Christingle assembly

Today we did a Christingle assembly at school and then went into every class to help the children make Christingles.  It was brilliant- by the 5th class round we had the system well in place and got the whole class finished in 20 minutes!

Here is the assembly we used to introduce the idea...

Game:  wrap boxes in gift wrap.  The first team to wrap their gift is the winner

Talk about Gifts that God gives us- Christmas is the time to remember the gift of Jesus.  What gifts does the Christingle remind us of?

I brought out 4 gift bags containing hidden items and asked the children to guess what was inside.

The first bag held an inflatable globe- we had to squash it a bit to fit it in the bag but then we reinflated it!  It also held an orange which we use to symbolise the world.

 The next bag contained fruit and sweets- the good things that God gives to us.  On the Christingle we put sweets and raisins on the 4 cocktail sticks to symbolise the good things God gives us during the 4 seasons of the year.

 The third bag contained a candle and a lamp, symbolising Jesus as the light of the world.  At this point we talked about light shining in the darkness to help people to see and we thought about the people who help us and make our lives brighter.

 The last bag contained a red box and some red tape that would go round the orange.  The red symbolises Jesus blood when he died on the cross and the box opens up into a cross shape.  We spoke about Jesus' bravery and how he gave us a great gift by dying because it brought us closer to God because our sins could be forgiven.

We finished with a reflection time thinking about the gifts God has given us symbolised in the Christingle: The world, food, the seasons, people who help us and make our lives brighter and Jesus who brings us closer to God.