Christmas Ideas

The Thanksgiving holiday has passed and now it’s time to think about Christmas.

  • Planning a Christmas Party for Children, Youth or Adults?
  • Do you need creative game ideas for your Christmas event?
  • Would you like some heartfelt devotionals to usher in the Advent Season?
  • Maybe you are looking for some meaningful object lessons or children’s sermons to share the true Meaning of Christmas?
  • Need help to plan a Christmas Scavenger Hunt?
  • Looking for powerful Christmas illustrations for your next sermon or Youth talk?

Click here to find out how you can immediately download more than 200 of my best Christmas games, Christmas illustrations, Christmas activity ideas AND MUCH MORE in a useful ebook for only $24.97

With YOUth on my heart,
Ken

 

Worry the Lambs

Labour mightily for a healing spirit. Away with all discriminating names whatever that may hinder the applying of balm to heal your wounds…Discord and division become no Christian. For wolves to worry the lambs is no wonder, but for one lamb to worry another, this is unnatural and monstrous.

Author: Thomas Brooks
Source: quoted in Credenda Agenda, Volume 5 Number 2, Page 3, I.D.E.

Jesus, You are Here

A miserable looking woman recognized F.B. Meyer of the train and ventured to share her burden with him. For years she had cared for a crippled daughter who brought great joy to her life. She made tea for her each morning, then left for work, knowing that in the evening the daughter would be there when she arrived home. But the daughter had died, and the grieving mother was alone and miserable. Home was not “home” anymore. Meyer gave her wise counsel. “When you get home and put the key in the door,” he said, “say aloud, ‘Jesus, I know You are here!’ and be ready to greet Him directly when you open the door. And as you light the fire tell Him what has happened during the day; if anybody has been kind, tell Him; if anybody has been unkind, tell Him, just as you would have told your daughter. At night stretch out your hand in the darkness and say, ‘Jesus, I know You are here!'”

Some months later, Meyer was back in that neighborhood and met the woman again, but he did not recognize her. Her face radiated joy instead of announcing misery. “I did as you told me,” she said, “and it has made all the difference in my life, and now I feel I know Him.”

Author: Unknown
Source: The Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching & Preachers, W. Wiersbe, p. 194


MORE IDEAS? See “Creative Object Lessons”

200 page e-book that explains everything you need to know when planning your very own object lessons. It contains 90 fully developed object lesson ideas and another 200 object lesson starter ideas based on Biblical idioms and Names / Descriptions of God.

Learn More…

The Tender Touch of God

tendertouch.gifOnce we have identified our problem and have stopped the bleeding, it is necessary to move to the next step of the healing process: dressing the wound. Above all, the wound must be dressed correctly so infection doesn’t set in…

When doctors dress a wound, they apply medicines that stop the spread of germs. They apply a healing lotion to counteract infection and enhance the healing process.

Physicians dress a wound in different ways, depending upon the nature of the injury. A burn victim receives a different type of dressing than does someone who broke his arm. Gunshot wounds and stabbing wounds penetrate the body in different ways and so need to be dressed differently. Some people get a tetanus shot as part of the physician’s curative plan, while others do not.

Just as it is important for us to keep ourselves free of infection from wounds to the body, so is it imperative that we keep ourselves free of ‘infection’ from wounds to the soul…

I don’t know what kind of healing regimen is required in your case. You may come from a family with a history of alcohol abuse; in fact, that may be your own problem. Listen: Your wound is not going to heal with alcohol. Some people think the bleeding can be stopped with alcohol, but it can’t. I know–I tried, and it doesn’t work. In fact, abuse of alcohol shows that you are still bleeding…

Or maybe that’s not your wound at all. Maybe your wound was caused by a death in the family, a fractured relationship, the loss of a job, sexual abuse, or a personal failure. It doesn’t matter what it is–the wound has to be dressed. And it has to be dressed the right way…

I have good news for you! God has warehouses full of miracles, in all shapes, sizes, and colors. He has one just for you. The real cure, the only certain cure, is to cry out to the Lord for help. Let Him give you the hope that you need; that is the cure. Yet you, too, have a part to play in your own healing…

Dressing the wounds of our soul can be even more painful than dressing physical wounds. But we can’t let that stop us. We can’t risk infection and bigger problems down the road…

‘Dear Lord, please dress the wounds in my life, the self-inflicted ones as well as the ones inflicted by others. Give me the ability to forgive those in my past and those currently in my life, everyone who brought pain and hurt to me. Please reach out Your hand and not only heal me in Your timing and Your method, but also fill me with Your love to accept Your graciousness with thanksgiving. I reach out to You today; please accept my little faith. Stop my bleeding, dress my wound, and please, God, heal me.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Mike MacIntosh- “The Tender Touch of God” – Harvest House


MORE IDEAS? See “Creative Object Lessons”

200 page e-book that explains everything you need to know when planning your very own object lessons. It contains 90 fully developed object lesson ideas and another 200 object lesson starter ideas based on Biblical idioms and Names / Descriptions of God.

Learn More…

Thanksgiving Game Ideas

Creative Thanksgiving Ideas Looking for some interesting games for your Thanksgiving event?

  1. Cluck, Cluck, Gobble
    Play this updated version of the classic Children’s game “duck, duck, goose” as a Thanksgiving Party game.
  2. Mayflower Memory
    This Thanksgiving game tests your memory.
  3. Pin the Tailfeather on the Turkey
    Can you pin the missing tailfeather on the turkey?
  4. Pumpkin Bowling
    Use vegetables for a wild bowling variation.
  5. Pumpkin Puzzles
    Youth will cut up pumpkins and then try to put a cut up pumpkin back together again. The game can be used as an object lesson illustrating God’s restoration of our lives.
  6. Pumpkin Seed Toss
    Use this Thanksgiving game as a discussion about the power of our words, or about how we choose goals in life.
  7. Tearable Turkey
    How well can you tear out the shape of a turkey behind your back?
  8. Thanksgiving Back to Back
    How well can you draw famous Thanksgiving pictures?
  9. Thanksgiving Bingo
    Add some Thanksgiving holiday fun with a bingo game.
  10. Thanksgiving Twister
    Play a classic game of twister replacing the colored dots with Thanksgiving symbols.
  11. Top Turkey Artist
    How well can you draw a turkey on a piece of paper on top of your head?
  12. Turkey Hunt
    Play a Thanksgiving interpretation of the classic game of “Hide and Seek”
  13. Turkey in a Tree
    Use this high energy game for Thanksgiving fun!

Get Creative Youth Ideas: "Holiday Collection" ebook Holiday Collection
Games and Activities in Celebration of common Holidays.

Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween or Fall Festival, and Thanksgiving event. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for all these holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.

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Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving and I have much to be thankful for! I am thankful for all of you that make this site worth all the effort. I am thankful for all the lives you touch! I am also thankful for my friends here in Singapore.

May God Bless you all this Thanksgiving!
Ken

 

William Bradford on Thanksgiving

William Bradford was governor of the Plymouth colony at the first American thanksgiving in 1621.

He wrote the following in “Of Plimoth Plantation”

“They begane now to gather in ye small harvest they had, and to fitte up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health & strenght, and had all things in good plenty; fFor as some were thus imployed in affairs abroad, others were excersised in fishing, aboute codd, & bass, & other fish, of which yey tooke good store, of which every family had their portion. All ye somer ther was no want. And now begane to come in store of foule, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees). And besids water foule, ther was great store of wild Turkies, of which they tooke many, besids venison, &c. Besids, they had about a peck a meale a weeke to a person, or now since harvest, Indean corn to yt proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largly of their plenty hear to their freinds in England, which were not fained, but true reports.”

More Thanksgiving Quotes

 

Get Creative Youth Ideas: "Holiday Collection" ebook Holiday Collection
Games and Activities in Celebration of common Holidays.

Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next Thanksgiving event as well as a variety of other familiar holidays. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for all these holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.

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Kernel Cornucopia

kernel.jpgIntroduction
The cornucopia, also known in English as the Horn of Plenty, is a symbol of prosperity and affluence, dating back to the 5th century BC. It was often filled with the fruits of the harvest which included corn, fruits, and other vegetables. Corn itself was one of the staple foods of the early settlers. Here are a variety of games using corn kernels… you can get dried feed corn like that sold for bird feeders or unpopped popcorn will also work.

Game Materials

  • Dried Corn Kernels or popcorn
  • Candy Corn
  • Bowls

Game Description

  • Turkey Feed – Turkeys are often fed corn to prepare them as guests at Thanksgiving.
  • Corn Pitching – How accurately can you toss corn kernels into bowls
  • Odds and Evens – Can you guess if there are odd or even numbers of kernels are in your partners hand?

Game Play

Turkey Feed

  1. Fill a bowl with dried corn kernels and add several pieces of candy corn.
  2. Blindfolded players and have them retrieve the candy corn from the bowl within a designate amount of time. (As a gross out variation, have them retrieve it with their bare feet then eat it.
  3. The player that retrieves the most candy corn in the designated time limit wins.

Corn Pitching

  1. Players takes turns pitching ten corn kernels, one at a time, into a bowl from a set distance. You might choose to have various bowls of different sizes and at different distances. Display the points based upon difficulty.
  2. Keep score of how many kernels end up in the various bowls.
  3. The winner is the one with the highest score after three rounds.

Odds or Evens

  1. Each player starts out with the same number of corn kernels.
  2. Players rotate about the room pairing up with others.
  3. When they find a partner, one player hides a few kernels of in his hand.
  4. The other player must guess if the number of corn kernels is odd or even. If guessed correctly, the player can add the kernels to his own collection.
  5. Players take turns hiding and guessing, until one player has all the corn or until a specified time limit!

Discussion

  • In these games are you someone who plays it safe or shoots for the moon?
  • Was the voyage to the new world by the pilgrims a safe bet or a big risk?
  • What were some of the potential risks? Potential rewards?
  • What were some of your strategies in these games?

Application
Some people play it safe in life. Others take risks. Most of the time we evaluate if the potential reward is worth the risk. For the Pilgrims, coming to America was a great risk. But the lure of religious freedom was worth the risk. Many of them lost their lives in pursuit of the opportunity to freely worship God as their conscience dictated. After the first year of the Plymouth colony, only half of the 102 settlers were still alive. Times were hard. Later during a particularly tough winter is was said that each person had only 5 kernels of corn to live on each day.

Yet in spite of their hardships, they gave thanks to God. Eternal blessings outweighed the physical ones. There may be times when we do not have much, but to have a relationship with God is worth any cost and any hardship! They made a choice, a decision to pursue God at any cost.

Conclusion

  • Has God called you to do something out of the ordinary?
  • To what has God called you?
  • What risks are worth the reward of knowing Jesus as Lord and living for him?

Just as a single grain of corn has the potential for an abundant harvest, even one decision for God can lead to a harvest of blessings in your life. What choice is God calling you to make today? Take a kernel of corn home as a reminder of a decision God has called you to make for him regardless of the risk.

Get Creative Youth Ideas: "Holiday Collection" ebook Holiday Collection
Games and Activities in Celebration of common Holidays.

Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next Thanksgiving celebrations as well as a variety of other events for familiar holidays. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for various holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.

=> Tell me more about the Holiday Collection

Thanksgiving Quiz

Take this online quiz to find out how much you know about Thanksgiving, the foods we eat on Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims and other things associated with the holiday. There are 66 Questions… can you get them all correct?

Click here to take the quiz

Get Creative Youth Ideas: "Holiday Collection" ebook Holiday Collection
Games and Activities in Celebration of common Holidays.

Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next Thanksgiving celebrations as well as celebrations for a variety of other familiar holidays. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for all these holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.

=> Tell me more about the Holiday Collection

Creative Youth ideas: 1700+ Resources for youth leaders, pastors, ministers to help plan camps, retreats, and meetings using games, illustrations, Children's Worship, Bible Studies, object lessons, sermons, creative ideas,creative activities