There are only 45 days until Christmas. And probably even fewer days before your children’s Christmas program! Have you started practicing yet?
Step 5: Practice
Let’s start by taking a step back. Before you begin practicing your Christmas program as a group, you need to send the speaking and musical assignments home with the children. Be sure to include a letter to parents, too. Give a brief introduction of the Christmas program and ask that parents devote a few blocks of time each week to practicing with their children. Aim to send these materials home at least two weeks before your first group practice.
As you begin your group practices, you may feel like the entire thing has melted down into sheer chaos. We all know that things get a little crazy when you have a room full of small children! To cut down the chaos and maximize your practice time, try these strategies:
- Practice in small groups as much as possible. Then, bring together all of the children for two practices close to the final performance date.
- Set goals for each practice and let the children know about these goals. For example: aim to read through the entire program a certain number of times; aim to get through the practice with no noisy outbursts; aim to have all parts memorized by a certain point; aim to have full participation in singing.
- Ask for parent volunteers to attend practices. Strategically place these volunteers with groups of kids that are easily distracted or tempted to act up during practice.
Most importantly, don’t make your practice time all about the script—make it about Jesus and his birth. Don’t be afraid to stop practice for few minutes to explore Scripture or answer relevant questions from the kids. Let the Christmas program be more than just a night of entertainment. Strive to make it about Jesus working in the hearts of the children and in the hearts of your audience.
Editor’s note: Look for the first four steps of planning a children’s Christmas service here:
Selecting a program and recruiting volunteers
Assigning speaking and musical parts to the children
If you’re behind, don’t worry! There is still time to put together an excellent program. CTA offers two completely free Christmas programs. Get started here!
You are welcome to copy this article for one-time use when you include this credit line and receive no monetary benefit from it: © 2015 CTA, Inc. Used with permission.
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