families to celebrate the Christmas season together. This post was written by Doug Wolter, the Pastor of Children & Education at LaGrange Baptist Church. You can read more from Doug at his blog Life Together.
Our hope during the Christmas season is to intentionally pass on to our own children the love of Christ in creative ways. Children love traditions because they love repetition. They look forward to fun and familiar times with the family. As parents we can take advantage of these times and point our kids to Christ. You may already have your own traditions, but here are a few of ours to help you celebrate the Savior this Christmas.
Advent Calendar – This has been a fun way for our family to count down the days in anticipation of Christ’s coming. The kids take turns as we talk about the Christmas story. Be sure to choose a calendar that centers on the birth of Jesus!
What God Wants for Christmas – This is a great interactive kid-friendly nativity – with seven gift boxes, a colorful pop-up, and an illustrated poem that we’ve used for the last couple years. It’s a fun way to talk about the Christmas story together. (available at FamilyLife.com)
Christmas Devotion Jar – Looking for devotions to do with your kids? All you need to do is cut out red, green, and white little strips of paper and write Christmas verse(s) to read together, or craft/activity to do together, or creative ways to reach out to others. Put the slips of paper in a jar, decorate the outside, and set it on the dinner table to pick one out each night.
Christmas Cookies – We take an evening and let our kids help us make cookies that they themselves deliver to teachers, neighborhood friends, special babysitters, people in need, etc.
Scripture Memory – The best way we’ve found to memorize a passage of Scripture is by putting it to song. Thankfully the folks at SEEDS Family Worship have done just that. On the Seeds of Encouragement CD, the song Joy is taken right from Luke 2:8-14. Great song!
Listen to Christ-Centered Christmas Music – As we travel, we try to have a few good CD’s that exalt Christ during this Christmas season. Our kids seem to like Savior: Celebrating the Mystery of God Become Man by Sovereign Grace Ministries the best.
Re-enact the Christmas story – Every year we have fun acting out the story from Luke 2. We actually get our extended family involved and video the whole thing. It’s pretty funny!
Serving and Giving Together – Christmas is all about giving. This year we made and delivered Thanksgiving baskets to those in need and hope to deliver Christmas baskets as well. We also gather our old clothes and toys and give them to Goodwill. Our kids really enjoyed it.