More Family Christmas Activites!

Children's Ministry Magazine just posted a bunch more great ideas for families to do at Christmas-time. Let us know if you decide to do them and how they worked for you. We'd love to hear from you!

JUST OUR FAMILY

• Look at a photo album of family memories. Or watch clips from homemade family videos. Begin conversations with "Remember when..." Tape-record a good memory and send it to the person who was part of it.
• Buy a new game as a family gift for Christmas. Open it early and play it together.
• Work on a jigsaw puzzle. Play Christmas carols in the background.
• Each family night, read aloud a few chapters from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens until it's finished.
• Have each family member choose a Christmas carol, read one verse, and tell why it has special meaning.
• Make special cards for grandparents. Together, write a message on each card.
• Have each family member think of something helpful to do for another family member. Write the idea on a piece of paper, sign it, and put it in a box. During the next seven days, do the helpful thing and present the box to the right recipient. Repeat this each week.
• Go for a walk together. Look for the brightest star, the largest pine cone, the most interesting house decorations, and so on.
• Help each other memorize a Christmas verse, a passage, or a psalm.
• Go through the alphabet naming gifts from God. The first person begins, "God gave our family an apple tree." The next person says, "God gave our family an apple tree and a basketball goal." Keep adding items. See how far your family can go through the alphabet and remember the gifts named.

FAMILY FRIENDS

• Invite a family that's different from your own to dinner. It may be a single person, a single-parent family, or a family who has a child with special needs.
• Decorate Christmas cookies with another family. Use a roll of prepared sugar-cookie dough or make your own.
• Take a Christmas lights tour of your favorite places. Combine with other families to use the church bus. Or you could rent a bus if you have enough people. End your tour at someone's house for hot cider and Christmas cookies.
• Get with another family and each share one holiday tradition.
• Have a simple supper together that symbolizes togetherness in the family of God. It may be vegetable soup or a salad that both families contribute to. Note the individual parts and how they make up the whole. Include a loaf of bread to "break bread" together. Read Acts 2:42-47.

FAMILY TO FAMILY

• Make hot chocolate mix, freezer jam, or a simple fruit bread. Give to neighbors or people who live near your church. Write a Christmas message on each item.
• Join with other families to sing Christmas carols to elderly people.
• Trade child care with another family for an evening or Saturday so you can shop, bake, clean, decorate, or sleep.
• Help children shop for gifts for their parents (particularly in a single-parent household). Help children wrap and tag their gifts.
• Adopt a needy family and provide gifts and food for their Christmas celebration.