"Bare or green?"
Children's Activity
Object:
Teachers or Parents: Advent is a distinct season from
Christmas. That fact is lost in contemporary society. Already
the Christmas lights are up at the mall and many have begun their
Christmas parties. You will soon start receiving Christmas cards
in the mail. But the church in its wisdom has, over the
centuries, developed the season of Advent as a time of
hopefulness and repentance. The theme of the lesson today is one
of warning and examining one's life in preparation for death.
The bare branches of winter in the natural world also remind us
that life is short.
* Set up a bare "Advent Tree" in your home or Sunday school
room. It can be left bare or you can use it to put pieces of the
Christmas scene on its branches. On Christmas eve, the Christ
child is added and the tree is replaced on Christmas day with a
live Christmas tree.
* Make or cut out scenes from the Christmas tableaux to use
on or under the Advent tree. Add one each day of Advent. For
Sunday school, add seven for each day of the past week.
* Make and light your first candle of an Advent Wreath.
* Begin an Advent countdown calendar.
* Use special Advent devotions prepared by commercial publishers.
Sunday school assembly opening:
* Sing an Advent hymn.
* Light the first candle of an Advent wreath.
* Talk about how Advent is a time for preparation.
* You may wish to set up an Advent tree as part of your
opening ceremonies. On the first Sunday of Christmas, have the
tree replaced with a Christmas tree.
* Jesse trees (so named because of the Isaiah 11:10 and
Romans 15:12 passages [Jesse was the father of King David and is
listed in Matthew and Luke's genealogies of Jesus]) are important
in some traditions. Explore this option.
Christmas. That fact is lost in contemporary society. Already
the Christmas lights are up at the mall and many have begun their
Christmas parties. You will soon start receiving Christmas cards
in the mail. But the church in its wisdom has, over the
centuries, developed the season of Advent as a time of
hopefulness and repentance. The theme of the lesson today is one
of warning and examining one's life in preparation for death.
The bare branches of winter in the natural world also remind us
that life is short.
* Set up a bare "Advent Tree" in your home or Sunday school
room. It can be left bare or you can use it to put pieces of the
Christmas scene on its branches. On Christmas eve, the Christ
child is added and the tree is replaced on Christmas day with a
live Christmas tree.
* Make or cut out scenes from the Christmas tableaux to use
on or under the Advent tree. Add one each day of Advent. For
Sunday school, add seven for each day of the past week.
* Make and light your first candle of an Advent Wreath.
* Begin an Advent countdown calendar.
* Use special Advent devotions prepared by commercial publishers.
Sunday school assembly opening:
* Sing an Advent hymn.
* Light the first candle of an Advent wreath.
* Talk about how Advent is a time for preparation.
* You may wish to set up an Advent tree as part of your
opening ceremonies. On the first Sunday of Christmas, have the
tree replaced with a Christmas tree.
* Jesse trees (so named because of the Isaiah 11:10 and
Romans 15:12 passages [Jesse was the father of King David and is
listed in Matthew and Luke's genealogies of Jesus]) are important
in some traditions. Explore this option.
