An Epiphany Feast
...moving the "party and program" after Christmas
After a few stressful years of trying to do a Christmas Pageant the old way and time when everyone seemed to want it, but no one had the time to organize it, we got rid of it and tried something new -- and idea suggested by a new family they brought from their previous church...
We did an "Epiphany Feast" -- which is an inter-generational family dinner after all the hoopla and parties of Christmas are over. Epiphany is the traditional holy day when we celebrate the arrival of the Three Kings.
We added a "pageant" that we organized as people arrived -- assigning parts and costumes. There were only a few "one liner" speaking parts, but everyone had a costume.
We also assigned dinner seats so new people didn't feel awkward not knowing anyone.
The kids helped tell the story by asking the kids "what's next?" It was fun to hear how they remembered the story, and the MC made sure the kids were not embarrassed.
Added: One Epiphany Dinner featured a humorous song both sung and acted out by three adults in our congregation. They sang "We Are Three Kings" from the musical "Celebrate Life" by by Buryl Red, Ragan Courtney (Lifeway).
We ended by serving a traditional Epiphany King Cake and singing the 12 days of Christmas with each table being assigned a "day" to act out.
After the Magi appeared and sang, we invited everyone to bring forward a gift of a "New Year Promise" to Baby Jesus about their faith. They laid these in the manger.
We asked a lot of volunteers to each do a little bit, instead of needing a drama/music person to do everything. We didn't have to worry about rehearsals and the whole church family could participate.
There was resistance at first, but we ended up with a full house our first year and so many people relieved not to have to worry about making rehearsals before Christmas- not to mention we had some older adults really get into it!
Posted by Member mcroy
Printed from Rotation.org
Moderator moved here from the Christmas Forum
