In an All age Carol service, keep everything visual and keep changing the communication medium to engage visual learners with short concentration spans. Videos can help with this, to grab attention at the start, to make the Bible reading more engaging or to illustrate a point in the all age talk.
Perhaps you’ll find something here to help:
Sainsbury’s Christmas advert for 2016 is simply the best illustration of what it means for Jesus to be “Immanuel- God with us”. Here is a way of using it:
“I wonder what you think the best gift for your family is this Christmas? Chocolate? A game? A tablet?! Sainsbury’s have spent a lot of money explaining how God gave us the greatest gift at Christmas. They say it’s all about a man called Dave, but we know that really, it’s about God. Thank you Sainsbury’s! Watch and enjoy.” Play Sainsbury’s advert…“The greatest gift that I can give is me… He worked out that His family needed him – he had to be there with them, enjoying time with them, being in the middle of it all – in all the busyness of Christmas time, we want to take some time today to remember the greatest gift that God gave us at Christmas was himself. Immanuel, God with us, He came to be in the middle of it all, to be with us, and to give Himself for us. The greatest gift that God could give, was himself.”
There is a trend for children narrating the Christmas story. They’re endearing.
The American Version (our favourite)
The Kiwi Version (and if you like that one, try this one)
The British Version
If you want the actual Bible words presented visually you have a few options:
In sand
In Australian , or this one and this one
Or perhaps a Bible Overview in 2 minutes, centred on Christmas?
With animation, in British; top quality!
With lego, in American.
Then there’s these paraphrases of the Christmas story- particularly helpful for pre-schoolers.
Australian paraphrase of the Story of the Wise men in artwork
Australian paraphrase of the Christmas story in artwork
May God bless your all-age service.
