What do sand, trees, money, pearls, wheat, and mustard seeds have in common? Jesus used them all as tangible symbols or object lessons to help his disciples to understand and remember intangible truths. The Master Communicator often attached deeper meanings to common things and objects.
Alphabetically listed are 25 items commonly associated with Advent and Christmas, one object lesson per
While the use of holly is rooted in pagan lore, many Christian legends have developed over the centuries to the point that it is now linked with Christmas. In some parts of Britain holly was formerly referred to merely as Christmas, and in pre-Victorian times ‘Christmas trees’ meant holly bushes. Even so, “Decking the Halls with Boughs of Holly” is …
An Old English Traditional Christmas Carol
The holly and the ivy,
When they are both full grown,
Of all the trees that are in the wood,
The holly bears the crown.
The rising of the sun
And the running of the deer,
The playing of the merry organ,
Sweet singing in the choir.
The holly bears a blossom
As white …
Materials
Miniature size candy canes.
Activity
Played in the manner of breaking the wishbone of a turkey, the objective is to connect the two candy canes at the curved end and pull. The first candy cane to break is eliminated. Continue challenges until only a couple winners remain. You can also do this with regular size candy canes or even …
Materials
Miniature size candy canes and toothpicks for each participant.
Divide the participants into two teams. Give each team five small candy canes. On signal, the team members pass their canes to the end of the line (one at a time) and back again using toothpicks stuck in their mouths.
Variations
Using candy canes in their mouth as hooks they …
Materials
Candy canes, wrapped or unwrapped, stacked into a pile. You can use some candy canes of a different color and give them a higher point value. Traditionally, there are Blue Sticks – 50 Points, Green Sticks – 40 Points, Red Sticks – 25 Points, Yellow Sticks – 10 Points. Change this according to the frequency of colors and rarity …
Materials
Candy canes and a stick. Be sure the candy canes are wrapped in plastic as they are almost guaranteed to break into a number of small pieces during game play. For indoor games you can either drive a nail into a flat piece of wood or turn a table or stool over and use one of the legs as …
Materials
Miniature size candy canes, candy goal markers, and a candy hocky puck.
Activity
Make a goal at each end of a table using markers attached to the table… These markers can be a piece of candy or even candy canes stuck to the table with some blue tack adhesive. Make the goal posts about 4 inches apart. Use a …
Materials
Miniature size candy canes broken in half.
Activity
Use this game to break your group up into pairs as a mixer. Mix up the halves of the candy canes and hand them out to participants. When everyone has arrived, have participants try to find the other half of their candy canes!
Read about the significance of the Candy Cane …
As little children we would dream of Christmas morn
and all the gifts and toys we knew we’d find.
But we never realized a Baby born one blessed night
Gave us the greatest gift of our lives…
WE are the reason that He gave His life;
We are the reason that He suffered and died.
To a world that was …