What GOOD things/ideas have you seen at Christmas Family Services?

[morningpaper]

I need to plan a Nice Christmas Family Service for about 200 people

What would keep them awake?

Usually it is: HYMN, READING, HYMN, READING etc.

Have you seen anything Good at a christmas family service? I've no idea where to start. Any advice welcome!

Zephirine - me too (on the aesthetic grounds as well, but yes, personal taste and all that!).

Ah poor morningpaper. Her thread has been well and truly hijacked by 'petty differences'.

(However, I think there are some misconceptions here about screens in churches. They don't make you look up but mean you don't have to be hunched over a hymn book so you can just sing out, and you have your arms free to raise in praise. When we installed screens, our numbers increased in the months that followed. We had to split our morning congregation into two by putting on a second main service. Our 1662 service is unchanged, except for a few deaths, but the screen is rolled up for that one. Our evening service has quadrupled.)

Addressing morningpaper's questions...I don't have any new ideas to add to the great suggestions that have already been made. If you are willing to move out of church, an open-air nativity with live animals is great.

You are quite right MmeProf about the hijack. I had no idea emotions ran so high on the subject.

Sorry, mp. And of course I have no ideas at all, but I'm sure it will be lovely. I do like the idea of a real donkey.

As for the screens, it depends of course on what height they are hung. My only experience of one was that it was above eye level, and consequently not so good for singing. But as I say, unless you are singing a lot in that position, it's not really an issue.

(They're still phenomenally unattractive though.)

Back to the screen thing. We find that a screen makes a service a lot more accessible when you have littlies. It is incredinly hard to be holding a hymn book/juggling service sheets when you have a child in your arms or are racing around after them). A screen at the front and 2 at the back means you can see what is going on at any time. hey and it is good for the enviroment as fewer sheets are being printed every week etc etc.

I know this isn;t a thread about screens but i can't fault the suggestions so far for the children's service, so i will comment on screen .

We intitially started using one at parade services.

Eventually the main service was split into 2 - making a trad service (not bcp!!!) and a contemporay family one (both have communion). everyone was happier as they could have the service they wanted, rather than bits that were being squashed by the "other school". Splitting it has made the overall congregation grow which shows something is right. And the screen at the family service is very popular.

losing train of thought as dh (the very vicar who instigated all this "modern stuff" at our church ) is hassling me to come and sit down.

Yes I like straw and tactile things.

Like.... hymn books

Am hoping that wasn't a response to my post all our increases are people coming to church for the first time/ fiorst time in ages (or moving to the area) and sticking. Because they like the feel. which is good. Surely if they find somewhere to worship God in a way that feels good to them it has to be good! Wr have had bad experiences of, as you say, the big churches and all their
money fuelled bluster taking from local congrgeations which is sad

Did this turn into a fight about over-head projectors?

I will sort the wheat from the chaff shortly

haha have read now

'tis quite funny really, actually it's sort of like the minutes from the last PCC meeting ...

Thanks for the ideas, I will have a think

This thread really is the C of E in minature.

Christingle, MP? That's what my church does for family service at 3pm on Christmas Eve. We light all the candles and turn the lights off and the children sing "Away in a Manger" and I sob copiously. And DS eats the dolly mixtures off his orange before the service even starts....

I never used to be this soft.

I just read your quite serious point about numbers and I agree justabout. "Where two or three are gathered together" after all (ducks and runs before someone scary and informed leaps on me from great height).

As someone who only ever steps into the CofE for Christmas or a school trip I might not be your target audience, but last time we went they organised a scratch nativity - the boys were assigned roles as they arrived. Other children got to carry pieces to the crib, others got readings. And children seem to react very well to puppets. Loads of puppets. Twas fab. We take our friends along to it and then do mince pies and mulled wine afterwards - definitely one of the good bits of Christmas.

I'm afraid that I can't recall whether there was a screen or not. But even I can remember most of the words to carols, and the boys seem to learn them at school.

overhead projector .

At least not having one saves you from visting preachers and their dodgy powerpoint presentations.

I have just had a thoughr. Not sure if doable in the time frame though

Puppet ministy seems to go down v well with children round here. There must be some amazing nativity based ones. The group our team got involved through was called one way, I think.

MP - the Iona community have done a book called 'cloth for the cradle' which dh bought over the summer and which we have both found very good for planning our carol service. Lots of readings and prayers. Not all my thing - but a great inspiration.

We are having angel puppets Senior angel will be telling daft angel all about the story as daft angel seems to have missed it....

Yes, sorry for the hijack! And agree it is CE in miniature.

justabout - I do wish more vicars were like you, in realising that actually, having a full church, although good, is not necessarily 'adding' people to the church, rather they may well have come from other churches.

I find it rather depressing that if you are someone who likes the traditional style, you have virtually no choice of where to go - for example in our area there are 2 churches that do trad services, and about 200 that do contemporary. And even then people try to 'update' the trad churches. Because people who like trad are not valued at all by a lot of the church, and are derided as being 'stuffy', or stuck in a rut, or un-Christian, or missing the point. Most people who like traditional services don't try telling other churches 'how' they should be doing it. But people who like contemporary seem to have no problem trying to take even the last remaining traditional services and 'updating them'.

that's sad lily
round our way most of the churches lean more towards traditional in varying degrees and in varying churchmanship.

northernlurker that sounds fab. loving the daft angel idea .

Here is the link to the organisation i mentioned One Way

Justa lol indeed at squeaky voices. Or team have taken to doign a recording in advance so that they can concentrate on the hands iyswim . I did one day's traiing and lordy the arms and hand muscels ached......

Just trying to think think think. wqe have a christingle, then in the family mass we have the nativty the sunday before xmas.

In previous years our curate arranged something for each of the sunday in advent which could be adapted for a one off service. It involved opening a big oversized pressie and each child had something like a xmas dec to take from it but had the symbolism of whatever it was explained to them. eg i think a watch symbolised making time for jesus (eek can't remember, must ask dh).

Oh, I've just remembered something we did in our other church a couple of years ago (we are attached to 2 different churches).

Over Advent the minister did a Jesse tree - and different members of the congregation would tell the story of an OT character, and then hang a symbol of that character on the tree - people like David, Moses, Noah, Miriam etc. The idea being that these were the stories that Jesus would have grown up hearing, but that maybe we don't have as part of our canon of education so much.

alittlebitshy - I think it's because we're in a city, where there isn't one CE church serving the area - there is a vast amount of church, but most of the churches are hugely contemporary in style (as is the bishop), and so the one or two trad churches have to really cling on to their way of doing things because there really is no option, and many people would have them become contemporary too. It has caused a lot of heartache for a lot of people.

I think the situation is entirely different in an area where there is one parish church, and in that situation I think it is much more reasonable to expect a mixture of styles (though possibly maintaining discrete trad and contemporary services). Whereas in a city, it makes more sense for a church to be more 'specialist'. As justabout said, it is no great achievement to attract people away from other churches.

Incidentally, something that occurred to me last night, when I was mulling all this over, is that although people say that 'traditional language and music is not 'where people are' and 'doesn't reach them' or is inaccessible', I don't think this is strictly true. What do you suppose is the single most viewed programme on tv, and the single most listened to programme on radio? I would suggest it is Carols from Kings on Christmas Eve, using King James bible!

Our crib service usually follows the format of re-telling the Christmas story. All the children dress up and they come up onto the dais when they hear their part mentioned. I don't think any parts are given out beforehand.

We move the first 6 or 8 rows of chairs so that the children all sit together on the carpet, with the parents on the seats behind.

We sing the usual children's songs, such as aAway in a Manger, Little Donkey, See Hin Lying in a Bed of Straw.

Ahem, we project the words onto our screen. We have mostly visiting children and a lot of them simply don't know the words.

I am getting images of some churches having a rickety fold up screen and a 1970s OHP on a an old table found at the back of the vestry. It's not like that at all! Our screen rolls up, electrically, when not in use and you then can't see it at all. When it is in use, it is not an eyesore - it is full of words and pictures! The projector is housed up on the balcony. We wouldn't have been allowed to install a screen if it affected the architecture of the building. We would have had all sorts of conservation bodies crawling over us. I have never heard of anyone having to strain their vocal cords as a result of using a screen. I will observe today if this is the case. If it is a problem for anyone in particular, they can always take a sheet.

We have found the screen to be really useful in church and for the community. We've been known to screen major football matches so that members of our community can watch together without having to go to the pub.