November 2010

Christmas is a great time to organise an Activate event. It is a busy time but people are open to invitations that involve ‘Christmasy’ themes. Our Activate group is hosting a Christmas craft event in our church and we have just sold the 100th and last ticket. We are dressed in red aprons and welcome people with hot mulled wine, mince pies and shortbread and hand out gift bags as people arrive. For their £3 ticket they get to make a cranberry heart and then have the chance to buy other crafts as they move around the tables. This year they can make a wreath, a garland, a table centre,cards, a felt match box and a felt heart decoration. The colours are muted or vintage red and green and there are lots of buttons and rustic dried oranges. The church is decorated with loads of fairy lights and we have live piano music in the background. It is a fabulous event and the team have spent months planning and buying.
All that may be too big for you in your situation, it definitley needs a long term team effort! But sometimes the simplest ideas can be most effective. Perhaps this year you could text a handful of friends or neighbours and invite them round for a couple of hours round your kitchen table. Maybe a hot cuppa and a chance to make one simple decoration together would be enough. A packet of fresh cranberries from Tesco, some garden wire and a few pieces of ribbon laid out no your table could become the chance to chat together as you work. Just cut the wire into 50cm strips and shape into a heart or circle. Then thread on the cranberries, and finish off with a twist. Decorate with a loop of ribbon to hang up. Very simple and pretty.
Have some carols playing in the background and leave lying round some invites to another event or Christmas service.

Caught up in the Christmas rush yet? The shops are busy already and the Christmas lights are being lit throughout Britain. I happen to love Christmas: the excitement, the spicy smells, the delicious food and the chance to catch up and spend time with friends and family.
But Piped carols and cheesy songs are not my favourite though and I start switching off when the shops play them continously.
There is a new cultural phenomenon called ‘Flash Mob’, or acts of random Culture. So far, I have yet to experience it live but I have seen it on Youtube and it is fantastic! Here is a shopping mall, full of busy Christmas shoppers in November. The ‘jingle bells’ tune is interrupted with the most fabulous rendition of Handel’s Messiah. I wish I had been there, I wish I could have joined in!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE&feature=player_embedded

I hope this Christmas you will get a chance to have a spontaneous moment of joy as you stop to think about Jesus and how awesome He is.All the better if others around you are able to catch something of the wonder of who Christmas is all about.