So many wonderful ideas were shared and developed during these workshops. Below, you will find some of these ideas as well as resources that were shared. All the resources I shared in the sessions can be found on the Advent/Christmas page of the Ministry Resources on presbyark.org. These pages are your online Resource Center.

Julie Price, Presbytery Connector

Resources:

• Unwrapping the Names of Jesus: An Advent Devotional by Asheritah Ciuciu, 2017 Moody (Courtnery Latino-Bacon/Malvern)
• Cloth for the Cradle, Worship resources and reading for Advent, Christmas & Epiphany by Iona Community from the Wild Goose Worship Group (Mary Jane Fischer/Jacksonville)
• Stay Awhile: Advent Lessons in Divine Hospitality by pastor Kara Eidson, new from Presbyterian Publishing (This is brand new and came out after the workshops were over)

For Those Having A Blue Christmas:

• Holding Hope: Grieving Pregnancy Loss During Advent by Ashley-Anne Masters, a four-week Advent devotion for all those suffering from a pregnancy loss (Leslie Roper/1^st HS).
• Griefshare offers a 2-hour Surviving The Holidays event that prepares people for navigating the season's changes (John Arnold/Rogers).

Pageant Ideas:

• Christmas Participation Story – Intergenerational, interactive script with a narrator who instructs congregation involvement through sound effects by Paul Osborne. For more about this script (Mary Jane Fischer/Jacksonville), click here.
• Do an interactive pageant during a lunch or dinner where the characters wander around talking to everyone. Mary and Joseph might be asking people if they know of a room/hotel/Airbnb where they could stay…
• ABC Pageant with kids – (Courtney Latina-Bacon/Malvern) use these Images of Advent print out, children parade in holding their card with alphabet letter/word and the scripture on the back is read 

Miscellaneous:

• Reverse Advent Calendar where you give something each day. Robert Lowery, who shared this idea said “in the past we have included a cost for each item so the non-shoppers can make a donation and we fill in what is needed after Christmas. The best part of the whole thing is all the fresh fruit on Christmas Eve. It is so cool to see!”. Download his Reverse Advent document. People also suggested having people do something like send a card, make a phone call, or go visit a shut in or bake something for someone, etc. This would work great with the Advent Conspiracy theme.
• Ask artists or children in the congregation to create art for Advent bulletin covers.
• Connecting with shut-ins – if you are doing an Advent study, especially one that has a video to show each week, get volunteers in the study group who will partner with a shut-in. Each week after the study, the volunteers will go visit their shut-in, taking their tablet or laptop with the downloaded video. They will watch the video then have their own discussion about the week’s study.
• Shared in two workshops, 10,000 Villages would send a congregation a box of items to sell at their own bazaar. After following up on this 10,000 Villages said they used to do this program, but have discontinued it.
• Work of the People Advent films - https://www.theworkofthepeople.com/search?q=advent
• Creating an in-house Advent devotional booklet but asking people to share Advent memories that are important to them with photos – people shared stories and family traditions and recipes (Julie Price). 

• The “Best Nativity Scene Ever” - During the Advent of 2021, when we still had some families with our youngest disciples staying home from worship until vaccines were available for their ages, we struggled to find a way for them to feel a part of the preparations for the season. So, we invited all of the children of the church to help make the “Best Nativity Scene Ever”- and those who know the book “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever”, this set lived up to its namesake! We ordered this kit from Christian Book Distributors and added this set from Amazon to fill out the scene. Each family with kids in the church were given a figure to decorate and were told what Sunday their figure was needed back in worship. Families either brought their figures in person or dropped them by the church office ahead of time. It was a great way to include all of the children of the church in our Advent preparations.