Tag Archives: Christmas program

Finding a Christmas Program to Fit Your Small Church

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September means “back to school” for most North Americans. While moms are buying school supplies, you may be quietly, and desperately, searching for a Christmas program to fit your church. The prospects may be discouraging. Maybe your church is too small to do a cantata and many Sunday School programs demand more than your church can provide. Christmas may be a major evangelistic outreach for you. You want something nice, but you are discouraged with your limited resources. What can you do?

4 Things to Consider When Choosing a Christmas Program

1. What is my purpose for the program?

Often Christmas programs are mainly evangelistic. It is the one time in the year to reach the families of kids who come to church. If that’s true for you, you want to be sure to feature these kids, not just your core church kids. Parents come to see their kids perform. Showcasing their kids is more important than showcasing more talented performers.

2. What do I have to work with?

How many people will participate? What ages are they? How willing are they to work? Are they musicians or are they more inclined toward drama? Consider how you can use the people you have in a way that will make them feel good about their participation.

3. How can I make the message meaningful for the audience, yet fun?

You may have people attend your program who only rarely attend church. You want this experience to be a positive one. If the overall tone is heavy and preachy it may push them further away. You certainly want a strong salvation message clearly presented, but lighter moments may help your unsaved audience better receive the message. Look for a Christmas program which will keep the atmosphere friendly and positive.

4. How can I make the program meaningful for the performers?

Program practice needs to be well organized, moving through the practices in an efficient manner. Some sense of discipline is necessary, but the general atmosphere should be upbeat. You want to emphasize that the purpose of your performance is God’s glory, not to show off. Yet the whole experience should be fun and fulfilling.

You may choose a program that your church is capable of producing through hard work, but you also need to consider how willing your people are. If your kids, performers, and workers are not highly motivated, you are probably better off not choosing a very difficult program. If you are going to have to threaten your performers and workers and drive them mercilessly to memorize lines and attend long practices, you’ve probably chosen the wrong program. On the other hand, a few highly motivated people can form the core of a more difficult program, with less motivated people playing less demanding parts.

I offer eight Christmas programs which I have used in a small mission church. Some are more demanding than others. “No Room for Jesus” is my personal favorite. Most are free, but some you have to order. Happy planning!

 

Christmas Program Solutions for Small Churches

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Family 4September takes the kids back to school and reminds the Christmas program director to get busy. If you haven’t even chosen a program yet you’re probably hunting desperately to find one that will work for you. Perhaps you want to have a nice Christmas program, but you have a very small church. What can you do?

I’ve worked since 1980 with mission churches. Christmas may be the one time unsaved people will attend and you want to have a meaningful program, but you have so little to work with! Today I’m going to suggest solutions for many of the problems small churches face in finding a Christmas program to suit their needs.

Problem:  Our kids hate to memorize lines.

Solution: Choose a program in which the kids sing songs in groups. Have a helper hold the words for the song. Have the kids read their lines. You can tape the words to the back of a prop or have a helper hold the words written in large letters. This is not as nice as having the words memorized, but if your kids really hate memorization it may be a better answer.  Or consider the next answer.

Problem: Our teens are too embarrassed to do drama and won’t memorize lines.

Solution: Consider puppets. Many teens lose their stage fright behind a puppet stage. We’ve seen many teens enjoy participating on a puppet team who did not want to do regular drama. Kids aged 10-12 who are willing to work hard may do well at puppets too. The smallest of churches can often have an effective puppet team. In New Zealand, puppets are a bit of a novelty, and some of our programs that have been received the best have been those that featured puppets.

Here are three of my scripts that work well at Christmas: Could Be Worse; Good News, Bad News, and Christmas Tree Puppet Show. 

Problem: Our church is not strong in music or drama. How can I make our program shine?

Solution: Use unusual musical instruments that are easy to learn.

A glockenspiel or xylophone adds a bell-like quality to a simple song. An autoharp or similar stringed instrument is great for a contemplative piece like “What Child is This?” An average musician could teach themselves to play one of these instruments in a few minutes. Young children can easily be taught to play a triangle, shake a  shaker, beat a toy drum, or ring jingle bells. My program Sounds of Christmas uses rhythm instruments .

Another solution: Use a program that has few memorized lines, but dress the kids in interesting costumes. The kids will be so happy wearing a cool costume that they will often be unaware that their part is actually quite small.

Problem: I’ve made great costumes for the program, but some of my kids hate them.

Solution: Sometimes kids need to just get used to costumes. You need to give them confidence about how good them look in them so they don’t feel silly. Or they may be jealous of a kid who gets to wear a better costume. Occasionally, however, in spite of your best efforts to reassure them, you find real resistance. As much as possible, avoid making kids wear costumes they really hate. You may have designed a great hat for a wise man, but if the performer really hates it, it may spoil the whole program for him. If younger kids really resist wearing a star shape round their face, have them hold a gold star instead. Take pity on the kid who has been a shepherd or an angel year after year, and give them a different costume this year. If you find strong resistance to costumes, make a mental note to choose a program without them next year. Costumes should be fun and kids need to enjoy being in the program. Make every reasonable effort to ensure this.

Problem: Our church is in the middle of a building program and everything is a mess.

Solution: Choose a program that fits that. During one mum-daughter nite in New Zealand we used this program, Lives Under Construction.  Though this is not a Christmas program, you can see how the theme fits the circumstances.

Problem: Our church is going through a difficult time. We have too few people and resources to do most Christmas programs.

Solution: Choose or write a program that uses what you do have.  Since 1998 we have produced a Christmas program every year in our small mission church. All of my church programs have been written and performed by our small mission church. You can find many of them here and most are free. At times we’ve had teens that could carry a strong dramatic role. We normally combine kids, youth, and adults to make our programs work. We’ve also had difficult years when we had little to work with. If your church is moving through a difficult time like this, consider one of these programs:

Names of Jesus has no lines to memorize and requires very minimal practice. It features kids prominently, but requires no costumes, uses extremely simple props, very easy choir numbers, and an easy puppet show.

Gifts for Baby Jesus uses five common Christmas costumes, and a few simple props. Five easy parts can be read.

Sounds of Christmas uses audience participation and takes no practice. However, you will need to gather some simple rhythm instruments.

[image from Deposit Photos/Christos Georghiou.]

Christmas Program Solutions for Small Churches

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You want to have a nice Christmas program, but you have a very small church. What can you do? I have worked since 1980 with mission churches. Christmas may be the one time unsaved people will attend and you want to have a meaningful program, but you have so little to work with!

Solutions for Common Small Church Christmas Program Problems

Problem:  Our kids hate to memorize lines.

Solution: Choose a program in which the kids sing songs in groups or have the kids read their lines.

Have a helper hold the words to songs. For lines,  tape the words to the back of a prop or have a helper hold the words written in large letters. This is not as nice as having the words memorized, but if your kids really hate memorization it may be a better answer.  Or consider the next answer.

Problem: Our teens are too embarrassed to do drama and won’t memorize lines.

Solution: Consider puppets.

Many teens lose their stage fright behind a puppet stage. We’ve seen many teens enjoy participating on a puppet team who did not want to do regular drama. Kids aged 10-12 who are willing to work hard may do well at puppets too. The smallest of churches can often have an effective puppet team. In New Zealand, puppets are a bit of a novelty. Typically, programs that used puppets were ones the audience enjoyed most.

 Problem: Our church is not strong in music or drama. How can I make our program shine?

 Solution: Use unusual musical instruments that are easy to learn.

A glockenspiel or xylophone adds a bell-like quality to a simple song. An autoharp or similar stringed instrument is great for a contemplative piece like “What Child is This?” An average musician could teach herself to play one of these instruments in a few minutes. Young children can easily be taught to strike a triangle, shake a shaker, beat a toy drum, or ring jingle bells. My program “Sounds of Christmas” uses rhythm instruments.

 Another solution: Use a program that has few memorized lines, but dress the kids in interesting costumes.

The kids will be so happy wearing a cool costume that they will often be unaware that their part is actually quite small.

 Problem: I’ve made great costumes for the program, but some of my kids hate them.

Solution: Work to make them comfortable.

Sometimes kids need to just get used to costumes. You need to give them confidence about how good them look in them so they don’t feel silly. Or they may be jealous of a kid who gets to wear a better costume. Occasionally, however, in spite of your best efforts to reassure them, you find real resistance. As much as possible, avoid making kids wear costumes they really hate.

You may have designed a great hat for a wise man, but if the performer really hates it, it may spoil the whole program for him—and his performance will show it. If younger kids really resist wearing a star shape round their face, have them hold a gold star instead. Take pity on the kid who has been a shepherd or an angel year after year, and give him a different costume this year.

If you find strong resistance to costumes, make a mental note to choose a program without them next year. Costumes should be fun and kids need to enjoy being in the program. Make every reasonable effort to ensure this.

Problem: Our church is in the middle of a building program and everything is a mess.

Solution: Choose a program that fits that.

During one mum-daughter nite in New Zealand we used this program—“Lives Under Construction.” Though this is not a Christmas program, you can see how the theme fits the circumstances.

Problem: Our church is going through a difficult time. We have too few people and resources to do most Christmas programs.

Solution: Choose or write a program that uses what you do have.

Since 1998 we have produced a Christmas program every year in our small mission church. All of my church programs have been written and performed by our small mission church. At times we’ve had teens that could carry a strong dramatic role. We normally combine kids, youth, and adults to make our programs work. We’ve also had difficult years when we had little to work with. If your church is moving through a difficult time like this, consider one of these programs:

“Names of Jesus” has no lines to memorize and requires very minimal practice. It features kids prominently, but requires no costumes, uses extremely simple props, very easy choir numbers, and an easy puppet show.

“Gifts for Baby Jesus” uses five common Christmas costumes, and a few simple props. Five easy parts can be read.

“Sounds of Christmas” uses audience participation and takes no practice. However, you will need to gather some simple rhythm instruments.

What tips have you discovered for the unique challenges small churches face in producing an inviting Christmas program?