People love to see little kids at church—-booger picking, hair pulling, and crying included. Seriously though, little kids decked out in their fancy red and green garb with special Christmas headbands and hair dos are incredibily cute. All dressed up in their Christmas best, kids doing Nativity skits at church are a great way to encourage guests (aka family members who woulnd’t normally come to church) come see these kids at church.
Many people may never step in to a church except for maybe Christmas and Easter. Tell them that their super cute grandaughter, Sally, or their extra adorable nephew, Hank, is performing and you have a great reason to invite your family members to church.
Every year, our church puts on a short Christmas program for our congregation. It’s a great opportunity for the church members to see our youngest members and the children look forward to being on stage at Christmas time.
And it’s a great reason to invite guests to church at Christmas!
A children’s Christmas program doesn’t need to be long. A few minutes will do. Short on timing plan? Sing a few popular Christmas tunes. Consider singing Jingle Bells with a Christian twist. This is a popular version from DLKT Jesus Jingle:
Jingle bells, Jingle bells,
Jingle all the way.
Oh what fun to sing and praise
Our Savior born today-ay!
Jingle bells, Jingle bells,
Listen while we say,
Jesus came into my heart
And washed my sins away!
1. To shepherds in the field,
An angel came to say,
That Jesus Christ is born,
In Bethlehem today!
The shepherds ran to town,
They hurried down the street,
And when they found the Son of God
They worshipped at his feet!
Have a little more time to plan? Consider putting on a short kit about Jesus’ birth.
Everyone loves seeing little kids put on a nativity skit about Jesus’ birth!
We did this skit a few years. There are five speaking parts, Mary, Joseph, an Angel, and two narrators. Extra cast members could be sheep, angels, or shepherds. We don’t have a large number of children in our program so this was a good size for our Christmas nativity skit.
Kids dressed in the expected Christmas time garb for their roles. The angels wore white, Mary and Joseph dressed in long robes, and the narrators wore fancy red Christmas attire. Baby Jesus was a doll lying in a manger. (Go figure, huh?)
We practiced with the kids several times after Sunday school and had one dress rehearsal on stage. Fortunately for us, we were able to use props we already had on hand. We had a stable scene and some painted trees set up around the stage. Someone even had a cardboard camel in storage. Awesome!
It wouldn’t be hard to find Christmas stage props or make them. Our manger scene was painted onto large appliance boxes found at local hardware stores. Can’t paint? (Me either!) Just set up a manger on the stage with a few bales of hay set up around. People will get the idea. It is the Christmas nativity story after all. Most people know the setting. Want a little bit more? Consider looking on Oriental Trading Post or some other party supply store.
Simple props make putting on a Nativity Skit about Jesus’ Birth easy.
Since we only had 5 speaking parts, we had the younger kids come up after we were done with the skit and and sing “Away in a Manger” and “Silent Night.” It was a great way to get all the kids involved.
Christmas programs are a great way to reach out to members of your community. Althought I always drag my feet a little bit when I start the planning for our annual program, every time I see new faces wandering in to see these cute kids’ faces, I am glad that we put in the time and effort to teach about Jesus’ birth at Christmas in our program. It’s worth it!
Do you have fun Christmas programs or tips? Please leave a comment and let me know what you do at your church!
Get more great ideas and fun activities delivered right to your inbox!