Christmas Eve 2025

Powerpoint Presentation? At least with pictures shown during readings.

Possible hymn verses.

One of the most anticipated and enjoyed worship services of the year has to be the Children’s Christmas Eve service. I don’t know when or how they were first created but I can remember at least bits and pieces of those I have been involved in for over 60 years. And I’m sure many of your can too. Maybe after the worship service we can talk about your own favorite memories or incidents that happened in your own experience. Let me share some of mine.

As a child we had about 60 children in Sunday school. Four weeks before Christmas Eve we would begin practicing for the program using a preprinted program from NPH. We sang the songs from the booklet and were not required to memorize them. Each child was given one line to memorize and recite to the congregation. (No having the whole class recited together an extended portion of passages to cover up those who would not memorize.) My passage one year was. “And she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger. Because there was no room for them in the inn.” I must admit that until recently, I didn’t know what swaddling meant.”

Our services were always at night. No earlier than 7:00 PM because many of us farmed and chores had to be done.

We wore our best outfits but at Randolph we did not get to wear costumes in a pageant. I remember feeling jealous of my cousin, Jeff, who would tell us that in their church they wore costumes. Years later I would find out that Diane was one of these SS children who got to wear costumes because she was in the same class as him. (Thankfully, he never asked her out on a date . . . )

The church would be packed as parents and grandparents would come to see. I don’t think my grandparents came to see me because they would have gone to see Jeff. (Not because of the costume but because they belonged to the same church.)

After the service we would all receive a brown paper bag filled with peanuts, some fruit, and a smaller bag with foam chocolate candy, hard candy, and nuts I never ate like Brazil nuts and walnuts. (I think they were more the parents.)

We enjoyed the Christmas songs which are still used to this day.

Over the years, I have been able to enjoy almost 40 years of children’s services. Some highlights.

Spokane.

Stable cardboard background that fell during the pageant.

Feeling very emotional as I sang Silent Night knowing it would be the last time I would celebrate Christmas in Spokane because I would be moving to North Dakota.

North Dakota

Having a woman whose children were in Sunday school even though they belonged to the Catholic church who video taped the service. When I asked to watch the video to see myself preach she quite unabashedly told me she did not record me because she did not want to “waste tape.”

South Dakota

Having a service on Christmas Eve in which the weather was so bad you had zero visibility but we managed anywat.

Lowell.

Using special programs that were very involved and it was almost like a musical production with many moving parts.

A kindergarten girl that knew the chorus to “The Greatest Gift” and sang it with gusto scaring the children around her.

A boy whose parents were wondering why their son wasn’t wearing his new Christmas sweater only to find out that another child had thrown up on it just before the service.

All these services were at night and all had the familiar Christmas Hymns (and usually a new children’s song to match the theme) and the Christmas bags afterwards.

I remember helping fill the bags my first year and asking if we had to count out exactly how many peanuts went into each bag. They did not appreciate my sense of humor.

Many other things happened as well that over the years are not all remembered.

But what is remembered is the message that the children were invited to share and which they did according to their abilities and desire.

Several years ago we did not have a children’s service. Nor is tonight’s a children’s service in that it does not involve the children presenting the Gospel in reciting God’s Word and song. But we still have the message. So tonight we will hear again the “same old story which we love to tell” and sing hymns and songs that reinforce that message.

Traditional Opening Hymn: Oh, Come, All ye Faithful

Hymn: 28 Let the Earth now Praise the Lord.

Key Messianic prophecies about Jesus.

Genesis 3:15

Abrahamic Covenant.

1 Samuel 7

Isaiah 7

Hymn: 23

Luke 1:26–56 (NIV84)

26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” 34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. 37 For nothing is impossible with God.” 38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her. 39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!” 46 And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, 49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name. 50 His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. 51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. 52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful 55 to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers.” 56 Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.

Hymn: My Soul Now Will Praise the Lord: The Magnificat.

Luke 2:1–7 (NIV84)

1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to his own town to register. 4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Hymn: Away in a Manger

Short spiel on why Bethlehem was chosen.

Hymn: O, Little Town of Bethlehem

Luke 2:8–15 (NIV84)

8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Hymn: 38:1-5 From Heaven Above to Earth I Come

13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” 15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

Hymn: Angels We Have Heard on High

Luke 2:16–20 (NIV84)

16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Hymn: Where Shepherds Lately Knelt

This concludes Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus.

We also have an account of is birth in Matthew

Matthew 1:24–25 (NIV84)

24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

It is a common belief that when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, that Three Kings from the East arrived that night. Matthew does not give us a fixed timeline. He only writes “After Jesus was born in Judea.”

Matthew 2:1–12 (NIV84)

1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” 3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: 6 “ ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’” 7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” 9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

There are some logical and internal cues that suggest it was later.

Travel time.

Came to the house

Kill all baby boys less that two years old. (Maybe Herod was just covering all the bases?)

Two songs come to mind connected to this event. We Three Kings of Orient Are and As with Gladness Men of Old

Closing Prayers.

Joy to the World

Silent Night (candles?)