Christmas Eve Looks A Little Different This Year

Christmas Eve is going to look a little different this year. Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, many churches are making arrangements to host online Christmas Eve services. At C3, we are planning to host 2 Christmas Eve services.  One service will be a traditional, taking place at 4:00 p.m. The second service will be our kids service at 3:00 p.m.

While I (Jay) am a huge fan of the Christmas Eve service, I am really looking forward to our first online Christmas Eve service for kids and families.

This year has brought with it, so many new things. One of the biggest adjustments we have had to make, as a family, is the online church experience. Yes, we have watched online services and various pastors teach on video for years. But watching those videos was in addition to our regular worship experiences at our home church. Now, we're watching our home church on a regular basis.

Worshipping together online is not the same as
​worshipping together in person.

I'm just going to say it, because many of us already feel this way. Worshipping together online is not the same as worshipping together in person. We look forward to that weekly interaction and connection with our church family. But that's just not possible at this time. Now, with that said, we are learning to appreciate the opportunity to still gather at the same time as our church family to watch the live stream of our weekly worship gathering. And, it's with this appreciation that I am looking forward to our upcoming Christmas Eve services.

As I mentioned just above, our church, Covenant Community Church, or C3 as it is more commonly known, is hosting two, online Christmas Eve services. There will be a 4:00 p.m. service that will follow a more traditional format; the singing of carols, a Christmas message, and the candlelight favorite, Silent Night. The 3:00 p.m. service is the one that we are creating for kids and their families. Every Christmas Eve, our church hosts one service for kids. The entire service is focused on helping kids celebrate Jesus' birth in a fun and interactive way. I love this because it takes a really exciting moment in our faith-history and makes it relatable for kids. Last Christmas we had confetti launchers, party noise makers, LED candlelights, and one of our pastor team put on a skit where we dressed up in those ridiculous Christmas suits and pretended we were the local news station reporting about the birth of Jesus. We even had one of our pastor dressed up in a star costume! It was awesome!

This year we are going to try to keep the fun going with our first online service for kids. Keeping with our tradition, this service will be very interactive. Families are able to order our Christmas Eve Gift Bag, which they will open at the beginning of the service. This gift bag will contain a number of items that we will reference and use during the service. This way, kids will be able to participate with us as we celebrate together. It's going to be so much fun!

Not only will this Christmas Eve service be a lot of fun for our church family, but because it's online anyone and everyone can watch it with us! That mean's YOU can join us as well!

So, on behalf of everyone in the Higham House, let me invite you and your family, especially if you have little kids, to come and join us on Thursday, December 24th, at 3:00 p.m. for C3Kids Christmas Eve at Home! We will have an embedded video link that will allow you to watch with us, right from our website! The video will be featured on our main page, on Christmas Eve!

You will also be able to watch the video over on our kids ministry website, C3KidsWheeling.com. You will find the video right on the sites main page! We will also post the video to our church's YouTube channel, where we post all of our kids ministry videos, and on our related Facebook pages; Covenant Community Church, C3Kids, and C3Students.

And, maybe one of the best things about being online, is that you can watch this special Christmas Eve service any time after 3:00 p.m.! So if 3:00 isn't a good time for your family and Christmas Eve traditions, you can watch it when it works for you! Just come back to the Life in the Higham House website and watch!

Let me invite you and your family, especially if you have little kids, to come and join us on Thursday, December 24th, at 3:00 p.m. for C3Kids Christmas Eve at Home!

As for the gift bag, unfortunately, we are only making the gift available for our local families. Due to shipping deadlines, we cannot guarantee that the bags would arrive in time. But here is a list of items that will be used doing the kids Christmas Eve service. This way, you can go ahead and gather the items you will need.

• Jingle Bells
• Packets of Hot Chocolate (one for each kid)
• A packet of Popcorn (one for the family)
• A Nativity Craft (Here is a link to the one we are making: Nativity Craft.)
• A Coloring Book. (You can download and print out our coloring book here: Christmas Coloring Book.)
• Led TeaLight Candles or Flashlights
• Party Noise Makers

With the kids service, there is also the regular service that will take place at 4:00 p.m. We will be posting and watching that service as well. We'll share a little more on that later this week.

For now, I hope that you would consider joining us on Christmas Eve. Of course, if you have a home church, be sure to participate in whatever your church is sponsoring. But if you don't have a home church, or if you are looking for something created specifically for kids, then by all means, come and join us!

Yes, Christmas Eve will look a little different this year, but please don't let that stop you from gathering with family and friends to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Gather around your TV screen and let's sing Joy to the World together!

Merry Christmas!

- the higham house 

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