Have a Christmas Party the kids in your ministry will never forget! With the help of Elfina, elf-in-training second class, your kids will learn the real meaning of Christmas and will understand about the greatest gift of all, the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ! This book includes 4 lessons with skits, activities, crafts, snacks and more. These four sessions take kids through the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus and is perfect for Sunday School, Children’s Church, Kids’ Clubs, or any children’s ministry that is looking for a fun and creative way to challenge their kids this Christmas.
The Story Behind These Lessons
Ten years ago, I served as the dean of 2nd and 3rd grade camp at our local summer church camp. Our theme was “Christmas in July” and I wanted to come up with a plan that would take the kids through the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus while celebrating Christmas. So I wrote the scripts, recruited adult helpers, and presented the first version of these to a group of approximately 70 second and third graders.
Fast forward 3 years. My husband was looking for ideas for a Christmas Break VBS for the kids in our children’s ministry. I found the skits we had used before, changed Elf-Elf to Elfina, and we had the main lessons for our VBS. We brought these out again just a couple years ago with a different group of kids at our church (the original kids had graduated from our children’s ministry) and that was when I started thinking about sharing these with others. It took awhile, but I finally sat down, added some additional ideas for teaching and activities, and got it all put together for people like you to use with your own kids.
How it works
These lessons are dependent on the skits. The skits feature an Elf and an adult leader. The Elf (Elfina) has the wrong idea about Christmas — she thinks that it is all about getting presents and she is eagerly waiting for the adult leader to give her her presents. She gets so annoying about wanting presents, that the leader ends up tricking her into leaving through a closet — which ends up being a special closet that transports her back in time. While in the closet, she finds herself in different parts of the story of Jesus — meeting Mary and Joseph as they are looking for a place to stay in Bethlehem, Simeon and Anna after they saw baby Jesus at the temple, and Mary once again after the crucifixion.
The parts of the skits with Elfina and the leader are meant to be performed live. The parts of the skits that take place back in time should be recorded ahead of time. They are then shown to the kids after Elfina enters the closet. The videos don’t have to be anything special — ours certainly weren’t!
When Elfina gets back out of the closet, she is full of questions that the leader answers by sharing the rest of the lesson with the kids.
There are four sessions that include the skits, additional lesson plans, and ideas for games, crafts, and snacks. You can choose which activities you want to use. The final session includes ideas for a Christmas Party that you can have with your kids on the final day of this series.
Who can use this?
These lessons can be adapted for any group you are working with! It can be done over the month of December in Sunday School or Children’s Church, or it can be used in a special Christmas break VBS or other program you have for your kids. It is also easily adaptable for any age group.
________________________________________
I hope you are able to use this with your group! It really is one of the favorite programs we have used with our kids (perhaps you can tell by the fact that we’ve used it 3 times now!) I’m excited to share it with you and I pray that God will use it to help the kids in your group focus on Jesus this Christmas!
Cheri Gamble 