Church Program Ideas
Somebody has to put the Christmas program together, and in a small church it is usually one or two volunteers with a busy December of their own. These pages start from the people you actually have: who will be on stage, how many rehearsals you can get and how long the evening can run. Then they point you to the scripts, readings and pieces for children that fill it.
Christmas
Start with the ideas, then pick the pieces that fill your evening:
- Christmas skits for church: three- to ten-minute skits for a service, with two to six actors
- Christmas plays for church: full plays and programs of ten to thirty minutes, with a six-week plan
- Christmas skits for kids: scripts children perform, with line counts for every role
- Christmas Bible verses: the story in the King James Version and a reading order for Christmas Eve
- Christmas speeches for kids: welcome and closing speeches and short pieces sorted by age
- Christmas poems for kids: short rhymes and classic poems about the birth of Jesus
- Five Minutes to Bethlehem: a free backstage skit to open your nativity pageant
Five questions to answer before you choose
Whatever the occasion, these five answers narrow a long list of ideas down to the two or three your church can actually do well.
- Who is it for?Your own people, families with young children or guests who don’t come on Sundays. The answer decides the day, the length and how much explaining the program has to do.
- When, and against what?School concerts, ball games and family trips fill December and the weeks before Easter. Pick the date first and tell the church early.
- Who will really be there?Count the volunteers who will come on the day, not the ones who might. Choose the format that fits them, then the script.
- How many rehearsals can you get?None, two or six: each answer points to a different kind of program. A readers’ theater needs two; a full play with children needs about six.
- What should people leave with?One verse and one idea. When the readings, songs and skit all point to the same thing, a simple program feels whole.
More occasions
Easter is next on our list, then Mother’s Day. Every script we have so far is in all scripts, sorted by occasion, cast and running time.