Christmas
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Sampsons First Christmas
$7.95Add to cartSampson’s First Christmas is a charming play that’s perfect for a holiday children’s program in small congregations. The story details the attempts of Sampson Squirrel to discover Christmas. After overhearing a conversation between the rustic characters of Ma and Pa, Sampson asks his forest friends where to find this wonderful place. When they are unable to help, Ma and Pa show Sampson the true meaning of Christmas.
This adaptable piece can accommodate any number of actors, and can be presented as a play, a puppet show, or a readers’ theater. The characters, plot, and message appeal to all ages, with dialogue that’s easy for youngsters to learn and memorize. Costumes are affordable and easy to assemble — and clear and concise directions with reproducible patterns are provided to help you make distinctive animal hats that children will love. Instructions are also included for creating simple Christmas tree decorations that accentuate the animal theme. With all these craft ideas plus production suggestions, Sampson’s First Christmas is bound to be a hit with your church!
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Christmas Journey : Advent Christmas Resources
$14.95Add to cartThis complete set of seasonal material offers everything you need for an exciting Advent and Christmas program. With dramatic monologues, sermons, children’s messages and worship liturgies, a Sunday school program, and a pair of Christmas Eve candlelight services, there’s something for everyone, whatever your congregation’s size or worship style.
An Unlikely Cast (Alan E. Siewert) is a set of dramatic monologues that reveal the inner thoughts and feelings of five characters who were deeply involved in the unfolding divine drama of the nativity: Joseph, Mary, John the Baptist, the innkeeper, and a shepherd. The monologues can be used in midweek Advent services, special programs, or Sunday morning worship. Staging and costuming suggestions are included, to help you bring these exciting accounts to life.
The Colors Of Christmas (H. Michael Nehls) is a creative series of six sermons and children’s messages in which each week features a different color. The sermons use the color idea to stress such Christian themes as royalty, sacrifice, and holiness, while the children’s messages utilize the inventive device of passing out ribbon swatches of the color of the day; as the youngsters receive the various ribbons, they can collect a “ribbon rainbow.”
Is This The Road To Bethlehem? (Judy Gattis Smith) is an Advent worship liturgy in which children are the main participants. The centerpiece is an “action/sermon” featuring six brief readings using illustrative wooden figures. All the elements of a typical worship service are present — but in a manner that focuses on the interests and expressions of children, allowing them to experience worship rather than just listen and watch.
Producing Christmas (Jennifer Hockenberry Dragseth) is a humorous children’s play which casts the Christmas story as the ultimate Hollywood blockbuster. Everyone wants to be a part of the big movie — and they all have ideas about how to make it a hit, only to finally learn why the coming of the Christ child is truly the “greatest story ever told.” With participants ranging in age from junior high to preschoolers, this flexible piece is perfect for a brief Sunday school program.
A Christmas Journey and Christmas Letters (Rod Tkach) are imaginative Christmas Eve services weaving together carols, prayers, scripture readings, and several brief meditations. In A Christmas Journey, the reflections guide worshipers on a journey from being home alone to the ultimate destination of the
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Christmas Promise
$22.00Add to cartJames Cameron, a minister who runs a mission in Central America, has decided to spend the holidays in Cape Light. But when his car collides with another car, a hint of trouble befalls this close-knit community. No one is hurt, but out-of-towner Leigh Baxter is forced to stay in town until her car is fixed. What she doesn’t expect, however, is that the charm of this beautiful seaside hamlet and its citizens will soon win her over-and that she will fall in love with James, who has so generously welcomed her into his life.
But will James accept Leigh in his heart once her dark secrets come to light? In the meantime, Jessica and Sam Morgan’s relationship is put to the test. More than anything else this Christmas, they want a baby to call their own. But soon they’ll discover that life’s most precious gifts often come in unexpected packages.
Join the entire town of Cape Light for a Christmas to remember
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Hannahs Hope : A Novel
$32.00Add to cartRaised in a political family, 15-year-old Hannah Roberts lives a lonely life with her wealthy, unaffectionate grandmother while her parents work abroad. As Christmas nears, Hannah learns a shocking truth: the man she believed was her father is not her parent after all. In an effort to find answers, she begins a desperate search for her real father, Air Force pilot Mike Conner, who she discovers to be the man of her distant childhood memories. Local politicians and the city’s newspaper catch wind of her quest, and the entire state joins in Hannah’s hope that she’ll find her father before Christmas.
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Child Of The Light
$11.99Add to cartIf the Christmas season has become more of a chaotic consumer ritual rather than a nurturing spiritual one, you need this brilliant “Advent Survival Guide!”
If you set aside just 10 minutes per day, Child of the Light will help you find your quiet center amid the stressful flurry of the November/December busyness. As you read the book’s brief readings inspired by the season’s carols and hymns, your spirit will be lifted, and your thoughts will be redirected to the purpose of the season: preparing for the coming.
“Take time for God: that’s exactly the challenge God gives us during this season of preparation,” writes Richardson. “Personally and culturally this time of year already seems to race out of control toward a Christmas finish line. In Advent, we are invited to take time out…. [In] doing so, we nurture our spiritual self, that sometimes fragile part of us who longs for a connection with God.”
The reflections extend past Christmas to Epiphany, January 6, encouraging you to live into the joy of Christmas beyond traditional seasonal celebrations.
A small-group guide is included among the daily meditations, recommended spiritual disciplines for the week, reflection questions, and leader helps. The use of hymns and carols will engage even the most non-musical among us to fully appreciate the lyrical richness of the season.
Long for a more sacred and measured observance this year? Be joyfully carried through the pre- and post-Christmas pandemonium as a child of the light!
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Run Shepherds Run
$16.95Add to cartThe Advent season is filled with rich themes that have fascinated poets. In Run, Shepherds, Run, Bill Countryman presents a poem a day for devotional reading during Advent and theTwelve Days of Christmas. Readers will find classic poets they know and love, including George Herbert, John Donne, Christina Rossetti, Emily Dickinson, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson, as well as contemporary poets, known and unknown.
Run, Shepherds, Run includes helpful hints for reading poetry, for those who have less experience reading it than others, as well as useful annotations to help readers with older language that may not have easily apparent meanings for today’s readers.
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Christmas Stories From Gainesberry Farm
$12.49Add to cartChristmas Stories from Gainesberry Farm is a collection of short Christmas stories that leads the reader into challenges of the human spirit and the mystery of God’s touch. Author W. Scott Lineberry developed these stories with family Christmas reading in mind as they are entertaining for both adults and children! Set on a central North Carolina farm and rooted in true events, each adventure resonates with the tension between human hardship, humorous relief, mystery, and encouragement. Christmas Stories from Gainesberry Farm is an extraordinary blend of reality, humanity, Divinity, and imagination that readers can identify with and cherish. Imagine being a camper and wandering into a spot in a seventy-acre forest and experiencing a Christmas Eve full of extraordinary surprises. . .
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Beastly Christmas : A Comedy For All Ages
$10.95Add to cartCentering around the theme of the familiar song “The Friendly Beasts,” this intriguing program depicts what the animals who witnessed Jesus’ birth might really have been thinking — if they had human minds. There’s humorous interplay among camels, sheep, cows, and the donkey that carried the pregnant Mary as they share their unique perspective on the nativity. This complete presentation allows many different parts of the congregation to participate; speaking roles can be performed in a readers’ theater format by adults or youth, young children can portray the humans at the manger in a silent tableau, and musical selections allow the choir to be involved as well. A special feature is more than 70 reproducible drawings that can be projected for audience viewing. (Purchase of this book includes access to a downloadable PowerPoint file for use in performances.) This adaptable drama is ideal for use not only in church settings, but also in schools or for children’s programs.
A five-copy package of supplementary coloring books for young children based on the imagery in the PowerPoint file is also available.
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Night Before : Two Christmas Eve Services With Childrens Sermons
$13.95Add to cartComprised of two compelling services plus a pair of delightful children’s messages, this complete set of Christmas Eve resources provides everything you need to create a special worship experience that your congregation will remember long after the holiday decorations have been stored away.
A Christmas Gift contemplates Christmas Eve’s mixture of madness and magic through a creative weaving together of carols, prayers, scripture readings, and several brief meditations. By highlighting some of the diverse moments, memories, and traditions that contribute to the gift of Christmas, this worship service evokes the powerful mystery and miracle of the nativity.
O Come, Emmanuel is a moving candlelight service which utilizes the ancient antiphons of Advent to explore the longing behind our search for the Messiah. As the service unfolds, the singing and reading of each antiphon leads worshipers to reflect on the hopes and desires that bring us to Bethlehem, culminating in the joyful announcement that God has come among us. The service employs two readers and a solo quartet, along with congregational singing of several traditional hymns. An original choral arrangement of the Christmas antiphon is included.
Two inspiring messages for the “children’s moment” are also included. Featuring an interactive, conversational style that involves young people, these lessons can be used with either service or separately. One message helps children think about where Jesus might be in their town or neighborhood if he were born today, while the other celebrates how Christ’s birth draws us all together.
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Letters From Father Christmas
$25.00Add to cartEvery December an envelope bearing a stamp from the North Pole would arrive for J.R.R. Tolkien’s children. Inside would be a letter in a strange, spidery handwriting and a beautiful colored drawing or painting. The letters were from Father Christmas.
They told wonderful tales of life at the North Pole: how the reindeer got loose and scattered presents all over the place; how the accident-prone North Polar Bear climbed the North Pole and fell through the roof of Father Christmas’s house into the dining room; how he broke the Moon into four pieces and made the Man in it fall into the back garden; how there were wars with the troublesome horde of goblins who lived in the caves beneath the house, and many more.
No reader, young or old, can fail to be charmed by Tolkien’s inventiveness in this classic holiday treat. -
Follow The Star
$24.00Add to cartTime magazine has called him America’s best preacher and praised his “overwhelming gift.” Now New York Times bestselling author T.D. Jakes presents the perfect book for the holidays-a heartwarming collection of stories and reminiscences that will bring readers a deeper understanding of the true meaning of Christmas.
Amidst the family gatherings and the exchanging of presents, the true meaning of Christmas–the birth of Jesus–tends to get lost. Now, T.D. Jakes pays homage to the miracle behind the holiday.
In Follow the Star, T.D. Jakes leads a journey that makes Christmas past and present come alive through deeply personal experiences that shaped his life: family stories about finding the Christmas spirit during the worst hardships, and of the need to appreciate fellowship, love, and God-the real gifts of the holiday. With his unique insight, warmth, and wisdom, Bishop Jakes embraces fully the magnificent miracle of the birth of Christ.
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Sarahs Song : A Novel
$32.00Add to cartEvery year Sarah Lindeman celebrates Christmas the same way, placing one special ornament on her tiny tree on each of the twelve days of Christmas. It is her time to remember where she came from, who she is today, and how long ago a song gave her another chance at love.
But this year the ritual is different. This year a desperate young woman is listening, a nurse who cares for Sarah at the Greer Retirement Village. Sarah senses a familiar struggle in the woman’s soul and shares the story of her song in hopes that it will help her find healing, as it did Sarah so long ago.
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Tracks In The Straw
$14.99Add to cartIn a memorable Christmas book full of surprises and wonder, Loder offers 15 nativity stories and fables that bring forth an amazing set of characters, animals, and unexpected visitors who witness, in one way or another, the life-changing mystery of the nativity. Arranged into 24 readings for optional Advent use.
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Destination Bethlehem
$17.95Add to cartThis anthology provides you with a great selection of dramatic material for memorable Advent and Christmas worship. With a variety of approaches, there’s ample material to choose from to fit your needs, whatever your congregation’s size or worship style.
Five Advent Candle Dramas (Anne W. Anderson) explores the traditional meanings of the Advent wreath candles in brief 3-5 minute sketches which incorporate the lighting of each week’s candle. The Advent themes of hope, love, joy, and peace are couched in contemporary dramatic settings yet connected to the powerful reality of Christ’s coming. Each scene includes concise instructions for costumes, props, and settings.
The Savior Of The World (Nelson Chamberlain) is a five-scene play that tells the traditional Christmas story — with a touch of humor and a few unexpected twists. With roles for children from preschool age through sixth grade, this fun, easy-to-produce program is perfect for that special day when the church is full and you want to highlight the young people in your congregation.
Time Travelers’ Tale Of The Carols (Linda Buff & Sharon Cathcart) is an entertaining and educational presentation that combines the story of Jesus’ birth with the stories of several beloved Christmas carols. Through the imaginative device of a time machine, audiences will hear from some of the musicians and writers who created these familiar classics. Sets and costumes are minimal, and this simple play can be produced by churches of any size — while there are parts for many children, the script can be easily adapted for any age or number of participants. Performance time is approximately 35-40 minutes.
Here We Come To Bethlehem (Pamela Honan Peterson) is a Christmas pageant and congregational worship service that lets audiences eavesdrop on the thoughts, stories, and questions of ancient travelers as they make their way to Bethlehem. There are roles for 18 performers ranging from age three through high school, but with this flexible program it’s easy to involve as many children, youth, and adults as desired. Performance time is approximately 20-25 minutes.
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Light Of Bethlehem Shines On
$12.95Add to cart* In The Darkness Of Despair — Isaiah 9:2-7
* In The Darkness Of Suffering — John 1:1-13
* In The Darkness Of Oppression — Luke 2:1-5
* In The Darkness Of Fear — Luke 2:6-11
* In The Darkness Of Anxiety — Luke 2:12-17
* In The Darkness Of Uncertainty — Luke 2:17-20
* In The Darkness Of Suspicion — Matthew 2:1-12Additional Info
The impact of the miraculous event of the incarnation continues — and the light of hope that appeared in the darkness of that night in Bethlehem two thousand years ago still shines on us today, even in the midst of life’s most difficult situations. Illustrated with poignant stories and anecdotes, these powerful messages celebrate the heartwarming joy of Christ’s coming, and demonstrate how we can rely on the Lord to serve as our steady lighthouse while we navigate the shoals of life.This seven-part series for Advent, Christmas Eve, the Sunday after Christmas, and Epiphany Sunday provides a comprehensive seasonal resource for busy pastors and worship planners. Each chapter includes a sermon, a children’s message, a candle lighting response with scripture reading, and a pastoral prayer.
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Speaking Of Christmas
$12.95Add to cartIf you want to celebrate the birth of the Savior by participating in a Christmas play but have a limited budget and want to avoid long rehearsals, you’ll want to have this fascinating collection of twelve short plays in readers’ theater format. Whether you’re a novice or have plenty of experience, you’ll find these scripts, varying from humorous to deeply religious and ranging from 5-20 minutes in length, to be easy to stage yet packed with meaning. Suitable for worship services, prayer groups, religious education classes, retreats, or for entertainment at parish social functions, these flexible dramas can be staged in a sanctuary, classroom, lounge, or any large space, and require no scenery, costumes, or special lighting. Brief background essays on the Christmas play and on readers’ theater are also included, along with a list of other helpful resources.
Some of the intriguing presentations include:
* A Discussion Among Angels
* The Tree That Didn’t Get Trimmed
* Million Dollar Christmas
* Hoodoo McFiggin’s Christmas
* Home For The Holidays -
Christmas Treasures : A Collection Of Congregational Resources For Advent C
$25.95Add to cartThis anthology provides an ample selection of seasonal worship, drama, and children’s resources by popular authors from a variety of denominations. Whatever your congregation’s size or worship style, you’re sure to find something in Christmas Treasures to help you create memorable Advent and Christmas services. Copying privileges are included for all segments.
Litany For Advent And Christmas Candle Lighting provides brief responsive prayers and creative congregational activities for the four Sundays of Advent, Christmas Eve, and Epiphany. It’s excellent for worship services or as a Sunday school opener.
Christmas Treasures offers three sets of short readings and prayers for the candle lighting portion of Advent and Christmas Eve services. Each 2-3 minute narrative links aspects of the nativity with events in our modern lives, both global and personal, and challenges worshipers to reflect on current issues and respond in ways that glorify the Lord.
Six Christmas Testimonies depicts the Christmas events and their meaning from the viewpoint of John the Baptist, a magus, the innkeeper, Joseph, a shepherd, and Mary. Especially powerful when read in sequence, these concise dramatic readings are an excellent way to have members participate in Advent or Christmas Eve worship services.
The Christmas Gift utilizes a creative approach to the seasonal children’s program — a “talent show” is cleverly included as part of a simple yet powerful play based on Luke’s Christmas scripture. It’s a practical presentation for any size congregation — many of the speaking roles have only a few lines, and some parts can be combined. A prop list, set diagram, and sample rehearsal schedule are included to aid novice directors. Performance time is approximately 15 minutes (plus talent show time).
Who Are You In Bethlehem? and The Promise are two dramatic presentations for the entire congregation with roles that can be performed by any age. Each combines the reading of scripture and singing of familiar hymns with brief narrations to telling the Bethlehem story, focusing on how we respond to the Savior — asking us if we have truly welcomed the babe into our hearts. These inspirational services are flexible enough to be performed by as many participants as are available without requiring extensive memorization.
Revelations Of Jesus, Given From Heaven/Received On Earth, Nativity, and If It Happened Today are four flexible, Bible-based plays with parts for young peopl
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Songs For A Savior
$12.95Add to cartThis comprehensive resource of five sermons with complete worship services provides a solid, thematically integrated worship and preaching program for Advent and Christmas Eve. It celebrates the deep songs of faith which result from personal encounters with Jesus Christ. The four Advent messages examine biblical personalities, revealing in their experiences real struggles as well as profound joy. You’ll explore how Zechariah wrestled to believe what the angel told him concerning the birth of his son; how the prophets searched for God’s Word of hope in times of personal and social ferment; how Mary was willing to sacrifice her life for God’s purpose; and how the birth of Jesus, heralded by the angels and confirmed by the shepherds, combined fear and joy with divine music.
In the final sermon (for Christmas Eve), Oliver links those accounts with our contemporary lives by asking what our personal response will be to the birth of the Savior. Will we allow a song of faith to arise in our lives, in our families, churches, and community?
Illustrated with poignant stories and anecdotes, the sermons in Songs For A Savior invite us to hear again the truly Good News — that our song of faith is not so much what we create for God, as how we respond to meeting the Savior and receiving God’s gift of salvation through Jesus.
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Christmas From The Back Side (Student/Study Guide)
$12.99Add to cartBook Session Titles Include:
The Scandal Of Christmas
Three Votes For An Early Christmas
Christmas Comes To A Back Fence
How The Government Helped The First Christmas Happen
Celebrating Christmas In A Hotel
Christmas Comes To A Church
Christmas And The Impossible DreamAdditional Info
Ellsworth Kalas opens up new possibilities of insight into the biblical Christmas story of Jesus’ birth by entering the Gospel scriptures through the “back side” – through a unique starting point, a creative retelling, a new “lens,” or the eyes of a minor or unsympathetic character.
Kalas’s creative approach both clarifies basic teachings and introduces new possibilities of meaning, even for those who are most familiar with the Christmas story. Enriched with contemporary illustrations and personal experiences, this volume will provide new perspective on Christmas. -
Christmas On Stage
$28.95Add to cart1. Elementary Grades
2. Middle Grades
3. Programs For Teens And Adults
4. Readers Theatre For Christmas
5. Adaptions From Classics And Legends
6. Christmas LegendsAdditional Info
A collection of twenty-seven Christmas plays for all ages and all types of worship services compiled and edited by Theodore O. Zapel.The one-act plays included contain both traditional and contemporary settings, drama and humor, and new offerings and old favorites.The plays are easily staged with a minimum of costumes and props, and many of the scripts require no memorization.Christmas music interspersed with the drama adds a special touch to worship services. Since no royalty payments are required for performances, this low-cost anthology is a money-saving program resource for any drama group. -
Living With Hope
$23.00Add to cartAdvent is a time for deepening encounter with reality, including the ultimate reality made manifest in human form at Christmas and Epiphany. This thought-provoking book illuminates biblical thinking with striking new insights from the author’s twin disciplines of theology and science at the cutting edge of physics.
Though daily readings for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany Polkinghorne explores such themes as the end of the world, individual destiny, unseen realities, heaven, hell, and suffering; this is not a book that hides behind platitudes or easy solutions, yet the author offers profound insight into his deep reflections on the nature, meaning, and purpose of creation.
Suitable for individual study, as a guide to prayer during Advent and beyond, or as the basis of small group discussion, Living With Hope offers a unique and inspiring pathway into the coming of Christ in history, in our lives, and in what we shall be.
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Peef The Christmas Bear
$16.95Add to cartSanta asks his elves to go and pick out their favorite pieces of fabric. With much curiosity they bring him their selections. Surprised and delighted, they gather around as Santa makes an extra-ordinary, many-colored Christmas bear. Then, with a final stitch and a push of Santa’s finger, the teddy bear comes to life with the sound of his own name…Peef!
Peef loves Santa dearly and is very grateful for his care, but can’t help feeling that he needs to belong and bring happiness to a young child.
Then one Christmas Eve on the sleigh in the sky, Santa tells Peef that he made a “mistake” and is one toy short. Peef’s dream comes true as he is left behind, snug in a bed with a child who is thrilled beyond belief.
This little bear shows us the treasure of belonging, the joy of sacrifice, and the triumph of love.
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There Really Is A Santa Claus
$19.99Add to cartSaint Nicholas-Sinter Klaas-Santa Claus-The story of Nicholas, 3rd Century Bishop of Myra, Asia Minor (present day Turkey) and how stories of his generous life were embellished into legend. Discover additions of writer Washington Irving, Clement Moore, Civil War illustrator Thomas Nast, Coca-Cola artist Haddom Sundblom. Learn origins of the 12 Days of Christmas, Christmas tree, Carols, Kris Kringle, Creche’ scene, Poinsettia, Hanukkah…Relive events on Christmas through history, from Columbus to Valley Forge, the Great Depression to Korean War. Read Christmas Messages of U.S. Presidents, like Harry S. Truman lighting of the National Christmas Tree 1946: “If we as a nation, and the other nations of the world, will accept it, the star of faith will guide us into the place of peace as it did the shepherds on that day of Christ’s birth long ago.”
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Love Worth Giving To You At Christmas
$4.99Add to cartSpread the spirit of Christmas by giving the true love worth giving–God’s love–with this special holiday keepsake booklet. Based on the best-selling book A Love Worth Giving, Max boldly says that before we can pass love on, we must receive it ourselves — from God. Reminding us all about the most priceless gift, A Love Worth Giving to You includes “The Christmas Cookie Story”, the message of salvation and Max’s insight into drinking fully of the love of God. What better time than the holidays to give a special message to loved ones in a specially sized booklet perfect for impulse gift-buying that says so much more than a greeting card, for the same price. Includes a special dedication page for a holiday message to a loved one. Booklets available in multiples of 50 — order in “eaches”.
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Gideons Gift : A Novel
$30.00Add to cartOne long-ago Christmas, Earl Gibson lost the two things most precious to him: his wife and daughter. Angry and heartbroken, he ended up living on the streets and abandoned any belief he’d once had in God.
Ten years later Big Earl meets Gideon, a seven-year-old leukemia patient who believes with all her heart that “Christmas means never having to ask God how much he loves us.” Gideon is determined to reach this lonely and hurting man who hates Christmas–and he is just as determined to rebuff her. It will take a miracle for Earl to come to understand the true meaning of Christmas. But if he can accept what Gideon wants to give him, he might find that he can return the favor with a precious gift of his own.
In GIDEON’S GIFT, Karen Kingsbury reminds us that Christmas is still a time of miraculous possibilities if only we reach out to those around us.
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While We Wait
$12.99Add to cartThis book offers new ways of connection study participants with their own faith questions. Group members have the chance to look at some biblical figures on whom we don’t always focus during Advent. Somewhat surprisingly, Tamar, Ruth, Mary, Zechariah, Elizabeth, and the Magi ask questions that resonate with contemporary Christians during this season. Designed as a complete Advent study, this book offers readers unique perspectives on the events of Christmas, a fifth session for the week of Epiphany, an introduction to the spiritual discipline of breath prayer, and much more.
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In Search Of Christmas
$23.95Add to cartThis anthology of holiday material provides you with a complete collection of resources for drama, worship, and young people. It includes a wide range of resources from across the denominational spectrum. Copying privileges are included for all six segments.
Come! See What God Has Done is a Thanksgiving children’s event designed to heighten awareness of God’s many blessings. Six learning centers — each including posters, projects, a guided experience, follow-up activities, and a closing prayer — focus on such topics as families, nature, our religious heritage, and our bodies. Intended for kindergarten through sixth grade, this is an ideal activity for your church school and can be held during a single session.
A Chrismon Service portrays the drama of redemption through symbols of Jesus in the form of Christmas ornaments. (The word “Chrismon” is a combination of the words “Christ” and “monogram.”) As appropriate scripture passages are read, each symbol is presented and explained; worshipers participate in the service by hanging them on the Chrismon tree. Eighteen designs are included so that you can make your own Chrismons based on such symbols as the Epiphany star, the Christmas rose, and the angel.
The ABC’s Of Christmas offers four easy programs for Christmas worship, celebrating angels, bells, colors, and gifts. Each incorporates scripture, carols, and simple props together with dramatic readings to create a meaningful worship experience that will linger in the memory long after Christmastime passes.
The Angels’ Point Of View is a play in two acts that looks at Jesus’ conception, birth, and flight into Egypt from their perspective. Originally developed for a junior high Sunday school class, this piece is excellent for older youth and can be performed in a variety of settings. There are thirteen speaking roles, and complete directions for assembling props, costume, and scenery are included.
In Search Of Christmas is a light, contemporary drama that intersperses a series of brief dialogues between a husband and wife, two teenagers, and others illustrating how we can lose the real meaning of Christmas with faith-affirming conversations among individuals who have kept the season’s true spirit of joy and giving. Roles can be doubled up for the small congregation, and only a few basic props are needed.
Last Year In Bethlehem: The Story Of Eli The Shepherd reminds us that the story of Christ’s birth is more than a holiday tradition. It com
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Road Signs Airlines And Stars
$12.95Add to cartThese all-new inspirational programs are sure to bring wonder and joy to your congregation’s seasonal celebration. In this book you travel with youth as they pick up friends and road signs on their way to a church Christmas party. It’s an exciting resource with a salvation message that’s perfect for a Sunday school program or worship service. Then join Mary and Joseph as they make their way to Bethlehem on Salvation Airlines in The Christmas Travelers. A Sunday school pageant with a unique twist, this program declares the message of Christ’s birth through narration, readings, and song. Star Of Wonder gives you an opportunity to involve older youth or college students in a complete Christmas Eve worship service for families.
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Christmas Star : Readings And Pageants For Christmas
$9.95Add to cartThe Christmas Star is a potpourri of holiday gifts for those planning worship-the charming collection includes three plays and five brief meditations suitable for reading during services or for use in bulletins and newsletters. Each presentation is simple for small churches to produce, with minimal costumes and props required. Insightful and scripturally sound, The Christmas Star is a wonderful package that you won’t be able to resist!
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Warmth In Winter
$16.99Add to cartChristmas in Heavenly Daze is saved by patient angels and a loving God who always know better than the bumbling but loveable inhabitants of this quaint little island.
Readers have already fallen in love with the quirky personalities that inhabit Heavenly Daze. In A Warmth in Winter, the unforgettable characters and humorous circumstances offer poignant lessons of God’s love and faithfulness. The story centers around Vernie Bidderman, owner of Mooseleuk Mercantile and Salt Gribbon, the lighthouse operator, who despite the vast differences in their struggles are being taught about the ultimate failure and frustration of self-reliance.
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Angels We Have Heard
$7.95Add to cartIf you’re looking for a fresh new approach to telling the old, old story — what better way to celebrate the Christmas message than to do it from the viewpoint of the angels? From the promise to Abraham to its fulfillment in Bethlehem, angels are a vital part of the story. Angels We Have Heard is a beautiful service that combines many of the traditional elements of Christmas worship with brief dialogues between angels and a number of characters relating to the Christmas narrative. Along with candlelight, an optional communion celebration, and many of the favorite carols we all love to sing, the encounters described in the scriptures between angels and Abraham, Zechariah, Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds are paraphrased. There’s also a short closing exchange between an angel and a contemporary person that sheds light on the meaning of Christ’s birth for our modern times.
This easy-to-use service is adaptable for any size congregation — while a number of speaking parts are specified, it’s easy to combine parts and use just two readers, allowing the participation of as many or as few as you wish. There’s also a convenient order of service for use in bulletin preparation. And while designed for worship use, the drama of the angels speaking with and to different people through the ages can be used in other settings such as youth meetings or church school. Very little (if any) rehearsal is required — this is a simple and versatile way to make the pageantry and drama of the biblical story come alive in your Christmas worship.
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They Worshiped Him
$7.95Add to cartIn today’s “hurry-up” world, it seems we rarely take the time to think of other people and “walk a mile in the other man’s shoes.” If we did, what would we see? They Worshiped Him revisits the nativity story from the perspective of the people who were actually there. In this dramatic retelling, we glimpse the innermost thoughts and feelings of some of the very common people whose lives were forever changed by a most extraordinary event. What did the shepherds feel? What did others think of them? Were they perceived as “eccentric”? And what about the wise men who followed the star? Did they have an entire entourage, or did people treat them like three dottering old men? And what about Mary and Joseph; how did this unusual pregnancy affect them? They Worshiped Him answers many of these questions while reminding us of the biblical characters’ humanity.
The singing of favorite seasonal carols is woven into the drama, encouraging audience participation. And it’s an adaptable work that can be staged as elaborately or simply as you wish. While there are speaking parts for 12 angels, 5 animals, 6 shepherds, 3 magi, the innkeeper, Mary, Joseph, and a narrator, roles can easily be combined for use with any size congregation. Staging instructions are included.
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Every Knee Shall Bow
$7.95Add to cartThe scene for this Christmas play and worship service is a familiar one: a nativity display in a town square. As different individuals or families approach the manger scene they hear the voice of God speaking his words of truth, encouragement, and hope to their own unique needs and circumstances. When the members of your congregation hear God’s message to these individuals, they will hear God speaking to them as well. The service includes the congregational singing of familiar Christmas carols.
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Chrismons They Point To Jesus
$8.95Add to cartThis book provides patterns, instructions and background information for twenty different Chrismons, or “monograms of Christ.” It also includes a church program for presenting and explaining the meanings of these Christian symbols. The program includes children and adults and incoorporates the singing of the Christmas hymns.
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Lite Worship Services For Advent And Christmas
$8.95Add to cartPopular CSS author Cynthia Cowen returns with three more imaginative programs that will spice up the Advent/Christmas season for any size congregation. Prepare Your Heart For Christmas is a service of carols and reflections that’s perfect for a midweek Advent program. Designed as a youth program, Advent Bells includes a brief skit with bell ringers and unique chorus songs. We Welcome The Light Of Christmas is a memorable family service for Christmas Eve with a humorous sketch about the Good News and a lost Frisbee which has turned into the Christmas star.
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Creating Gods Family In Christmas
$7.95Add to cartThe traditional children’s pageant comes together with Christmas scripture lessons, hymns, and other elements of a worship service. The program culminates with the completion of a “living” creche, gradually built throughout the ceremony. Among the very practical features this resource offers are “Leader’s Helps” and a sample bulletin format. No memorization of lines is required. The only setting required is a simple backdrop and manger.
Here is a family Christmas worship resource that provides opportunities to involve children from pre-kindergarten on up.
Included are:
Call to Worship
Christmas hymns
The Christmas scripture lessons
Age group presentations from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade
A suggested bulletin layout
Leader’s helps -
Worship Innovations 1
$22.95Add to cartBeginning with a step-by-step guide for initiating a “Hanging the Greens” celebration, Janet Burton offers nine creative, easy-to-produce programs in which all ages of the church family can participate in the process of decorating worship areas for the Advent and Christmas seasons. She also includes five plans for breathing new life into using the Advent wreath. Best of all, these practical ideas are very flexible and easily adapted to fit the worship style of almost any congregation.
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Curious Commercials
$14.95Add to cartCurious Commercials approaches the Christmas event from a different perspective. Daniel Weitner doesn’t treat the nativity as a kind of warm and fuzzy feeling of longing for universal peace that envelops the earth around the end of the year or as a sign pointing to something greater in our lives. In trenchant messages that are liberally sprinkled with contemporary illustrations, he reminds us that to know what Christmas is all about, we don’t have to look outside Bethlehem…beyond the manger…or past the baby Jesus. Instead we should focus on the birth of Jesus the Redeemer – it is the wonderful event!
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On The Way To Bethlehem
$7.95Add to cartRichard Goodlin writes: “Having been born in Bethlehem (Pennsylvania), I wondered what it would be like to get a letter from the IRS stating I had to go back to Bethlehem for the purpose of taxation. This gave rise to On The Way To Bethlehem.”
The assigned scripture lessons for Advent in the lectionary present themes and concepts, but there is little in the way of a story that flows from one week to the next. In these dialogues Goodlin engages people in the unfolding drama of events that lead up to the birth of Jesus, as well as the story of the life of Jesus.
These dialogues may be performed as a readers’ theater and few props are needed. Costuming is optional.
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Carpenters Child
$7.95Add to cartThis Christmas Eve service centers on the story of Leah, a young girl from Bethlehem at the time of Jesus’ birth. It is a story of seeming tragedy, despair and restored hope — of a loving daughter, her carpenter father, and the trials they face when he is branded a leper. It could be argued that the title should be The Carpenter’s Children because it refers not only to Leah, but also to the infant Messiah and all people of Christ.
The entire service is about 45-60 minutes in length depending on optional inclusions (such as solos or choir anthems) and can be done very effectively by one liturgist. It can also be split into two or three parts and performed as a readers’ theater, or with characters silently acting out the story as it is being narrated.
A full order of worship, staging instructions, a “children’s moment,” and production and lighting suggestions accompany the story of The Carpenter’s Child.
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Its News To Me Messages Of Hope For Those Who Havent Heard Cycle A
$12.95Add to cartAll too often, many people find traditional worship dull and the sermons they hear impractical for living in today’s world. Yet Linda McCoy is convinced that the message of God’s unconditional love is the most vital word for life anyone can receive — especially those who have never heard or truly experienced it. Her inspiring sermons share that message of hope with modern Americans by bridging the gap between the sacred and the secular. As the fruit of her non-traditional ministry directed toward those who have never been part of a church or who have been “turned off” or “disenfranchised” by the established church, McCoy’s short, to-the-point messages effectively and relevantly communicate the good news to anyone who is searching for an experience of the Divine. Readers of these sermons will be connected to a deep sense of purpose and enriched by God’s amazing love and grace.
Sermon titles include:
* Prepare For Arrival — Matthew 3:1-12
* The Power Of A Dream — Matthew 2:13-23
* Positive Identification — John 1:29-42
* Building Bridges — Matthew 5:21-37
* It’s A Mystery — Matthew 17:1-9 -
Mr Willowbys Christmas Tree
$19.99Add to cartGive the gift of holiday spirit with this classic picture book that celebrates how one Christmas tree brings joy to a whole forest of critters!
Christmas is here and Mr. Willowby’s tree has arrived. There’s just one big problem: The tree is too tall for his parlor! He cuts off the top so it will fit, and soon the top of that tree is passed along again and again to bring holiday cheer to all the animals in the forest.
Kids will love watching the tree move from home to home, and families will appreciate the subtle message of conservation and recycling, as the tree top spreads joy to all.
This heartwarming story is the perfect way to start the yuletide season, and a warm addition to any family’s festive holiday traditions.
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Christmas Story
$5.99Add to cartThis Little Golden Book features beautiful paintings by Eloise Wilkin and inspiring text. Children will want to hear this story of the birth of Jesus again and again.
Children have loved Little Golden Books for over 60 years. They have written their names inside each front cover and delighted in the colorful pictures and wonderful stories. Thanks to the happy hours spent with such books as The Poky Little Puppy, many children have developed a lifelong love of reading. Over two billion Little Golden Books have reached the hands of children. We salute the talented authors and artists who create the books, as well as the readers–young and old– who enjoy the picture books with the famous gold-foil spine. Recommended for ages 2 to 6. -
Uncluttered Heart : Making Room For God During Advent And Christmas
$12.99Add to cartGod is waiting for you to remember.
Advent is a time to prepare our lives – hearts, minds and spirits – for the coming of the Christ child. We sweep out the corners of our hearts, cleaning up the clutter, to make space for God’s hope, peace, joy, love and presence.
Great plan, poor execution.
“Advent is often the busiest time of the year,” writes Richardson. “And yet, we are called to make time and space to prepare our lives for the coming of the Christ child. What a challenge. …No matter how busy we may become, God is waiting to break through our endless tasks and distractions to remind us that we are not alone.”
The Uncluttered Heart offers four weeks of guided reflection through the weeks of Advent on through Epiphany. Each day provides a
*quotation
*scripture passage
*reflection
*prayer
Stop and connect with God this Christmas. Remember God as much as you can. Even unplanned pauses such as watching a child laugh at Santa’s post in the mall remind you of God’s presence and help you maintain a true center in this holy time. This practice is a skill developed over time and learned over a lifetime. And the gifts are bountiful.This book includes a study guide for groups.
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You Have Mail From God Cycle C
$12.95Add to cartBridging the sometimes disparate worlds of prophecy and gospel, Hal Warlick’s sermons on texts from the Revised Common Lectionary provide illustrations and themes that will enable preachers and lay leaders to clearly communicate the Christian message. His work is anchored in sound scholarship, yet is written in a flowing, easy-to-understand narrative style that readers will immediately connect with.
Most of Warlick’s 17 messages are based on passages from the letters of Paul, and Warlick finds these epistles to be as relevant today as when they were originally written. And since Paul’s letters came from someone who daily faced the challenges of running a newly created organization, Warlick believes that they are a valuable resource for modern-day Christians trying to maintain a community of faith in an interconnected and spiritually struggling world.
By helping readers to visualize old truths in fresh and exciting ways, this volume makes the sometimes overlooked Second Lesson texts a meaningful resource for the season.
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Day Miss Grouchy Melted
$7.95Add to cartTrying to prepare a holiday children’s program is often a stressful affair for both the youngsters, who worry about memorizing their lines, and for their directors, who tear their hair out trying to make sure everyone attends rehearsals, not to mention coordinating props and costumes. Mel Ann Coley has devised a way to lower the stress for everyone involved while still providing a meaningful experience. Her solution is in the form of a story told by a narrator, with children “acting out” their parts. This frees children from memorizing lines, makes the program very adaptable (it’s easy to add or delete characters), and allows for many ages to participate. It’s perfect for churches looking for a fun, easy-to-do resource that requires a minimum of rehearsals and few props!
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They Came Together In Bethlehem
$12.95Add to cartThis book provides a complete worship resource for busy pastors …
Sermons for Advent, Christmas Eve, and the Sunday after Christmas
Advent candle readings with scripture verses
Pastoral prayers
Children’s object lessons
Dramatic monologues which can be presented by the pastor or a lay personAssign the materials … schedule the sermon titles … then relax and enjoy the season with your family as you employ these inspiring materials in your congregation.
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Stations Of The Nativity
$17.95Add to cartThis devotional guide to the 40 days from Advent to Christmas builds on the popularity of the ancient Christian tradition of walking the Stations of the Cross. Each station includes an opening sentence and a response, a Bible reading, a reflection, prayers, a longer meditation, and a short closing prayer.
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Be Born In Us Today
$17.00Add to cartBecause they are the most familiar of all Bible stories, the accounts of Jesus’ birth are perhaos the least understood. Christmas traditions have overlaid them with layers of sentimentality, and we no longer hear their dramatic, disturbing content. With clarity and vividness, John Davies explores these stories afresh, finding in them stirring challenges to our lives today. For all who long to cut through the relentless commercialism of the season and rediscover the wonder of the Word made flesh, Be Born in Us TOday will prove inspiring and unforgettable.
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Our December Hearts
$16.95Add to cartThis collection of meditations for the season of Advent examines – in sometimes serious and sometimes humerous fashion – the various emotions that the Advent and Christmas stories stir in us: hope, trust, compassion, as well as fear, doubt, and grief. In language drenched in poetry, Anne McConney explores what it means to gaze into the mystery that is the Incarnation.
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Littlest Christmas Tree
$7.95Add to cartUnable to find a Christmas play for their congregation that would be appropriate for all age groups, three creative members of Good Shepherd United Church of Christ in Slatington, Pennsylvania, collaborated to create one of their own. They wrote a play that included humor and the Christmas miracle of family love. Easy to prepare and present, this short vignette about a Christmas tree and Christ’s birth can be used and enjoyed by congregations of any size.
This play, cast in a nature setting, involves a family (two parents and three children), an angel, and 11 youth, each representing a different variety of tree. The presentation includes the singing of Christmas carols and the decorating of a Christmas tree.
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Strange Way To Save You And Me
$7.95Add to cartThis play is presented as a reading with the actors silently acting out their parts as the narrators read from the side of the stage or chancel. Accompanying the script are suggested solos and hymns for choir or congregational participation.
Requires no memorization
Minimal rehearsal needed
Ideal for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day -
Lights Symbols And Angels
$12.95Add to cartLights, Symbols And Angels is a compilation of related worship resources that will enhance the Advent/Christmas worship life of any congregation, large or small.
O Come, Blessed Light Of The World! is ideal for raising awareness of the Advent season for families. Those using the material will learn about the Advent candles, read God’s Word for the day, and have a challenge of action each week. Devotions include a reading, reflection, and prayer.
Celebrating The Advent Wreath is a special Advent service which can be used for mid-week or women’s programs. Reflections on each candle will help participants learn more about the Advent wreath.
Christmas Symbols And Songs is a program which blends sharing the meaning of traditional Christmas symbols with the singing of a variety of carols. It’s excellent for a fellowship potluck, women’s tea or program, mid-week worship service, or an intergenerational event.
Angels Inspire Our Worship is an order of worship with a skit that’s ideal for a youth program. The skit, Hark! It’s Harold And The Angel Band, dramatizes an imaginary encounter between Gabe (the archangel Gabriel disguised as a stock boy), Mr. Grumpy and Mr. Grumpier (old men shopping at Heaven’s Grocery Store), and an angel band led by Harold.
Angels In The Outfield is a resource for a Sunday worship experience, mid-week service, or special Advent program. The worship is designed around the ministry of angels, using a baseball theme with appropriate hymns featuring angels.
A Christmas Celebration is a communion/candlelight service for Christmas Eve with readings, litanies, and carols.
A prolific and enthusiastic writer of worship resources, Cynthia E. Cowen has been an established writer with CSS Publishing Company since 1991. She received a B.A. degree in education from Northern Michigan University and is a graduate of the Northern Great Lakes Synod Lay School for Mission. Cowen has served as a licensed lay minister in the Northern Great Lakes Synod of the ELCA at Calvary Lutheran Church, Quinnesec, Michigan, and is currently a rostered Associate in Ministry in Youth And Family at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Iron Mountain, Michigan. She was elected to the Executive Board of the Church Wide Women’s Organization of the Women of the ELCA in 1996, and served on its Printed Resources committee.
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Drinking With Saint Nick
$19.99Add to cartRegnery History
Your guide to drinking, entertaining, and spreading good cheer during the Christmas season.
Michael Foley, author of Drinking with the Saints, presents cocktail recipes and wine, beer, and cider recommendations that will keep hearths warm and parties joyful throughout the holidays. With stories about the history of St. Nicholas and other saints, as well as an advent calendar leading up to Christmas, this gift book is a must for anyone who starts stringing lights and playing Christmas music the day after Thanksgiving. Let the Christmas games begin!
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How To Profit From Prophets
$12.95Add to cartProphets have not done well in history — at least not by ordinary standards:
Elijah seemed to be the only one in Israel resisting Baalism
Amos was told to keep silent and go back where he came from
Jeremiah was scorned and imprisoned
John, the Baptist was beheaded, and …
Jesus, the greatest of them all, was crucifiedBy ordinary standards the prophets have not done well because, as Jesus said, we ignore or kill the messengers of God. And yet it is the extraordinary standards of the prophets that intrigue us, inspire us and stimulate our minds and consciences to God’s ways and thoughts. Because of their extraordinary standards the prophets continue to shape us and history.
In this challenging Advent-Christmas book, Maurice A. Fetty reminds us again how it is important to “profit from prophets.”
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Christmas Classic Celebration
$7.95Add to cartA Christmas Classic Celebration is a unique candlelight service that incorporates scenes of Christmas that are all around us. Popular Christmas songs such as “Silver Bells:” “I’ll Be Home For Christmas,” and “Do You Hear What I Hear?” are combined with the traditional Christmas hymns.
Six brief meditations are spaced throughout the service and are given in the place of a sermon.
Easy to present, this service requires no rehearsals or props, yet involves the entire congregation in singing the familiar songs of Christmas while moving from the Annunciation to the joy of Jesus’ birth.
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Word Became Flesh
$7.95Add to cartThis 25-minute Christmas Nativity pageant tells the story of Jesus Christ from creation to present day. The birth of Christ is seen as an event with a much wider scope than an incident that occurred long ago in Bethlehem. This drama is unique in highlighting Jesus’ birth as part of the greater picture of God’s activity throughout history: in creation, in the words of the prophets, in the cross, in the resurrection, and in our world today.
The Word Became Flesh provides drama that is biblically sound, educational, and thought-provoking.
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Hear The Bells Ring
$7.95Add to cartAnyone who has used Cynthia Cowen’s resources knows that they have the following characteristics:
They are complete — everything you need is here;
They require little preparation, rehearsal, or props;
They are theologically sound and spiritually uplifting.Many churches have discovered recently that families wish to include worship in the festivities of their Christmas day. This is the perfect way to do it without requiring a lot of work.
It’s all here: call to worship, Christmas carols, litanies, meditations, scripture readings, and more!
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Coming Home
$12.95Add to cartAfter many years of preaching from the first three chapters of Luke and the first two chapters of Matthew, Frank Ramirez decided to preach about something a little different around Christmastime. What evolved was this series of seven messages for the Sundays beginning with Advent and ending with Epiphany.
Why a sermon series based on the Old Testament book of Haggai? Ramirez writes, “I’ve always been fascinated by the lesser known books of the Old Testament, partly because I’m afraid of being embarrassed in heaven if I don’t recognize some of these people!”
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Legend Of The Poinsetta
$8.99Add to cartIn Mexico, the poinsettia is called flor de la Nochebuenao flower of the Holy Night. At Christmastime, the flower blooms and flourishes, the quite exquisite red stars lighting up the countryside.
A Mexican legend tells how the poinsettia came to be, through a little girl’s unselfish gift to the Christ Child. Tomie dePaola has embraced the legend using his own special feeling for Christmas. His glorious paintings capture not only the brilliant colors of Mexico and its art, but also the excitement of the children preparing for Christmas and the hope of Lucida, who comes to see what makes a gift truly beautiful. -
Martin Luthers Christmas Book
$11.99Add to cartThe pain of childbirth, a defenseless babe lying in a cold manger, the violent slaughter of innocent children—Luther vividly portrayed the human reality surrounding God’s birth on Earth. Featuring 30 excerpts from Luther’s Christmas sermons, along with elegant engravings by Durer, Schongauer, and Altdorfer, this gift edition captures the timeless truths of the Christmas story.
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Advent Christmas Resources For Young And Old
$12.95Add to cartThese resources were carefully selected from almost 100 manuscripts submitted. They were chosen for their creativity and content, but also for their adaptability to churches of any size. None of them require complicated props or settings, nor do any require lengthy rehearsals.
This collection of resources will enliven the worship of any church, involving members young and old in the presentation.
-A Christmas Play: Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room
-A Christmas Eve Candlelight Communion Service
-A Christmas Program For Children (Or Entire Congregation)
-An Old Fashioned Christmas Pageant
-Two Worship Services For The Christmas Season
-A Worship Service And Choral Reading For Christmas
-A Christmas Play: Mary After The Angel -
Whose Birthday Is It Anyway
$7.95Add to cartFor the small church that does not have a lot of time to prepare, here is an ideal Christmas program and worship service. It can be presented as part of a Sunday School program or Sunday worship service.
The true message of Christmas is spoken through the words of “the friendly beasts,” which include two donkeys, three doves, four cows and four sheep.
This program enables children to become involved in a Christmas project in which they share their Christmas ornaments and angel food cake with the congregation.
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Behold That Star Christmas Anthology
$20.00Add to cartLooking for a fresh collection of stories to usher in the season of joy and giving? For those grown tired of commercialism, who feel that Santa Claus and red-nosed reindeer do not project the true Christmas spirit, this book may be the answer.
Containing little-known classics by old and new masters of the genre, this bestselling anthology includes stories from many lands, interspersed with songs and poems – over half the contents available in English for the first time.
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Voices Of Christmas
$7.95Add to cartUsing a skillful blend of irony and humor, this work is designed to reveal the realities of Christmas-both the detrimental and the divine. Involving no scenery or props, cast members address visualized listeners as if no interruptions from other characters or changes of subject occur. Lines may be read or recited and the cast may stand or be seated on various levels. No one needs to move about, though use of pantomime is suggested in some cases.
Characters include:
* Patient — a resident of a nursing home
* Homemaker — a food-happy matron
* Shopper — a wealthy, materialistic socialite
* Sportsman — a ski enthusiast
* Merchant — a toy store owner
* Traditionalist — a sentimental Swedish-American grandmother
* Corporation Man — a heavy-drinking partygoer
* Child — a greedy little girl
* Working Wife — a frazzled victim of the Christmas rushWith a presentation time of about 30 minutes, this creative, easy- to-produce play can be used in a variety of situations and settings. It will be one of the most popular programs of the entire year.
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Light In The Land Of Shadows Cycle B
$12.95Add to cartLight In The Land Of Shadows contains 16 sermons for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany and Transfiguration Sundays.
This book makes connections between Old Testament themes and contemporary issues. The preacher will find it exegetically sound yet filled with illustrations and insights. The lay person will find it comprehendible and useful for exploring ultimate issues within the context of meaningful Bible study.
(The) sermons are fleshed out in normal, everyday language, grammar and sentence structure — Yet the faithful preacher can take comfort in the fact that they are backed up by sound biblical exegesis. (from the Introduction)
Hal Warlick is a master at weaving a fascinating story or illustration into the sermon, dramatically portraying the scriptural message. This is Old Testament preaching at its best.
Sermon titles include:
Lighting A Fire In A Cold Room
All Dressed Up And Somewhere To Go
Any FAX From God Today?
Will We Enjoy Heaven?
Pain And Promise In The Hand Of God -
Born One Of Us
$7.95Add to cartThis Christmas chancel drama, used by itself or incorporated into a worship service, uses seven speaking parts (from children to adults) and takes about 30-35 minutes to perform. It is designed as a readers’ theater so that little rehearsal is needed. Included is a closing litany for the minister and congregation which provides a gripping conclusion to the drama of Christ’s birth. (Copying privileges are also included.)
The action takes place in the home of a middle-class Jewish family in Bethlehem at the time of the birth of Christ. The father is a rabbi, the mother one who helps out in almost any needy situation, the daughter a dream-struck adolescent, and the son a rebellious young adult.
The dialogue builds to the point at which the daughter returns struck by heaven’s light, which she calls a miracle. Her mother explains to her (and the congregation) that the real miracle is Jesus, who on that holy night was born, one of us.
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Wrinkled Wrappings
$12.95Add to cartWrinkled Wrappings is a series of pulpit messages for Advent and Christmas carved from the pen and emanating from the heart of a distinguished preacher whose messages inspire hope in the hearts of believers. Brokhoff is especially skilled at relating biblical stories to modern life. The flowing style of these sermons is peppered with gripping illustrations that catch us where we are and carry us along as he shines the light of God’s Word into our lives.
Sermons are based on texts from Mark, Luke, John, and Isaiah.
Sermon titles include:
You’re Going To Have A Baby
Good News For Bad Times
God With A Human Face
Happy Next Year? -
1st Christmas Present Ever
$7.95Add to cartVersatile — “ready-to-use” — no memorization required. Just what the volunteer ordered.
This program is appropriate for Christmas Eve or any Sunday morning in Advent. Involving children of all ages and one adult, it can be used in any size church with a few participants or many. Two versions — a longer version intended for a full-length service and a shortened version to be used in place of a sermon — are also included.
Symbols of Christmas (a tree, ornaments, candy canes, a creche and more) are combined with biblical readings and brief dialogue to create a greater understanding of Christian traditions. While the narrative dialogue is being read, a silent, active nativity scene is shown to illustrate the first Christmas present ever. (Copying privileges included.)
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Promise Kept At Christmas
$7.95Add to cartWe approach the worship of God this evening with a hushed awareness of Christ’s presence in our midst. God again breaks through the calm and darkness to reveal himself to us in the stillness of our hearts. (From the order of worship)
Light and darkness is a powerful biblical metaphor to talk about God’s compelling activity in the world. This Christmas Eve resource focuses on this metaphor.
A Promise Kept At Christmas offers congregations a complete order of service with suggested carols, lighting of Advent candles and scripture readings from the Old and New Testaments using a narrator and lay readers.
Scriptures are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible.
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1st Christmas In Origami
$14.99Add to cartA one-of-a-kind book that allows children to enjoy the Christmas story while they learn the ancient Japanese art of paper folding. Each chapter features a narrative about one of the characters in the Christmas story with easy-to-follow directions on folding that character. Eleven characters compose the finished Nativity scene.
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Kneeling In Bethlehem (Large Type)
$19.00Add to cartIn a style that is contemporary, reverent, and faith-filled, Ann Weems reflects on the mystery of the Christmas season. Included in this collection are twenty-six poems created specifically for this title as well as popular selections from her earlier workds, especially Reaching for Rainbows and Family Faith Stories. Capturing the spirit of joyful celebration, the poems can be used in worship services, read aloud at family gatherings, or used by individuals for quiet reflection.
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Come To Christmas (Revised)
$7.99Add to cartFrom Advent wreaths to Christmas Trees, from Mistletoe to Lumiminarias, from, Hanging of the Greens to Epiphany,Come To Christmas provides families and Christian educators with a treasury of information and worship ideas for the season. Learn about the season of Advent, Advent Wreaths, Hanging of the Greens, Chrismon Trees, The Jesse Tree, the origins of popular traditions such as Santa Claus, mistletoe, and poinsettias, and much, much, more. Also includes a brief set of Advent services for lighting the Advent candles and the songs “The Holly and the Ivy,” and “The Friendly Beasts.”
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Christmas Stranger : A One Act Christmas Play
$7.95Add to cartA Christmas play with a surprise ending!
The church youth group and adult leaders prepare to practice for a Christmas program.
They anticipate a visit by the church’s new custodian, who will clean and lock up the building.
A visitor arrives, who all believe to be the custodian. The visitor begins to help with the rehearsal. With his help, the real meaning of Christmas is clearly revealed to all.
The stranger leaves. To the surprise of the cast (but not the audience) the “real” custodian finally arrives. The cast ponders: “Who was that visitor?”
This simple play is easily adaptable for any size group. No special props are rquired other than a lectern and a Bible. -
Whats The Matter With Christmas
$7.95Add to cartFour youths, rehearsing a church Christmas play, are perplexed about why everyone appears so busy at Christmas. Through a series of events, the youths learn, to their surprise, that the real meaning of Christmas is God’s gift of Jesus.
Highlights of this drama:
Easy-to-rehearse
Simple, yet powerful message
Parts for four youths, up to 10 young children and two adults
Five original songs for young singers
Complete order of worship provided
Performance time from 35 to 45 minutes -
Golden Bells
$12.95Add to cartIs the need a Christmas message, adult casts, and great themes of literature? This book offers two solutions:
The Bells of Christmas Eve takes place in Italy in 1520. In the final moment of the play, the bells ring — it is a miracle. Speaking parts for 8 persons. Performance time about 30 minutes. Church bells should ring as sound effects at the play’s end.The Golden Gift is set in France in 1820. The story is based on a scene from Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. It includes the familiar story of the ex-convict and the good bishop. The ex-convict takes the golden candlesticks. Parts for 10 persons. Performance time is about 30 minutes.
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Unplug The Christmas Machine
$17.99Add to cart1. “A Christmas Carol” Revisited
2. Women: The Christmas Magicians
3. Men: The Christmas Stagehands
4. The Four Things Children Really Want For Christmas
5. The Homecoming
6. Inside The Christmas Machine
7. The Gift Of Joy
8. A Simple Christmas
9. Christmas RevivalAppendix: Resources For A Simple Christmas
Additional Info
Nine years and thriteen printings later, Unplug The Christmas Machine is still the undisputed guide to creating a joyful, stress-free holiday season. Revised and filled with new material, this book will enjoy even greater popularity in the years to come. -
Tis The Night Before Jesus
$7.95Add to cart‘Tis the night before Jesus when all through the earth,
Every creature is stirring for a new baby’s birth.
Here is a Christmas Eve service that persons of all ages will enjoy. It may easily be presented by the younger members of your congregation.
It includes a complete order of service with:
? Suggested music for children’s choir
? Hymns for the entire congregation
? Parts for a speaking choir
? A brief monolgue by Mary
? One page listing additional hymns that could be used with the service
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Gift Of Christmas
$7.95Add to cartIt is Christmas Eve. All over town people are preparing for Christmas. Amid the hustle and bustle of the night a little church is open and prepared for any visitor. For some people on this night the scene at the little church’s altar will be a lifesaver.
Here is a Christmas Eve drama in modern-day setting. It includes parts for six adults, four teenagers and seven children.
Scripture, read by a narrator, are from Luke. Three familiar Christmas carols, for singing by the congregation, are part of the drama. Performance time is 15 to 20 minutes.
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Legends Of Christmas
$7.95Add to cartThis delightful Christmas pageant includes speaking, reading, and non-reading parts for all the children in your congregation. Pre-schoolers, younger children, older youth, and their adult audience will all enjoy exploring a variety of charming Christmas legends from around the world. Familiar carols highlight each legend and involve your entire congregation in song and celebration.
Sets and props can be simple; costumes for most players consist of ordinary school clothes. Performance time is approximately 49 minutes.
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Choices
$7.95Add to cartYour congregation’s children are the focus of this spectacular service for Christmas Eve.
Traditional Christmas scripture texts are skillfully interwoven with mimed dramatizations, dramatic dialogs in contemporary language, and familiar hymns and carols in this complete order of worship.
With something for everyone to do, from pre-schoolers to high school seniors, your children — and their parents — will personally experience the joy of the Christ child’s birth — and the choices which that miraculous event gives us.
Performance Time: approximately 45 minutes.
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Places Of The Promise
$12.95Add to cart“The Advent/Christmas story is one that identifies specific places as the font of the rich interactions between God and humanity. The names of such locales are as familiar to us as our own homes.”
Here are six sermons with accompanying children’s sermons. The series covers Advent 1 through Christmas 1. Each sermon focuses on the particular sphere God used to prepare creation for the gift of Jesus.
The sermons offer:
* Texts from Lectionary Cycle B
* Other suggested texts
* Suggestions for congregational activitiesThe children’s sermons follow an advent wreath-lighting series. Following Christmas, these sermons use the Christmas tree and the creche scene as themes. Each children’s sermon offers at least three objects to use as illustrations.
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Prophets Bread Cycle A
$12.95Add to cartFrom the author of the vastly popular “Gospel Horizons” series, comes this new collection of deeply thoughtful, personal; yet, universal responses to First Lesson lectionary texts for the Advent season.
Drawn from the author’s own searching questions and sensitive insights, these model homilies will deepen your understanding of the proclaimers and prophets who were sustained by the word of the Lord.
Messages include:
– God as Woodcutter
– The Glance of God
– What God Sees
– Six Cloudy Days
and thirteen more!
For use with Common Lectionary texts. -
Shepherds Of Bethlehem
$7.95Add to cartThis Christmas Eve Candlelight Service takes your congregation to the hills and homes of Bethlehem on the night that Jesus was born. Monologs by local shepherds and their families reflect on the hopes and expectations of the common people who populated that quiet, historic town. Prayers and suggested hymns combine with traditional Christmas readings and the drama of candlelight to create a spectacular and reverent Christmas Eve worship event.
Staging and costuming can be simple or complex. Includes reading parts for up to eight older youth and adults, and walk-on parts as desired.
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Come Sing And Celebrate
$7.95Add to cartHere are two delightful Christmas plays for a special celebration with your parish’s children, youth, and adults.
The Night Love Was Born by Mary Jane Mulder is a contemporary re-enactment, in word and song, of the first Christmas story, set within the world of imagination — where even a cynical toy soldier can learn the true meaning of Christmas.
Originally written for participation by up to fifty children, this flexible pageant can be tailored to suit the needs and resources of large or small congregations. Staging can be either simple or elaborate, and the entire performance can be presented in forty minutes.
Angels We Have Heard on High Street by J. Richard Coyle is a modern version of the Gospel’s account of Christ’s birth, using contemporary characters who present their message in music and mime. Parts are involved for participants of all ages, and congregational involvement is required. Staging and production are flexible, and can accommodate abundant or limited resources. Performance time is also flexible.
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Reading The Signs Cycle C
$12.95Add to cartIf you are like many parish pastors, you find the Christmas season to be the most frustrating season of the church year — so much to do, so much to celebrate, so much to say — and so little time to prepare it all!
That is why J. Ellsworth Kalas has prepared these twelve thoughtful sermons — to help you present the meaningful and coherent messages you want your congregation to hear during this busiest of seasons.
Within are sermons for every Cycle C gospel text during the Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany seasons from the Common, Lutheran, and Roman Catholic lectionaries, including:
– The Signs of Summer
– The Hinge of History
– Songs of the Season
– Return to the New
– From Empty Nets to Full Lives
– Awake to GloryUse these complete sermons as presented — or as jumping-off points for your own meaningful messages.
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Light Shines In The Darkness
$7.95Add to cartThe familiar music and scripture of the Christmas season is interwoven with prayers and responses for the congregation in this well-crafted Christmas Eve candlelight worship resource. Four readers share speaking parts. Suggested music may be sung either by the congregation or by choir or soloists. Holy Communion may be included as a part of the service.
The message suggested for inclusion with the service is a powerful modern take about a twelve-year-old Salvadoran refugee named Jesus (pronouced Hay-SOOS), who stumbles across the international border into Arizona following a time of terror in his home country. In modern dress, the story focuses on the horror of King Herod’s plan to exterminate his enemies in the days of Jesus’ birth 2,000 years ago.
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Isaiahs Surprise
$7.95Add to cartWhat might have happened had the Prophet Isaiah been able to transport himself, through time, to the date of Jesus’ birth? Nancy Steltz asked that question. The result is this delightful Christmas pageant. Isaiah, wide-eyed and unsure of how his prophecies are coming to fruition, punctuates the dialog and action. Seven scenes introduce the congregation to all the familiar Christmas characters from the narratives in Saint Luke and Saint Matthew. Parts are included for children from nursery through senior high.
Scenes include:
The Annunciation
Joseph’s Quandary
The Roman Decree
Finding a Room
Jesus’ Birth
The Shepherds
The Wise Men -
Kneeling In Bethlehem
$19.00Add to cartIn a style that is reverent and faith-filled, Anne Weems reflects on the mystery of the Christmas season. Included in this collection are twenty-six new poems as well as popular selections from her earlier works, especially Reaching for Rainbows and Family Faith Stories. Capturing the spirit of joyful celebration, they can be used in worship services, read aloud at family gatherings, or used by individuals for quiet reflection.
