Manger scene
Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. This occasion also offers an opportunity to fellowship with your church family. Games are a way to incorporate young and old in remembering and celebrating the Christmas season. You can use various types of games to help church members have fun as they remember the reason for Christmas.
Name That Hymn
This game is a fun way to incorporate music into your Christmas festivities. Have a musician play several notes from a Christmas hymn. You can call on volunteers from the congregation to try and name the hymn or you can divide a smaller group into two teams and have a little competition. If no one can name the hymn in the first few notes, have the instrumentalist play a few more notes with each round of the game until someone correctly names the Christmas hymn. Once the song is correctly named, sing the song together.
Drawing Game
Prepare for this game by writing Christmas-related words and phrases onto index cards using one word or phrase per card. You might include people, places, objects and events such as: Mary, Bethlehem, the Wise Men and manger. Have a volunteer select a card from the deck and draw what is on the card without using any words. Whoever guesses the drawing correctly gets to go next. This game works well for small church groups, although it can be played with a larger congregation if you have a way to project the drawings.
What's Missing From the Manger
Set up a nativity scene that is as elaborate as possible. Standard parts of the set include Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. Other characters may include shepherds, wise men, angels, stable animals, straw or hay and a star in the sky. Have everyone in your church group look at the manger scene carefully. Turn off the lights and remove one part of the scene or change the scene is some slight manner. When the lights are on, choose a volunteer to try and point out what's different or missing. Once a person correctly guesses what changed, allow that person to alter the scene the next time the lights go off.
Tags: Christmas hymn, name hymn, This game, your church