Teaching kids Christmas spirits - Sunday School

We use this at our Christmas eve mass

Theme : Empowering our kids to help the less fortunate using the power of Jesus love in their hearts.

Children liturgy topics

1.  Less fortunate kids's bedroom around the world showing

Source of pictures to be printed : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2595808/Sleeping-rubbish-surrounded-guns-poster-Chairman-Mao-Photographs-world-children-slumber.html

Method :

o   Show them picture from kid from USA (Jaime, aged nine, New York, U.S). Ask them “Can u spot what you also have in your room?.  “ Jaime is very lucky like you…. He has a nice warm bed , soft toys, tables,  etc.. “.

o   Show them picture from  Brazil (Ahkôhxet, aged eight, river Amazon, Brazil ) . “Now look at him, that’s where he sleeps, what is he missing? “ “ I wonder if it’s nice to sleep in on top of wooden rack” “ I wonder how he feels “. “ I wonder if his parents have money to buy him all the nice things that we have” “

Note : Only show no more than 3 pictures, as we want the kid to have a connection to the less fortunate kid. ( In grown-up word, instead of providing us with statistic e.g 1 billions kid live in poverty, we tell 1 story, the aim is to humanize the story”.

 2. Being in the less fortunate shoes

Method :

a.      Split kids in 2 group; Group 1 get loolies, Group 2 no loolies.

b.      Ask both group how do they feel? Ask both group how do they think the other group feels?

c.      Ask Group 1 to share . Stressed that “It is hard to share something that you really really want, but when we have love of Jesus in our hearts, we can have the power to share what we have / to help others”

Note : Group 1 shall consist of younger kids below 5+ years.  Younger kids will need some encouragement from adults / carers to give out their candy

Group 2 consist of older kids, we want to them to truly feel what is like being in need ( be in a less fortunate shoes) . Older kids have the capacity to understand the concept of compassion.

d.      After the loolies are shared, Stressed that “ there are many children in the world who can’t get what they want like candy, toys, food or even mommy dady” “ Just like sharing our candy, even when it’s hard , with Jesus power of love in our heart, we have the power to help”.  “ With our power who can we help” .  

3.      Kids fundraising  and Christmas present ( money box)

Method :

o   “Today I’m going to show you, how we can use our power to help”. “ It’s fun for you too, you get to play shop with real money” “ You’re going to sell cookies”, “ All the coins collected will used to help a kid like Ahkôhxet. “We’ll put all the coins in this jar ,then we can send it to help other kids like Ahkoyxet”.

o   Give them their charismas present ( money box) . We use a take away container and asked the kid to decorate their money box and asked them to write a message to themselves that will remind them that they have the power to help

o   “I wonder what else can we do to help “ I wonder how can we raise some money” “ Maybe you can do some chores at home, then get money in return, and you can give your money to help “

“ Once you collect the coins, you can put it your money box “