My Favorite Advent and Christmas Resources

by Mary Mohlke, resource center director in Western New York Presbytery

Stories

Buckley, Ray. Christmas Moccasins. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003.
Journey with a young boy and his grandmother as they explore forgiveness, compassion, and mercy. This is a wonderful story for children and adults alike.

Hartman, Bob. The Lion Storyteller Christmas Book. Oxford, England: Lion Children’s Publishing, 2005.
There are stories about Christmas traditions, Christmas tales and legends, and stories from the Bible, especially for reading aloud to children and adults. Have you heard the story of “The Baby in the Dough”?

Vivas, Julie. The Nativity. Harpers Ferry: Voyager Books, 2006.
The Christmas story illustrations show a very real pregnant Mary, a very loving Joseph and some crazy, busy angels. Adults love the illustrations in this children’s Christmas story.

Wilner, Isabel. B Is for Bethlehem: A Christmas Alphabet. New York: Dutton Juvenile, 2004.
This Christmas alphabet board book is beautifully illustrated and tells the story of the Nativity in graceful rhyming couplets. Children and adults will find themselves engaged in each page.

Worship Resources

Duncan, Geoffrey, compiler. Shine On, Star of Bethlehem: A Worship Resource for Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 2003, $21.00. Prayers, poetry, song lyrics, and complete services from around the world.

Wild Goose Worship Group. Cloth for the Cradle, Glasgow, Scotland: Wild Goose Publications, 1997. Worship resources, litanies, meditations, poems, monologues, prayers, scripts, symbolic actions, and readings for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany. Particularly helpful is an activity that invites people to bring a strip of cloth to the cradle to symbolize their intention to make a place for welcoming Jesus.

Morris-Pierce, Elizabeth; Stephen A. Berger; Eulonda A. Dreher; Russell W. Dalton; D. Andrew Richardson; Jeanne Miller and Judith Hale Wood; Ellen and James Edgar. In Search of Christmas: A Collection of Congregational Resources for Thanksgiving, Advent, and Christmas. Lima, Ohio; CSS Publishing Company, 2002, $23.95.
This collection of congregational resources includes a Thanksgiving event for children, a Chrismon service with easy Chrismon patterns, and several dramas.

Olson, Richard. Privileged Conversations: Dramatic Stories for Christmas. Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 1996.
Beginning thoughts, questions, prayers, and Scripture passages accompany the reading of each dramatic story for Christmas. These stories are great for families and small groups, individuals, and for worship.

Price, Ian and Carolyn Kitto. Creative Worship. Kelowna, BC: Wood Lake Books, 2002, $24.95. Services include Advent services, a children’s pageant, monologues for Christmas Day, a service of solace, a covenant for renewal in the new year, a Tenebrae service, an agape meal, and more worship resources through Pentecost.

Program, Study or Reflection

The Christmas Game, 1999. More than 100 thought-provoking questions for conversations about Christmas to use in small groups, families, and church school classes. If you could give all the children of the world gifts at Christmas, what would you give them? If you could give a speech on national television on December 24, what would you talk about?

Kelly, Joseph F. The Origins of Christmas. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2004, $11.95.
When was Christmas first celebrated? How did December 25 become its date? How did the Magi get their names? In this book, find answers to these and other questions concerning the origins of Christmas. Why not develop a quiz for a fellowship event?

Walsh, Joseph J. Were They Wise Men or Kings? The Book of Christmas Questions. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001, $24.95.
Do you know where the custom of hanging a stocking came from? Find answers to fifty questions about Christmas and its stories in this well-researched book. This would make a great program for an adult Sunday school class fascinated about Christmas customs.

Personal

Richardson, Jan L. Night Visions: Searching the Shadows of Advent and Christmas. Pilgrim Press, 1998. A warm and moving exploration of the shadows and possibilities in the long nights of Advent. This book features art and daily meditations for readers.

Note: Many of these resources have more than one edition, including hardcover and paperback. The editions listed are the most recent or the most readily available.

Involving the Congregation in Some Artistic Projects

Clay Crèche
Give each participant a 1½" ball of air dry clay. Ask them to poke a hole in the clay and pinch it and pull it to shape it into a figure or animal for the church crèche. To display the crèche, put a variety of different-sized boxes on a table and cover them with a large piece of fabric. Group the clay animals and figures on different levels. There may be more than one baby Jesus, and that’s OK.

Curriculum Picture Display
Gather curriculum pictures of the Christmas story and display them on a wall or bulletin board. Ask participants to choose one picture that is meaningful to them and to write on a sticky note a “good news” headline for the picture or a few words about why they were drawn to it. Participants can then add their note to the display and explore one another’s headlines or notes.

Angel Mosaic Banner
Use chalk to draw a large, simple angel shape on a large piece of dark felt. Provide 1-inch squares of brightly colored felt or construction paper and fabric glue. Invite participants to glue the squares on the angel shape, beginning at the edge of the design. Instruct them to leave a tiny sliver of background felt showing between each piece. After the edge pieces are glued in place, have the participants begin working toward the center of the angel shape. Display the completed angels on a bulletin board or a Christmas tree. The bright colors will make the angel shape pop out when viewed from a distance.

Registration
Mary and Joseph went to be registered. Invite people to reflect on this event by participating in a “registration” of their own. Hang a large sheet of newsprint on the wall; have it resemble a scroll with columns for people to write their names and their places of birth. In a diverse congregation, this may produce some results that could lead to interesting conversations. Children may wish to write a report about the diversity of birthplaces for your church’s January newsletter.