Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

 We are gearing up again for Christmas and, next Sunday, we will be holding our annual Christingle service. This year I've created a short video to explain the various parts of the Christingle and what they mean. Feel free to make use of the video in your own contexts! If you'd like to try some Christingle related prayer stations, click here to go to my  Ko-Fi page.   There are 6 prayer stations- one for each part of the Christingle and they are suitable for small groups or even for stations in an all age service. As always, the resources are free but any support is welcome! Here is a preview of the first station.

If you do Christingle every year, it's always good to have a few new activities up your sleeve! Here is a play dough mat to help children to explore the different parts of the Christingle and to think about the good things God has given them. If you aren't sure what a Christingle is, here are some previous posts which will explain all... Click here  to print off the mat.  Laminate the mat if you think you will use it repeatedly as this really helps to get the play dough off without damage!

This Sunday we will be having our Christingle service at church in honour of Epiphany.  The service plan at the moment is secret so that we don't spoil the surprise but it will certainly involve the wise men and their gifts at some point! We've put together a step by step guide to building the Christingle as we will be calling on the congregation to make them as we go along. Step one As people arrive they will be given an orange in a bowl (it's important to cut the bottom of the orange off beforehand so that it stands level- important for when you reach the last step!) The orange represents the world that God has made. Step two Stick into the orange 4 cocktail sticks with raisins and small sweets on them.  Again, we've prepared these earlier so people only have to pick up their sticks and stick them in! The sticks represent the four seasons of the year and the sweets represent the good gifts that God gives us. Step Three Put a red ribb...

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 sym...