- Theme
- Advent
- Age Range
- 7-18
- Type
- Activities
- Number of Participants
- 4+
- Timescale
- 20-30 minutes
Quick overview
Help your young people prepare for Christmas and feel a part of the parish by decorating a tree to be placed somewhere in the church or hall.
Supplies you’ll need
- A Christmas tree – we suggest an artificial one as it can be reused
- Various items to decorate the tree
- Consent from your parish that the tree can be placed somewhere within it!
- Optional: scissors, paint, paper, card, colouring pens, glue etc. This for if you want them to make some of their own decorations
- Optional: Christmas music as a background mood setter
Prep
- Lay out all your resources so they are easily accessible for the young people
- You can optionally already put the tree in place or get the young people to move it there for you
Leading the Activity
- Once you have all your supplies, and have asked for permission to have the tree as a seasonal feature, begin by gathering your group together and giving them the challenge of decorating the tree in preparation for Christmas.
- To fill out time, you may like to first have them make some decorations themselves. These can be standard Christmas decorations or you may like to make Thankfulness Baubles.
- As they decorate the tree, it’s nice to get involved with them to help create a further community feel.
- Optionally, you may like them to write people they and the parish want to pray for on the decorations they make. If you ask your parish priest he will likely have a list of names that people have asked to be prayed for. This can be a further way that the young people can get involved in their parish.