Christmas- What Do You Hold?

December 13, 2005 kensapp Leave a comment

Materials
A variety of objects related to Christmas: pine cone, ornament, star, angel, bow, candy cane, nativity, santa hat, nutcracker, bell, holly leaf, christmas light, candle, reindeer, snowflake, chestnut, wrapping paper, garland, tinsel, apple, etc.

Game Play
1. Divide the participants into teams.
2. Each teams sends a representative into another room.
3. Then bring out a number of objects related to Christmas, which have been prepared ahead of time, and one by one blindfold each representative and guide them back into room.
4. The representative is instructed to hold out his/her hands.
5. Various objects are placed in the palm of his hands and left there for just a moment. The team he represents gets points for each object he correctly identifies. He may not grasp or finger the object. You may wish to allow an object to be shaken lightly in the hand, but representatives may not try to identify it by any other means of feeling. The team with the most correctly identified objects wins.

Variations
Blindfold everyone and place them in a line. Pass the objects down the line. When they get to the end of the line, remove them from sight. Then after all the objects have been passed, give each person a piece of paper to write down a list of the objects that were passed. The one to correctly identify and remember the most objects is the winner.

Christmas Collection
Games and Activities helping youth discover the Reason for the Season.

Get more than 200 creative ideas for planning a Youth Christmas celebration or Christmas Party party. You can immediately download my best Christmas Icebreakers, games, illustrations, Christmas activity ideas AND MUCH MORE in a useful ebook!

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Game Ideas

Christmas Twister

December 13, 2005 kensapp 2 Comments

Materials
Instead of a twister game sheet, cut Christmas shapes from construction paper and use sticky-tack to adhere them to the floor. Make a twister spinner that includes right hand, left hand, right foot, left foot and another that contains the various Christmas symbols.

Need a source for Christmas images? Use a Christmas font or search the internet for free Christmas clipart

Some examples of Christmas symbols are:
Christmas Tree, angel, star, manger, shepherd, candy cane, etc. For a more complete list, use the items from the Christmas Bingo game.

Activity
Play a game of Twister, but instead of colored dots use pictures of Christmas items taped to the floor. Change the spinner to reflect the pictures. If you don’t have a spinner you can easily make one.

Variation
Instead of playing on an individual basis, divide the group into teams. The team with the last remaining members in the game wins.

Christmas Collection
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Devotional

Make Room For Jesus

December 13, 2005 kensapp Leave a comment

Edwin Markham tells a story about a cobbler who loved the Lord. One night he dreamed that Christ would come into his shop on Christmas Day. He got excited about the visit and began to make his shop presentable. He decorated the walls, swept the floor and placed a chair for the welcomed visitor. He could hardly sleep in expectation of the morning of Christmas Day. He opened up the shop early and then waited.

First, a poor beggar came in. The cobbler noticed that the poor man had shoes with holes in them, so he gave him a pair of shoes he hoped to sell to someone who needed a Christmas gift. But he felt good about helping the beggar.

Then at noon someone rang the bell. An old woman stood there barely having strength to open the door. The cobbler recognized she was hungry so he shared his lunch with her. She felt much better, thanked him and was on her way.

By this time the cobbler was wondering when Jesus would come. Before long a crying child came and stood in front of the window of the shop. The cobbler wanted to find out what was wrong and invited the little fellow in. The child was homeless, lonely and desperate. The cobbler knew he could take the child home and provide a nice Christmas evening for him. But he wanted to wait for Jesus to come. A doubtful thought crept into his mind: “Is Jesus really coming today?”

It was dark outside and the food was ready at home. So the cobbler walked home with the boy. After introducing the child to his wife, the cobbler went into his room and complained to God: “Why is it Lord that your feet delay? Have you forgotten?” Jesus answered his question: “Lift up your heart for I kept my word. Three times I came to your door, as beggar, a woman and a child. I was pleased to know you had room for me.”

We will please the Lord, when we make room for him by loving others. Make room for the Prince of Peace!

MORE IDEAS? See “Creative Object Lessons”

200 page e-book that explains everything you need to know when planning your very own object lessons. It contains 90 fully developed object lesson ideas and another 200 object lesson starter ideas based on Biblical idioms and Names / Descriptions of God.

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Game Ideas

Christmas Gift Unwrap

December 13, 2005 kensapp Leave a comment

Materials
A Christmas gift wrapped in multiple boxes and multiple layers of tough tape. It helps to have several layers of wrapping paper and boxes within boxes to make the game more challenging. Make it as difficult to unwrap as possible, with as many layers as possible; pair of dice in a basket; numerous items of clothing including heavy gloves, tie, coat, Santa hat, winter scarf, snow goggles, or anything else silly. (The more items you have, the more difficult it is to unwrap the gift. Heavy gloves also make it more difficult)

Activity
The objective is to be the person who FINISHES unwrapping the present. Place the gift in the center of a circle of people. A basket with dice is passed around. When a person rolls double sixes, they run up to the gift, don the clothing, and then begin unwrapping the gift as quickly as they can. (The more items they need to put on the less they’ll be able to unwrap) The dice continue to be passed and as soon as someone else rolls double sixes, they put on the clothing items and then take their turn at unwrapping the gift. Play continues until the present is completely unwrapped.

Christmas Collection
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Teaching Illustrations

Christmas Invitation

December 13, 2005 kensapp Leave a comment

YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO A CHRISTMAS PARTY

GUEST OF HONOR: Jesus Christ

DATE: Every day. Traditionally, December 25, but He’s always around, so the date is flexible.

TIME: Whenever you’re ready. Please don’t be too late though, or you’ll miss out on all the fun.

PLACE: In your heart. He’ll meet you there–you’ll hear Him knock.

ATTIRE: Come as you are. Grubbies are okay as He’ll be washing our clothes anyway. He said something about new white robes and crowns for everyone who stays till the last.

TICKETS: Admission is free. He’s already paid for everyone. He says you wouldn’t have been able to afford it-it’s cost Him everything He had!

REFRESHMENTS: New wine, bread and a far-out drink He calls “living water.” This will be followed by a supper, that promises to be out of this world!!

GIFT SUGGESTIONS: Your heart. He’s one of those people who already has everything else. (He’s very generous in return though-just wait until you see what He has for you ! )

ENTERTAINMENT: Joy, Peace, Truth, Light, Life, Love, Real Happiness, Communion with God, Forgiveness, Miracles, Healing, Power, Eternity in Paradise…and much more!
(All ‘G’ rated so bring your family and friends)

RSVP: Very Important! He must know ahead, so He can reserve a spot for you at the table. Also, he’s keeping a list of His friends for future reference. He calls it the “Lamb’s Book of Life.”

PARTY GIVEN BY: His Kids. That’s us! Hope To See You There! Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear (linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints) Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb! Revelation 19:7-9

ALL OF YOU WHO WILL BE THERE-PLEASE SHARE
THIS INVITATION WITH SOMEONE ELSE.

Author Unknown

Christmas Collection
Games and Activities helping youth discover the Reason for the Season.Get more than 200 creative ideas for planning a Youth Christmas celebration or Christmas Party party. You can immediately download my best Christmas Icebreakers, games, illustrations, Christmas activity ideas AND MUCH MORE in a useful ebook!
=> Tell me more about the Christmas Collection

Game Ideas

Top Christmas Artist

December 12, 2005 kensapp Leave a comment

Materials
Sheet of paper and a tray or hard cover book for eack participant.

Activity
Everyone places a tray or large book on top their head with a piece of blank paper on it. They each have a marker and a page of christmas stickers (optional). Participant are to draw on the page resting on the top of their head, without looking, according to the instructions given.

Instructions might be:
1. Draw a Christmas Tree.
2. Draw a star on top of your tree.
3. Draw a Fireplace.
4. Stick a stocking sticker on the mantel of your fireplace.
5. Add 5 round ornaments to your tree.
6. Draw three boxes under the tree as gifts.
7. Add a bow to each box.

At the end of instructions, everyone removes the pictures from their heads. It can be very funny to see what they have drawn.

Scoring options
2 points for every line that crosses
1 point if your stocking is touching your mantel
1 point if your star touches your tree
1 point for every christmas ornament that is ON your tree
1 point for each gift that is under the tree
1 point for each bow on a present
ETC

Award the person with the greatest number of points the prize!

Variation
Instead of a Christmas tree scene, use a manger scene:
1. Draw a stable
2. one big star in the sky above it
3. Draw 5 smaller stars
4. Draw a donkey in the stable
5. Draw a manger
6. Draw Baby Jesus in the manger
7. And Mary and Joseph
8. Draw a shepherd
ETC

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Humor

Is There a Santa Claus?

December 12, 2005 kensapp 1 Comment

As a result of an overwhelming lack of requests, and with research help from that renown scientific journal SPY magazine (January, 1990) – I am pleased to present the annual scientific inquiry into Santa Claus.

1) No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer which only Santa has ever seen.

2) There are 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. BUT since Santa doesn’t (appear) to handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist cihldren, that reduces the workload to to 15% of the total – 378 million according to Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that’s 91.8 million homes. One presumes there’s at least one good child in each.

3) Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seemes logical). This works out to 822.6 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has 1/1000th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false but for the purposes of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking about .78 miles per household, a total trip of 75-1/2 million miles, not counting stops to do what most of us must do at least once every 31 hours, plus feeding and etc.

This means that Santa’s sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second, 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second – a conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles per hour.

4) The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized lego set (2 pounds), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that “flying reindeer” (see point #1) could pull TEN TIMES the normal anount, we cannot do the job with eight, or even nine. We need 214,200 reindeer. This increases the payload – not even counting the weight of the sleigh – to 353,430 tons. Again, for comparison – this is four times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth.

5) 353,000 tons travelling at 650 miles per second creates enourmous air resistance – this will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as spacecrafts re-entering the earth’s atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy. Per second. Each. In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and create deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second. Santa, meanwhile, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250-pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force.

In conclusion – If Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he’s dead now.

Source: email circulating on internet

Game Ideas

Christmas Twenty Questions

December 12, 2005 kensapp Leave a comment

Materials
None

Game Play
1. Each team chooses a representative who is sent out of the room while the remaining participants choose some reasonable subject or object related to Christmas.
2. When the representatives return they have twenty opportunities to ask questions and guess the identifty of the subject or object chosen.
3. They can ask anything they wish, but the only answer must be “Yes” or “No.”
4. If me questions are asked intelligently, even the most remote object, if it is a fair selection, can be discovered within the limit of twenty questions.

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Devotional

Mighty God

December 12, 2005 kensapp Leave a comment

Read: Psalm 17:6-8

From the poetry of David we have a rich heritage that leads us to some of the most effective ways to worship God.
The striking truth found in the life of David and particularly in this psalm is not that David was simply a powerful or righteous man; the striking truth is that a man so powerful and so righteous needed a Savior. David cries out to God, “Show me the wonder of your great love, you who save by your right hand those who take refuge in you from their foes.” David, a man of power and righteousness, needed a Savior. So it is with all men. For if the mighty need a Savior, how much more those of us who are only average or even weak.

While constantly being pursued by his enemies David learned a very important lesson. The issue is not the ability or the inability of a man to save himself. The issue is the enormity of the predicament that he is in. No man can hope to win a battle in which the odds are stacked against him. His only hope is in God. In such a situation it is God alone who saves.

And the same is true for each of us. The issue is not our ability or inability to save ourselves but the enormity of the predicament that we face. Thanks be to God that our predicament has been matched by one who would be called “Mighty God” and He is Jesus Christ our Savior. All men, no matter how powerful and righteous, need a Savior, and all men, no matter how weak and wicked have a Savior. Take a few moments to thank Jesus Christ, the Mighty God for what He’s done for you.

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Game Ideas

Christmas Elf

December 12, 2005 kensapp Leave a comment

Materials
Gifts, ribbon, wrapping paper, tape, etc.

Activity
Divide the group into pairs. Each pair stands hand in hand with their adjoining hands tied together. They are not allowed to use the hands tied together. With their free hands (one with the right hand and other with the left one) they must wrap up the package, bind the ribbon around it and tie it in a bow. The pair which finishes first is the winner. You might also reward the elves with the “best wrapped” gift. To keep in the holiday spirit, why not get gifts for needy children and use this activity as a fun way to wrap them up.

Christmas Collection
Games and Activities helping youth discover the Reason for the Season.

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