Extended Activity: “Christmas Cookies!”

This week, make Christmas cookies!

Set all the ingredients out and promise to your kids that by combining all these specific ingredients they will make a delicious cookie. Kids must trust that although it may not seem like the individual ingredients taste good, the end result will ultimately be good! Be sure to emphasize:

  • the idea of trusting in the Lord even when we aren’t sure how the situation will end

  • having to wait for the promise to be fulfilled as you go through each step

Identify each step to increase anticipation for the promise to be fulfilled (e.g. mixing the ingredients, forming the cookies, baking them, letting them cool, and decorating all before they can taste the cookie and realize that yes, it actually is delicious!).

Booklet Activity—Examples

“…Give your children a list of silly things to do in order to be able to pray to God.”

For example—wash your hands, run around the chair three times, crawl under the table, touch the front door, grab a special toy and bring it to a specific spot in the room before you can pray. Emphasize how difficult that would feel to do every time.

Extended Activity: “Build a Gingerbread House”

This week, build a gingerbread house together! You can find a recipe online or a kit at your grocery store. Talk about how God wants to dwell with us. He can be with us inside our homes and in our hearts.

Extended Activity: “Gifts of Love”

Throughout the week, spend time intentionally loving your family members in the way they feel most loved. Parents can assist their children with loving each other and their parents well. Activities might include: writing kind notes to each other, picking up a sibling’s toys or room, helping a sibling get ready for bed, helping the other parent with their daily tasks, making a meal for the other parent, etc.

Booklet Activity—Examples

“…Play Simon Says-Christmas Edition!”

For example—sit down, touch your ears, dance, jump 3 times, pretend to cut down a Christmas Tree, drink hot chocolate, eat a candy cane, have a snowball fight, say “ho-ho-ho,” pretend to build a snow man, etc.

Emphasize that Jesus is our ultimate authority!

Extended Activity: “Look at Christmas Lights”

This week, drive to look at Christmas lights together. Click here to download the scavenger hunt checklist we created. Mark off items as you see them, and pay close attention to how many times you see a Nativity or the Baby Jesus!

Extended Activity: “The Joy of Giving Gifts”

As Christmas approaches, this week’s activity will seek to build joy around gift giving. Forgiveness is a gift that we offer one another in love. So, this week we will continue that theme by offering gifts to other family members. 

Plan a night where you find, wrap, and give gifts to one another. But here’s the catch—you don’t go buy a ‘real’ gift for another, but rather, you search your house for the funniest gift you could give to another family member.

Here’s how this might look:

  • Draw names for each family member. You will give a gift to the family member whose name you draw.

  • Have each person find and then wrap their gift (yes, even have your kiddos do their best at wrapping!).

  • Once everyone has a funny gift wrapped, gather together again and give them to one another.

Feel free to make this a joyful time with Christmas music, cookies, hot chocolate or whatever is a family favorite!