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Giving Service during the Christmas Season
By Clark L. and Kathryn
H. Kidd
First of all, we would
like to apologize to those readers who remembered our promise
to give you ideas for Christmas service activities in our
October column. When we made that promise, we had no idea
that funeral potatoes were going to consume our entire lives
for two months. Who would have guessed that funeral potatoes
and other Mormon comfort foods would occupy such a treasured
spot in the hearts (or stomachs) of so many Meridian readers?
(For those of you who
missed those columns, and who are tempted to write and ask
about funeral potatoes, you can read about them here in “Funeral
Potatoes and Other Inspirations” and “Funeral
Potatoes and Other Ward Dinner Crises”. Far be it from
us to stand between anyone and a dish of funeral potatoes!)
But all good discussions
must come to an end, and it’s time for us to return to the
topic of ward activities. And if there’s any time of the
year that ward activities can make a difference in people’s
lives, it's the Christmas season.
Yes, we’re aware that
the Christmas season is not yet upon us, and we don't want
to be accused of rushing Christmas before the Halloween decorations
are even taken down. But some of these activities take a
little bit of time to prepare. In fact, funeral potatoes
may have derailed the idea of passing out ward cookbooks to
nonmembers until 2005 – but you’ll find plenty of other ideas
that should help you and your ward auxiliaries give service
during the Christmas holidays.
Look for Local Service Opportunities
Christmas may be
your favorite season of the year, but for people who are not
surrounded by loved ones, Christmas can be a devastating time.
There are countless people in nursing homes, abused women’s
shelters, or even on the street who will not celebrate Christmas
unless somebody goes to the work of making a Christmas for
them.
Singing Christmas
carols at the nursing home is nice, but a lot of people do
that. Instead (or in addition!), you may want to make Christmas
stockings for the residents of the home. You can check with
your chosen facility to see the number of residents, and what
kinds of things they need in their stockings. (Hint: Nursing
home residents probably aren’t going to appreciate chewy caramels
as much as they’d like treats that won’t get stuck in their
teeth.)
Another option
is to adopt nursing home residents. If you find out from
the supervisor who in the home is not likely to have any friends
or relatives come to share Christmas with them, you can adopt
those specific residents for more individual attention. You
can give them individual gifts, take them individual treats,
or even – if they’re mobile – invite them to Christmas dinner
at your house. Each member in your group could adopt a different
resident, or you could focus the attention of your group on
a few who most need your services.
If you live in
a place where people live on the streets, you may want to
make care packages for them. These care packages should contain
food that doesn’t need to be cooked, warm hats and gloves
(assuming a winter climate), or even a blanket or a shirt.
The homeless need service even more than nursing home residents,
and in fact a care package could even save the life of someone
in an extreme circumstance. But if you choose to help the
homeless you must be careful. Find a way to distribute your
packages without endangering the people in your group!
Abused women’s shelters exist in almost all of our communities,
and there are always opportunities for donated time and efforts.
Helping at an abused women’s shelter can be done on a one-time
basis or as a regular program, depending on the needs of the
shelter and the time commitment of your group. Don’t just
drop in, though. Call ahead and work out a plan with the
head of the shelter. Somebody may already be taking presents
to the children, and you may be asked to take food instead.
Create Christmas Cookbooks
This is an activity that emphasizes the culinary skills of
ward members while also promoting goodwill in the community.
The idea is to have ward members compose a book of Christmas
recipes and thoughts, and then distribute that book free of
charge to nonmembers in the community or neighborhood, or
to members of the ward who do not usually participate.
When choosing an editor, select someone from the ward who has
good typing and desktop publishing skills. This should be
done near the end of the summer so that there will be plenty
of time to get the project completed before Christmas. Solicit
Christmas recipes and stories from all ward members. You
want the book to be a useful kitchen resource for the people
who receive it, but you also want to use it to share the Christmas
spirit and teach them something about the Church and your
ward. Perhaps the bishop should write an introduction, plus
you should also include items such as meeting times and the
phone numbers to reach ward leaders and the missionaries.
Also include brief stories, quotes, traditions, and scriptures
that emphasize the spiritual nature of Christmas, and the
fact that we are celebrating the birth of Christ. But
make sure that the main content of the book consists of recipes,
because that’s what will cause the recipients to keep the
book on their kitchen shelf and refer to it throughout the
year rather than discarding it.
Print copies of the book on the ward copier, or using a local
copy service if that is cheaper. You can probably get away
with using standard letter-sized paper, perhaps folded in
half so that it makes a small booklet just smaller than a
hymn book. If your budget will allow, use colored heavier
paper for the cover.
There are a number of options for distributing the book. Home
teachers, visiting teachers, auxiliary leaders and priesthood
leaders can deliver them to the members of the ward. Ward
missionaries could visit the families in the neighborhood
and leave a booklet as a gift. Individual members and families
can be asked to give them to their neighbors. You may also
wish to distribute the book as part of another activity, such
as a community Christmas concert. Advertising the book as
part of the concert may get people to attend who ordinarily
would not. This gives you a double chance to influence them,
as they feel the spirit of the program and then have that
spirit reinforced by reading excerpts from the book.
Pass Out Valuable Coupon Books
This is a similar concept to the Christmas Cookbook, except
that you are giving neighbors and others a “Valuable Coupon
Book” instead. As they redeem the coupons throughout the
coming year, this will bring them into contact with ward members
and bring them to the ward building a number of times.
You can have a lot of fun and involve many ward groups in the
design of the coupons. The youth may wish to offer a car
wash in the summer, and then include a coupon so neighbors
can bring their car over for a free wash. You can also include
coupons for ward events such as summer parties, Christmas
parties, and talent shows. Also provide coupons that provide
admission to educational and cultural activities such as financial
planning and budgeting seminars, health fairs, concerts, plays,
and family history classes. Although most of these are offered
without cost to any member of the public, having a date on
a coupon will serve as a reminder to them throughout the year.
The biggest challenge to pulling off the activity is being
able to plan things a year in advance so that the dates of
the events can be listed on the coupons. For some events,
such as family history instruction, you do not need to print
a specific date on the coupon, but just list a number and
have the coupon holders call for their free appointment.
The challenge is to devise a series of events that will really
interest people, and will get them over to socialize with
ward members on a regular basis.
Adopt a Missionary
This is an especially good activity for the youth, and it can
work equally well with the missionaries assigned to your ward
or with the elders or sisters from your ward serving in other
places. Some of the adoption activities might include the
following:
·
Taking turns
writing monthly letters
·
Making and
decorating special cards (Christmas, birthday, other special
days) to send your missionaries
·
Taking pictures
of your class and sending them with personal notes from your
class members, telling the missionaries how much the class
members love and appreciate them
·
Baking cookies
and clipping articles out of the local newspaper to send to
your missionaries.
No
matter how you do it, the idea is make sure your missionaries
know that they are thought of often and that your youth appreciate
the importance of missionary work.
Sponsor a Crèche Display
This is an activity that serves two functions. Its overt purpose
is to get people into the Christmas spirit, as they view manger
scenes in your ward setting. But the second purpose is a
missionary effort. So many people who are not familiar with
the Church do not know of our members’ deep commitment to
Christ. Having an annual create display will remind them
that Jesus Christ is at the center of our religion. What
better missionary opportunity could there be during the Christmas
season?
Organizing a crèche display is easy. So many people in your
ward collect manger scenes that it will be easy to get people
to donate theirs to put on display in the cultural hall during
the Christmas season. Because so many of our members have
been on foreign missions, you’ll probably be able to find
manger scenes from many of the world’s nations. This is good,
because you’ll need a whole lot of them to make the display
worthwhile. Several wards may want to sponsor the event in
order to increase the size of the display and distribute the
work.
Find an attractive way to display the manger scenes, and make
sure the local newspaper advertises the dates and times that
the crèches will be on display. Also arrange for ward members
to be to keep children from touching or even walking off with
the small pieces. Crowd control is important if you’re expecting
a lot of viewers.
As people exit the display, you may want to serve hot apple
cider in disposable cups. It wouldn’t hurt to have a table
where people can pick up free copies of the New Testament
or The Book of Mormon, as well as other Church pamphlets,
so that people who are inspired to do so can pick up literature
that will teach them more about our religion.
 You
can find other suggestions for service activities during the Christmas
season in the Meridian archives by reading “Christmas
Activities to Make People Smile”, or by purchasing our book,
Ward
Activities for the Clueless .Don’t forget to feed your bishop
during tithing settlement!
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© 2004 Meridian
Magazine. All Rights Reserved
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