A light hearted session encouraging young people to spend time with God over the holidays

Suitable For Ages 11-14

Required: Pens and Paper

Extra Files Required: Christmas Quiz (click to download files)

Opening: Start with the Christmas Quiz (you’ll need to hand out blank sheets to the participants to answer the quiz on…perhaps evan have sweets for prizes as it’s Christmas!) – You can download the questions in the extra files section

(Answers: 1-D, 2-B,3-A,4-C,5-D,6-D,7-D,8-A,9-A,10-B,11-D,12-C, 13-B,14-D,15-C)

Game 2: Read out the following lines from Christmas Carols and see if the young people can guess which carol they’re from!

1. WHERE MEEK SOULS WILL RECEIVE HIM, STILL THE DEAR CHRIST ENTERS IN
2. BE NEAR ME LORD JESUS, I ASK THEE/YOU TO STAY
3. SUDDENLY THE LORD, DESCENDING, IN HIS TEMPLE SHALL APPEAR
4. VERY GOD, BEGOTTEN NOT CREATED
5. MILD HE LAYS HIS GLORY BY
6. AND THROUGH ALL HIS WONDROUS CHILDHOOD, HE WOULD HONOUR AND OBEY
7. HE IS THE SOURCE AND HE THE END, LET THE ORGAN THUNDER
8. YE WHO NOW WILL BLESS THE POOR SHALL YOURSELVES FIND BLESSING
9. SORROWING, SIGHING, BLEEDING, DYING; SEALED IN THE STONE-COLD TOMB
10. YET WHAT CAN I GIVE HIM, GIVE HIM BY HEART

And here are the answers…
1. O Little Town Of Bethlehem
2. Away In A Manger
3. Angels From The Realm Of Glory
4. O Come All Ye Faithful
5. Hark The Herald Angels Sing
6. Once In Royal David’s City
7. Unto Us A Boy Is Born
8. Good King Wenceslas
9. We 3 Kings Of Orient Are
In The Bleak Midwinter (voted the UK’s favourite Christmas Carol in 2001)

Explain: If you haven’t guessed this morning we’re thinking about Christmas, here’s some facts about Christmas that you might not know…

– Up to one billion cards will be thrown away this Christmas.

– 83 square km of wrapping paper is thrown away.

– There will be enough rubbish to fill 400,000 double-decker buses.

– Half of the Christmas waste could be recycled, but over 80% will be binned.

– Britons will use 24 million jars of mincemeat, pickle and cranberry sauce.

– If these glass jars were recycled, it would save enough energy to boil water for 60 million cups of tea.

– Around 125,000 tonnes of plastic packaging and 4,200 tonnes of foil are expected to be thrown out.

Once Christmas is over, about 6 million Christmas trees will be binned, creating more than 9,000 tonnes of waste.

Explain: Christmas is a really busy time, people end up last minute shopping, buying more food than they need and then cooking it…Christmas day becomes full with cooking, present giving, taking numerous phone calls from relatives and eating and before you know it it’s gone…another Christmas day is over but it’s easy to forget Jesus in the middle of all the Christmas mayhem!

Ask: So other than going to church on Christmas day how can you remember Jesus on Christmas day?

Explain: Try and set aside some time this Christmas day to pray, or re-read the Christmas story in your bibles. Perhaps rather than rushing to open presents the second you wake up a good thing to do might be to spend some time focusing on the real reason of Christmas!

Pray: Close with prayer