On this post is a free printable chart of Christmas lesson outlines using Scripture alongside children’s activities and traditional Christmas carols and songs!
It is in pdf format and you can download it to print it for teaching Christmas lessons in your home or class. It is designed to take 20 days, as a “school special” just before the holidays!
Click here to download Learning the Story with Carols and Songs.
Below is also something I put together a number of years ago –
MERRY CHRISTMAS – What Do These Words Mean?
Merry
Merry = uninhibited joyfulness
Merry: “There’s also the carol “God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen” which dates back to the 16th century in England. It comes from the West Country in England and it was first published in the form we know it today in 1760.
In the English language of the time, the phrase ‘Rest You Merry’ didn’t mean simply to be happy; ‘rest’ meant “to keep, cause to continue to remain” and ‘merry’ could mean “pleasant, bountiful, prosperous”. So you could write the first line as “[May] God keep you and continue to make you successful and prosperous, Gentlemen” but that would be hard to sing!
…The comma in the phrase should be AFTER the ‘merry’ not BEFORE it! But it’s often put after the merry which changes the meaning to make ‘merry Gentlemen’…” (Source: retrieved December 2019.)
Christ –
Christ means the Messiah, the promised and anointed One.
According to verses such as Isaiah 9:6 and 7:14, the son who would be born in human flesh would be actually God being with us (“Emmanuel”) – God Who appeared to live visible to people as a human to show them what God is like. That means a very Special Baby, isn’t it?! This wasn’t just a good and perfect baby who was promised to come – God was coming as a person, in bodily form! He didn’t begin to exist – He always had been! How the people who knew of this prophecy longed for Him to come!
Simeon, the Bible says, wanted so much to see the Christ. And God promised Simeon that he would get to see Him. Simeon sang with gratefulness as he held the precious baby Jesus in his arms. (Luke 2)
The wisemen also longed to see the Christ and worship Him – they knew He was God in human flesh too! And they must have understood that this One would somehow die because they brought Jesus myrrh (used for burials) as well as the gifts of gold (for a King) and frankincense (for worship to God).
Christ – the promised One, the One Who would offer salvation, truth, peace, and eternal life for the whole world. Christ – coming down to earth because God loved us!
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 NKJV
– mas
“mas” = worship of
In Session 1 of “For the King’s Birthday”, “mas” – Anne Graham Lotz uses this last syllable of the traditional Christmas greeting as the broader meaning of “worship of”.
More specifically, “mass” is an historical word for remembering the death of Christ; worshipping and remembering Christ because He died on our behalf.
But can the death of Christ be something I can really rejoice about and celebrate? Yes. He came to die for me. His death means I can be free from sin and selfishness and enabled to serve Him which was why I was created. I’m too inadequate to have a such a relationship with God because of my sin and I can’t take that sin away on my own; I need a Saviour; I need Jesus’ death to atone for my sin.
Without that purpose for His coming to earth in human flesh, there is no real and deep rejoicing and no hope for eternal life. But because He died and was resurrected I too now have access to a loving relationship with the God of the universe Who forgives my sin and offers His strength to empower me to make right choices for living.
Even Jesus had an attitude of joy, Hebrews 12:2 tells us –
“Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
We’re sad for our sin and for the pain it caused Him but we’re happy that He was willing to sacrifice His life so we can have life forever with Him and others who love Him in heaven.
So yes, I can celebrate both His birth and His death with a merry heart because of the life-giving purpose His coming has provided to me! This is the meaning of Christmas!
This was a song our oldest son sang a few years ago for a Christmas play as one of the characters. Our family wrote the words. The tune he sung it to was the traditional tune of Londonderry Air.
“I did not know the One Whom Christmas is about
But in an evening that I’ll ne’er forget
After I’d wandered lost in sin and selfishness
Jesus my God and Saviour I met
O what a true and everlasting Friend I’ve found
He gave the light I needed in my heart
My sin is gone, with joy I’ll ever tell of Him,
My loving King made all the darkness depart.
Now I’ve a hope and joy that surely will endure
For He has come, let earth receive the King
I have a future now in heav’n with Him for sure
The Christmas Child of whom these children sing
And it’s because of when He touched my life with love
I have His peace for Jesus died for me
He lives forever! Praise the God Who gives true joy!
Jesus the One Who came, my selfish heart to free!” ((c) 2018, J.D.)