The World’s Child
Christmas Mini Bundle
This is a mini bundle of resources to help churches and families encounter the story of Christmas with imagination and creativity. If you are a busy pastor preparing to lead multiple worship serves on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we hope these materials will offer you comfort and inspiration in the midst of your worship preparation. If you are a family looking for creative Christmas resources for children and youth, we hope these resources might help you occupy long car rides or enjoy a "take home church" option if you are away on Christmas Day.
(To make our resources accessible to congregations of all sizes, we offer tiered pricing on our bundles. Please offer the price you are able to give. Your support makes our ministry possible!)
What's Included in the Bundle:
1. Creative Liturgy for a Christmas Day or Eve Service
Liturgy can easily be adapted for any service throughout the Christmas season.
Order of Worship includes hymn suggestions and three Narrative Character Reflections, (inspired by the Jewish Midrash tradition) to tell the story of Jesus' birth from three perspectives: Joseph, Mary, and a shepherd.
We encourage you to invite different readers to tell each story for a creative, story-telling proclamation of the Word.
Liturgy by Sarah Are | © A Sanctified Art LLC | sanctifiedart.org
2. Three Narrative Reflections: Joseph, Mary, & a Shepherd
Inspired by the Jewish Midrash tradition, these narrative reflections offer a creative proclamation of the Christmas Story. These short, "Midrash" stories allow worshipers to imagine Jesus' birth through the lenses of Joseph, Mary, and a wayfaring shepherd.
"As I kneeled beside him, I felt tears well up in the back of my throat. It had been a long time since I’d cried. Yet, quite easily, I found the tears running down my face, washing my dusty skin clean. The boy’s father smiled at me through his own tear-stained face as if to say, “me too.”
I reached out my rough, calloused hands—these hands that had never been held. I don’t know what I was thinking—instinct, I suppose. But to my surprise, the little baby reached out toward me as well, wrapping his soft warm fingers around my rough and weathered pinky. All I know is that it is true. All of it is true. What the angels said, what we had been waiting for, the good news—it was all true, and he was here, asleep, holding my finger. It seemed to happen slowly, at first. And then all at once."
—Excerpt from the Shepherd's Story
Stories by Sarah Are | © A Sanctified Art LLC | sanctifiedart.org
3. Illustrated Narrative Foldables
Inspired by the Narrative Character Reflections, these fun "foldable" booklets illustrate the three "Midrash" stories for young worshipers to color and follow along as the stories are proclaimed in worship or at home. Each foldable tells each of the three character narratives in six illustrated panels with salient quotes from the Midrash stories.
Foldables are formatted for printing in black & white on 8.5" x 11" sheets to create mini accordion booklets. Folding instructions included on the back panel of each foldable.
Illustrations by Hannah Garrity | © A Sanctified Art LLC | sanctifiedart.org
4. Jesus' Birth Visual Art
This piece depicts both the shepherds' wonder when encountering the star and angels out in the fields (left), and Mary and Joseph wrapping their infant son in their arms for the first time (right).
You may recognize these images from our Advent Banner designs. We have specially formatted these two banner designs in midnight blue to offer a unique visual to accompany the "Midrash" stories, foldables, and liturgy.
Art by Hannah Garrity | © A Sanctified Art LLC | sanctifiedart.org
