46 Christmas Ideas for 2020
COVID caught us off guard at Easter but we won't get fooled again. You learned how to produce digital content, create online communities and connect people with the gospel. This Christmas, capitalize on everything you’ve learned about onsite safety and online production to create the best Christmas ever for your community.
Families in our communities want to congregate in a safe and happy environment, however many will want to access an online Christmas celebration.
Nostalgic Noel
People are longing for a happier time. Don’t talk about a COVID Christmas. Develop your Christmas events around a nostalgic, or classic, rather than a traditional, theme.
Make everything hope-filled and encouraging. In your message series, talk about what people in your community want to talk about not just what is important to you. Lift up your community to experience the most wonderful time of the year 2020.
They will remember how you made them feel.
46 Ways To Connect Christmas With Your Community in 2020
Online and Social Media
1. Start curating video content of every way your church has helped your community during COVID. Add to it over October to December. Then, produce a heart-warming video to celebrate the love of Jesus, the Good News, in your community. Feature the video in your onsite and online Christmas services. Craft your Christmas production to be viewed on a smart phone.
2. Use your Facebook and Instagram Feed and Stories to share stories of groups or agencies your church is helping during COVID. Tag the agency. This is not bragging on your efforts; it is a way to inform your community about selfless initiatives and how they can get involved.
3. Create a “Christmas Fact Hunt.” Post a list of questions related to Christmas, or your church, on your Facebook page and website. Answers will be found on your Facebook page/website. People submit their answers to your email address for a draw entry for a Christmas family prize pack. Connect all entrants with an invite to a Christmas Eve family event. (Idea courtesy of Embree Valcourt, Pincher Creek.)
Congregational Ideas
4. Light up your church. If you’ve talked about it, but haven’t lit up your church at Christmas, make this your year. Spend more money on outside lighting than inside decorations, purchase good Christmas lights, lawn displays, flood lights and brighten up your church. Host a Light the Night for the beginning of Advent, Sunday November 29th.
5. Christmas Phone Tree. Commission your most friendly volunteers. Two weeks before Christmas, call every person in your church to share two messages: tell them they are loved and wish them a Merry Christmas.
6. Go retro. Purchase Christmas cards or have children in your church make Christmas cards, enough for every person in your church. You and your staff or Board write a personal greeting and mail the card in the last week of November. (Idea courtesy of Patti Miller, Montreal.)
7. This will be the year of no Christmas choirs or cantatas – indoors or outdoor – but restrictions don’t limit carolling over the phone. Round up your family, dress up in crazy, Christmas sweaters, phone a shut-in, sing them a Christmas carol and wish them a very, merry Christmas. For those who have access to Facetime, let listeners see your faces, smiles and sweaters. (Idea courtesy of Kathy Zelman, ABNWT.)
Community Care
8. Invite people from your community who have recently lost a loved one to attend a Surviving the Holidays, physically-distanced gathering at your church to provide practical holiday coping strategies and hope for brighter days ahead. Best done in the last week of November or first week of December. Information here on how to host the event.
9. Have a Food Bank drive. Consult with your local food bank about how best to serve them – money donations or non-perishable food donations or both. Rally your congregation to help. Share in social media.
10. Be a champion of local charities. Promote their fundraisers on your social media platforms. Encourage your congregation to support their efforts. Show what your church is doing to support your community through local programs. Shop local. Promote local businesses on social media and to your congregation.
11. Hold a casserole-baking day in late November for your church and if your kitchen is large enough, at your church. Use the casseroles over the holiday season to support a single parent family or a family going through a hard time. There are plenty of recipes to use. Here’s one if you need a starter. It features BACON.
Verenika Casserole
¾ – 1 lb bacon, ham or sausage ( I use honey ham)
1 cup chopped white or yellow onion
1 pint regular or low fat cottage cheese
1 pint regular or low fat sour cream
10-12 ounces bow tie noodles
½ t. salt to taste
1/8 t. pepper to taste
If using bacon or sausage sauté until soft. Also sauté onion ahead until soft.
No need to sauté ham; cut into small pieces.
Cook pasta according to directions.
Mix all ingredients together by hand. Place in greased 9” x 12” dish and bake uncovered at 350° about one hour or until light brown on top. You may adjust according to your oven. Sometimes, I check at 45-50 minutes. If top is browning fast, then I place a loose foil tent over while the rest bakes a little longer, so it doesn’t get too brown.
For Children
12. Invite families with kids to come to your church or a neighbourhood park and have a Snowman making day. Invite participants to bring items like a carrot, buttons, and to decorate their snowman. IF there is no snow, people can bring pop cans and make a snowman out of the cans, and the cans can be returned for money for your local food bank. Take pictures of families and their creation, post to your church’s Facebook page and offer a prize for the picture that gets the most likes. (Idea courtesy of Embree Valcourt, in Pincher Creek)
13. Help your children send a free eCard for Christmas to their classmates and friends. Access FREE eCards at Punchbowl or BlueMountain.
14. Equip your kids with snow shovels and work as a family to clear the sidewalks and driveways of your neighbours. (Idea courtesy of Kathy Zelman, ABNWT)
15. Operation Christmas Child gives people something to focus on that’s good. Churches and individuals across Canada can still pack shoeboxes with toys, school supplies, and hygiene items, through Build a Shoebox Online this year. In a few clicks from a computer or handheld device, the page allows people to choose items to include in a shoebox with a letter and photo. Samaritan’s Purse will pack and ship the shoebox for a donation of $40.
Good Neighbours
16. Rally your neighbours to light up your neighbourhood by December 1st with Christmas lights. Plan an evening early in December to have a family walk through your neighbourhood to start Christmas festivities.
17. Have a baking day on a Saturday or Sunday and make shortbread cookies for the neighbours. Wrap them in cellophane, tie with a red ribbon, attach a Christmas tag and write, “Merry Christmas from the __________ family.” Deliver your sweet treats to neighbours’ doorsteps. (Idea courtesy of Kathy Zelman, ABNWT.)
18. Go for a walk two weeks before Christmas on December 11th. Smile and say hello to everyone you meet. This may feel weird at first but most people will be glad to respond. With each step you take ask God to bless your neighborhood. What comes to mind as you walk – use your thoughts as an opportunity for prayer.
Family Festivities
19. Zooming Jingles - Provide your friends and family with a link and password for your own Karaoke Christmas Carol Sing! Make sure to ask a couple of people in advance to lead a few favourites and then take requests while hosting this event live. Share your screen with your guests when you need the lyrics, otherwise sing by memory and enjoy each others video view and singing (safely distanced of course). Don’t forget to hit the record button to keep the memories. (Courtesy of Leann Woelk.)
20. Crazy Christmas Sweater Contest - Create an event on Facebook and on the date, show up in your Facebook Room with up to 50 friends dressed in their craziest Christmas sweaters. Make sure people take notes on who they think had the craziest sweater and create a poll on your timeline after the event and see who comes up as the winner! (Courtesy of Leann Woelk.)
Bob Jones is the founder of REVwords.com, an author, blogger, and coach with 39 years of pastoral experience. Bob is also an Advance Coach with the ABNWT Resource Centre. You can connect with Bob here.