Advent and Christmas

Looking for some inspiration this Advent and Christmas? We have pulled together a range of resources, creative ideas and media to bring the season to life. We have a few Christmas and Advent ideas on our Pinterest boards too - check them out here

Advent

​Advent Calendars

• Generosity Advent Calendar - Salvation Army NZ
• Busted Halo Advent Calendar​
• Advent Conspiracy — with the 4 aims of worship fully, spend less, give more, love all
• Advent Spiral 

All Age Advent

• Christmas on the Move, our 2016 advent resource with a travelling nativity
• All-Age Advent: Ideas and resources for All Age services from Kids Friendly. ​
• Engage Together - Advent: Lectionary-based Children’s Talk + Multi-age activities for Sundays in Advent 
• Engage Together – Intergenerational Worship Resources for Advent 2017​​
• ​Advent & Christmas (Messy Church Pinterest)
• A Kids Friendly Advent - a great resource put together by our friends at the Presbyterian Church of NZ

Advent Prayers

• Advent Candle prayers - spelling out the words 
• Advent Prayer Stations (Building Faith)
• Interactive Prayer Stations (Theresa Cho) 
• More Advent Prayer Stations (Ministry2Youth) ​

Advent at home

• Our Strandz Journey Through Advent Packs
• Advent Wonder: A free, printable booklet to give out to families with weekly reflections, daily activities, puzzles, and an Advent Challenge Chart to stick on the fridge.​
• 2017 Multi-Age Advent Ideas for Households (United Methodist Church)​
• Advent at Home Resources  (United Methodist Church)​
• Advent Candle image with prayers​
• Picture Advent: Daily devotions, Photo-a-day challenge, Youth and Family activities, Church Resources ​
• Jesus Storybook Bible: Advent readings using this great book, by Zondervan.​
• Faith at Home - Ideas to celebrate Christmas and Advent
• Make a Jesse Tree (Bath and Wells Diocese, UK)

Christmas on the Move

Christmas on the Move is a free printable resource with Bible Characters and a nativity set to make. Use it as a family activity at home or amongst your congregation - it can also be used in church.  
Join Mary and Joseph on their journey towards Bethlehem, as we journey towards Christmas. ​

check out Christmas on the move

Christmas on the Move

Download the whole Christmas on the Move pack [4.7mb] with ideas and resources for Advent 

Printable Nativity

Download the nativity files to print and colour [1.3mb]. Includes a stable and 9 key Bible characters. 

Nativity Characters

Download the print files if you want to print the characters in a larger format [1.9mb]

Colour in Nativity

Download the ​Christmas on the Move​ colouring in poster

Colour in Advent

Download an Advent colouring poster

Prayers

Some prayers you might like to use during Advent - have a look here

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Copyright Info
Under the creative commons license, you are free to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format (download and share) as long as you credit Strandz. You cannot  change the files in any way or use them commercially. Please get in touch if you have any questions regarding using these files. 
​
Christmas on the Move is designed by Diana Langdon and Jemma Allen for Strandz

Meri Kirihimete - Christmas in New Zealand

There are some great New Zealand produced media, including those great videos from St Pauls' Arts and Media in Auckland, including When God was Born and Te Harinui - a musical play about the first preaching of the Christian gospel to Maori in Aotearoa on Christmas Day 1814, performed by the children and youth of St Paul's Church, Auckland, New Zealand.

Intergenerational

All Age Talks and Stories

• ​A Very Chocolate Christmas - creative nativity story using 35 types of chocolate found in NZ
• Christmas Ideas (Barnabas): A wealth of ideas for children’s ministry and all-age services.
• Dramatic Presentation linking Christmas to Easter
• Lost Sheep have a whole bunch of Christmas stories, with downloadable images/powerpoints and scripts. Great for an all age service where you want some vibrant images.
  Check out:
  - Tonight in the Palace (Storytelling Script, Activity Book pdf)
  ​- Bethlehem Town
  - Jed and Roy McCoy
  - The Three Wise Camels​

Messy Church

• Messy Church do a 'Messy Christmas' Book - you can buy the books at Bible Society NZ or download the resource online
• Intergenerational All-Age Christmas Service Ideas: A variety of downloadable All-Age services, including activities, service outlines etc. for Christmas or advent, including
  - Four Gifts of Christmas
  - Three Christmas Trees
  ​- Adorable​

Epiphany

• Epiphany Chalk House Blessing and take home sheet
• Light up your Christingle Celebration with these instructions and service ideas, and how to make a Christingle instructions​

Nativities and Pageants

• ​Why do a Christmas pageant? Read more about the joy of children immersed in scripture
• An Impromptu Nativity by Debbie Smith
• A Well Good Christmas by Bible Society UK (Video in media section) - Pop-Up Nativity and other resources. 
• Kids Friendly Christmas Pageant/Nativity Ideas: 50+ nativity pageants of different sizes and styles, including “one rehearsal” and “impromptu” options!
• Follow the light – Advent play: A short play highlights our modern inability to ‘see’ clearly the light that is can be right in front of us.
• The Night Before Christmas
• Messy Nativity - a book for sale with a Messy nativity
• Interactive Christmas Drama
• Christmas Story
• Christmas Box Story         
• Christmas Box Story instructions. 
• A 4-minute nativity from Bible Society UK
• A Sensory Christmas experience service outline, with 5 Candle Station Scripts
• Gingerbread nativity

Media

Check out our Christmas YouTube Playlist

Bible Society Christmas Resources

Nativity Story Media

Make + Create

Printable and Crafts

• Nativity Story Stones
• Bible Paper Toys: The Nativity Story
  ​© Didier Martin mylittlehouse.org - for personal use only
  • Book 1: The Nativity Figures [12mb.pdf]
  • Book 2: The Nativity House [15mb.pdf]
  • Book 3: The Shepherds [15mb.pdf]
  • Book 4: Plants [7.5mb.pdf]
  • Book 5: Animals [11mb.pdf]
  • All template files [53mb.pdf] 
• Nativity Diorama
  © Didier Martin mylittlehouse.org - for personal use only
• Christmas Celebration ideas, inc. nativity bunting (Roots)
• Printable Nativity (Made by Joel) 
• Paper Angel Printable
• Paper Nativity Scene Printouts
• 101 Free Christmas Printables
• 21 Printable Nativity Scene Resources
• Lost Sheep Nativity Bookmarks
• Nativity Story Stones: A great story-telling device, or a fun craft for kids, or both! 
• Crochet your own Nativity Scene  
• Preschool Nativity Packs
• Christingle crafts (Messy Church UK)

Making a difference this Christmas

Compassionate Advent

• Christmas Bowl Advent Resources​
• Create a Reverse Advent Calendar

Compassionate Christmas
You might like to think about 'doing christmas differently' with one of the following:

• Angel Tree — an initiative from Prison Fellowship, NZ
• Tearfund's Gift for Life
• Operation Christmas Child

Songs

Games + Activities

• Here is a Christmas Puzzle and Activity book we put together - great to hand out to visiting kids over the Christmas weekend
• Human Christmas Trees
• A twist on ​Pass the Parcel - a fun way to retell the christmas story, from our friends at Resourced!
• Journey to Christmas board-game and instructions