The Gift of Love
Group Activities

Sermon Title: "The Gift of Love"

Scripture Reading: Luke 1:39-45

CHRISTMAS SCAVENGER HUNT:

Tell the children they are going to hunt for the BEST gift. Hide numerous small gifts in a designated area that might tell parts of the Christmas story such as a star, a manger, a baby Jesus, a staff/cane, etc. If the teacher wishes to have a small Christmas tabletop tree, the children could bring those items and place them around the tree.

WRAPPING A "J" RELAY:

Explain to the children that when held upside down, a cane will look like the letter J to remind us of JESUS—THE GIFT OF LOVE. Then, divide the children into two teams. Give each child a pair of safe scissors, tape and a large piece of wrapping paper. A player from each team will wrap a candy cane to see which child on each team can finish first. When both children have finished, the next two players will wrap their candy cane to see who is the quickest. Continue to play until all the children have had a chance to wrap their canes, (J's). At the end of class, the children will be given their wrapped candy cane to take home.

SINGING SONGS ABOUT THE GIFT OF LOVE:

Have the children stand in a circle and sing Christmas songs. Each song could have one action that the children could perform as they sing. Examples: Joy to the World could have children act as if they're blowing a trumpet; Silent Night could have the children put one finger to their lips as if being quiet; Away in a Manger could have children rocking a baby in their arms.

KING-SIZED BED:

Provide the children with supplies to make a cut out drawing of a manger. Glue that onto another piece of construction paper and glue some small pieces of straw to the top of their manger picture. Children can use sticker letters or just write FIRST KING-SIZED BED to the top of their picture. Explain to the children that this GIFT OF LOVE was a KING!

GIFT OF LOVE MOBILE:

Have the children draw and cut out pictures of the Christmas story (angels, manger, shepherd staff) and make write brightly colored words such as LOVE, JOY, SAVIOR, on pieces of card stock. Hang these items from a paper plate wreath on a coat hanger. The paper plate can just be colored bright green with colorful dots or stickers added for decoration.

CHOOSE A GIFT:

Wrap several packages with brown paper tied with string containing a nice gift that the children might like; wrap several other packages with very pretty wrapping paper, but very LITTLE in them. Let the children pick a package to open after the lesson and it'll be another reminder that the BEST GIFT was NOT in beautiful paper and many missed it!

"THE BEST GIFT" TAKE HOME POSTER:

Give each child a piece of construction paper and have thm use glitter glue to write outTHE BEST GIFT IS... and then have them glue on broken toothpicks spelling out JESUS. (Symbolizing that Jesus was humble.. like the stable... compared to the glitter and glamour that the world offers.)

LITTLE BROWN GIFT NECKLACE:

Have the children wrap a miniature brown paper gift (Perhaps a little raisin snack box); tie it with string and hang it around their neck as a reminder of today's lesson! The teacher or child could write "THE BEST GIFT IS JESUS" on their little packages. Encourage the children to tell someone else what they learned in their lesson today!

SING A SONG:

THE GREATEST GIFT OF ALL

SHARE A SNACK:

Give the children their snack in a wrinkled brown paper bag tied at the top with a piece string. Let children retell the story from today's lesson and discover that there is actually a fun and delicious snack in that raggedy paper bag.

Song: "The Greatest Gift of All"

Music:

Sheet music in PDF format.

MP3:

Piano Accompaniment (right click on link and save to your computer)