NEW BOSTON COMMUNITY CHURCH SUNDAY SCHOOL

Family Advent Activities

During the Advent Season, which begins with the fourth Sunday before Christmas, there is an old custom coming to us from Europe in which a short service is held each Sunday and a new Advent candles is lighted. The advent wreath is a circle of greens, including 4 candles: 1 for each Sunday in Advent. A 5^th candle is placed in the middle to be lit on Christmas Eve. The circle reminds us that God has no beginning and will have no end. It’s common to have the 4 candles be purple—the color that reminds us of repentance, an appropriate reminder as we prepare for Christ’s coming. The middle or Christmas candle, is usually white.

Suggested Service Outline: Lighting candles, sing carols, read Scripture, read a story or a poem, say or read a prayer, blowing out the candles. Vary to suit your family.

Suggested Scripture: Luke 2:1-7, 8-20; Luke 1: 46-55; Matthew 2:1-11; Isaiah 9: 1, 6, 7; Isiaiah 11: 1-5, 9; John 1: 1-14; Luke 1: 26-38

Suggested Carols: Silent Night; Away in a Manger; O Little Town of Bethlehem; O Come All Ye Faithful; It Came Upon the Midnight Clear; Joy to the World; The First Noel; We Three Kings; Hark the Herald Angels Sing; O Come, O Come Emmanuel

Stories: A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens; The Littlest Angel – Charles Tazewell; The Gift of the Magi – O. Henry; Amahl and the Night Visitors – Gian Carlo Menotti

The First Creche – About 800 years ago, there lived a man named Francis. He as a real follower of Jesus, always finding ways of helping people to live happier and more useful lives. It made him sad when people were unkind and selfish. On day near Christmas time he was thinking, “If only somehow I could do something to make these people think about Jesus.” Francis then thought of a plan which he talked over with his wealthy friend, Giovanni. In a hollowed-out cave near the friend’s house, Francis directed a little stable to be built, which he filled with straw and greens. A live Donkey and 2 cows were led into the stable. The Francis used live people to act as Joseph and Mary. The people who saw it were much impressed and the idea of a crèche or mange scene spread to many homes and churches

“Silent Night” – “Silent Night” is the most famous and best loved of all Austrian Christmas carols. Near Mozart’s city of Salzburg, a young priest by the name of Josef Mohr, in the little village of Oberndorf, showed a poem of his to Franz Gruber, organist of a neighboring parish. It was the morning of December 24, 1818. That same night, Gruber handed his friend the music for “Silent Night” arranged for a guitar as the organ wasn’t working because mice had been in it. So that Christmas Eve this lovely carol was first heard and soon it spread around the world and is beloved by many.

Merry Christmas Everyone!