How Can We Make Christmas Last?
Imagining Christmas every day
by Becky May
Suitable for Key Stage 3
Aims
To explore how we can celebrate the true meaning of Christmas throughout the year.
Preparation and materials
- Have available the song ‘I wish it could be Christmas every day’ by Wizzard and the means to play it during the assembly. It is 4.55 minutes long and is available at: https://youtu.be/IJPc7esgvsA
- Have available some information about ‘Mr Christmas’. His website is available at: https://www.mrchristmas.co.uk/ or the YouTube video ‘Mr Christmas shows off his home’ is available at: https://youtu.be/yn-C07VM3nM (4.16 minutes long)
Assembly
- Have the song ‘I wish it could be Christmas every day’ by Wizzard (4.55 minutes long) playing as the students enter the assembly.
- Ask the students if they are looking forward to Christmas.
Ask them what it is about Christmas that they are most looking forward to.
If appropriate, ask them to discuss this in groups. - Express that Christmas is a very special time for us to celebrate.
Ask the students when they think the celebrations begin.
The shops started stocking Christmas supplies in early September, and many people now mark 1 December as the start of Christmas rather than the start of Advent! - Ask the students how long they think that we should celebrate Christmas for: 12 days, like in the song? A week? The whole month of December?
Pause to allow time for discussion and then listen to a range of responses. - Ask the students if they could imagine celebrating Christmas every single day.
- How would it feel to wake up to presents to open every single day?
- What would it be like to have the Christmas tree up all year?
- Could we really manage to eat Christmas dinner every day? - Use one of the links to introduce ‘Mr Christmas’.
Explain that Mr Christmas has lived in a constant state of Christmas for over 30 years now! - Invite the students to share a few thoughts both in favour of and against the idea of celebrating Christmas every day.
Most of them will recognize that the sparkle and shine of a few special days could soon fade if it became an everyday reality. There is so much to do to make it possible for us to celebrate Christmas in the way we do. We couldn’t keep up this level of work or expense every day of the year. - Ask the students if they think that this is all there really is to Christmas. Is there another way in which we can keep Christmas alive every day?
Time for reflection
Explain that although the various elements of Christmas that we have discussed are all good and exciting, they’re not the things that matter most about Christmas. In fact, there is a key to celebrating Christmas every day without losing any of the specialness!
At the heart of Christmas is the story of God entering the world as a baby, Jesus. One of Jesus’ names is ‘Immanuel’, which means ‘God with us’. Christians believe that this refers to God coming into the world as a baby to live among us. It reminds us that God is always with us, every single day, all through the year. He is everywhere we go and in everything that we do. That is something very special.
So, what does it really mean to celebrate Christmas every day?
Perhaps it means that we should remember that we carry God with us. We can share his love with everyone we meet - both in big gestures like Christmas presents, and in tiny acts of love and kindness, like sharing a smile or holding a door open.
Ask the students to consider how they can share Christmas every day with the people around them.
Pause to allow time for thought.
Encourage the students to spend time this Christmas thinking about how they can bring peace, love and joy every day to the people in their lives.
Song/music
‘Light of the world’ by Lauren Daigle, available at: https://youtu.be/_cLhaZIBSpo (4.09 minutes long)
