Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is such a wonderful time in all of our churches! As worship leaders, we have an opportunity to tell the ancient story of Jesus' birth in Bethlehem in ways that might reflect the time-honored traditions of our congregations or in ways that present the timeless story in a new way.

We have two services in our church. One is a late afternoon service especially for families, and the other is a communion service at 11:00 P.M. Both services have a candlelight component.

I see my task at the early service as keeping the kids from exclusively watching out the sanctuary windows for Santa and his sleigh (inevitable, I think) and helping them to focus for just a little while on the birth of Jesus. Since there are a lot of families who don't generally come to church regularly, I usually have a small felt stocking with a little candy cane for the children when they arrive.

One year I arranged the front of the sanctuary like a living room with a rocking chair and lamp and read several Christmas stories, including "Santa's Favorite Story" (beautiful story and illustrations) to the children. I'd be glad to share any of those resources with anyone. In that service, one of the kids also added the baby Jesus to complete the creche.

I have also lit the Advent wreath throughout the service interspersed with reading "Why the Chimes Rang" - another wonderful children's Christmas story.

In recent years I have done a traditional pageant where the kids have created a nativity scene over the course of the service. There is always lots of candlelight, and several of the older youth have sung solos and duets. Two college aged kids home for the holiday are the prophets who tell the story. They are the only ones with lines to say.

This has worked out well. Last year a small child in the congregation came up to the manger after the service, wanting to see the baby Jesus - so I guess we did OK.

At the late service, I have done a traditional lessons and carols but prefer to do more contemporary readings and carols. I have used poetry by Ann Weems and readings from several Iona Community sources (!). I try to work in themes of social justice as much as possible while at the same time providing a quiet meditative experience for people.

I found a video that I'm thinking of using this year at the late service. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POm7_WBMJTI. It's called "Awaiting the Christ Child" and was done by Christine Sine.

I'd love to hear what others are doing!