Christmas May Have To Be Cancelled

(Resource Pack 113 ) KEY STAGE 1 & 2

VISUAL AID: Below is an ‘important’ letter from a book inside the pack called Chicken Licken’s Christmas by Jonathan Allen. (www.kidsatrandomhouse.co.uk)

Print off the letter and show it to the children…

Due to an elf shortage Santa Needs helpers

URGENTLY!

Or Christmas may have to be cancelled! Can YOU help?

Read the story out imaginatively, using the flaps to tell the story! Discuss the book and enjoy it with the children. Reassure the older ones that there is a message for them in this story too, later.

EXPLAIN THE WORD CANCELLED ( as in a football match)

Summary of the book:

Chicken Licken goes on a ‘Wild Goose Chase’ (that means a useless journey) taking in turn, Squirrel Wirrel, Turkey Lurkey, Henny Penny, Funny Bunny, and Goosey Lucy with him, only to discover that at the end of the trail, Foxy Loxy, the one who really sent the letter, is waiting there to eat them. They escape and so they shut him out of their own Christmas celebrations, and so he stands at the window peering through the blinds crying to them, ‘Save some for poor me!’

Throughout the story Chicken Licken keeps on telling her friends, ‘Christmas will be cancelled unless Santa gets more help!’

As I read this story to my two year old grandson, about Chicken Licken and his friends all trying to so hard to save Christmas from being cancelled… it made me think

What if Christmas was CANCELLED , what would it be like?

Just imagine! No Christmas cards, no Christmas tree or bright lights or cake or gifts, no wonderful Christmas dinner to fill us and make us tired. No falling asleep on Christmas Eve all excited, no Nativity plays and carols…No more hearing the words, ‘Santa’s been!’ We’d be devastated!

But you know there are a lot of people all over the world who don’t have such things, and yet they still think Christmas is special.

Early Christians didn’t have all these things, yet Christmas was still a very special time!.

What MAKES it Christmas is that this is the time of the year we celebrate the birth of Jesus, he was born just for us, God’s own gift to us;

I sometimes fear that in the hustle and bustle in the lead up to Christmas sometimes we lose sight of what Christmas is really about! But I know that schools play a very important part in reminding people every year in their nativity plays and carol services what Christmas is really all about!

If Jesus had not been born, we wouldn’t have Christmas today as we know it!

If that first Christmas had been CANCELLED, if Jesus had not been born I wonder what kind of world we would be living in now?

(Show an album with all black pages)

Ask, ‘Would the world be dark like the pages of this book, because the Light of the World did not come?

Yes we would have the stars and the sun and the moon and street lamps, but I wonder if there would’ve been less light in the very heart of humankind! After all…

Jesus taught us how to live,

How not to go to war but love our enemies

How to be generous and give to needy people

That women are as important to God as men

That adults must be more like children to be part of his kingdom

That we must love unlovable people

That we must think of others not just ourselves

That we must remember God and thank him for his goodness to us.

That we must forgive people when we are hurt by them

People inspired by Jesus’ words all through history:

They have created art, music, and books which have lifted our spirits.

They have tried to stop violence, find cures for diseases, stamped out slavery, and divisions between humankind.

They have given their lives to come alongside poor people.

All of these things might not have happened had Jesus not come to earth!

When Jesus grew to be a man, he said to his disciples,

‘I am the light of the world, he who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life!