A CHRISTMAS OF LIGHT is a simple yet powerful Christmas Eve service that focuses on the light of God throughout scripture. It begins at creation and follows God's promise of the light of salvation along the timeline of Israel's history and through the words of the prophets. The fulfillment comes at the birth of Jesus, the Light of the World. The program ends with the procession of Joseph and Mary, angels, shepherds and wise men to a manger scene bathed in light. Normal spotlights can be used, or, for a more dramatic effect, black lights can be positioned on the manger scene. Once the participants have gathered at the manger scene, the candle lighting ceremony begins. The service ends with the traditional singing of Silent Night.
Permission is granted from the copyright holder (Joe C. Ellis) for purchaser to make twenty copies of these presentations to hand out to the readers and others involved in the presentation. If a director plans on making copies, he or she should purchase the paperback version of the presentation. It is much easier to make copies from the paperback version than the Kindle version. All scripture readings from this book are taken from the New International Version of the Bible.
Three Bonus Christmas Eve Plays:
A CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE FOR TROUBLED TIMES
THE CHRISTMAS PROMISES
A 1940s CHRISTMAS
A CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE FOR TROUBLED TIMES was written to provide churches with a powerful yet simple Candlelight Christmas Eve Program. The presentation features nine scriptural readings focused on the birth of Christ and nine traditional carols. Each scripture passage is followed by a short meditation relating today's troubled times to the passage of scripture. The carols, scriptures and meditations combine to bring light and hope into a dark world. The presentation ends with a beautiful candle lighting ceremony.
THE CHRISTMAS PROMISES -- This Candlelight Christmas Eve service combines dramatic readings from Biblical characters who received promises of the coming Messiah and the wonderful carols of the season. Eve, Noah, Miriam, King David and others from the Old Testament join with Elizabeth, Mary, and Joseph from the New Testament to proclaim the coming kingdom of the Christ. As the presentation moves from the Old Testament to the New Testament, the congregation will gain a greater understanding of God's plan of redemption from the beginning of time to the birth of Christ.
A 1940s CHRISTMAS -- This Christmas Eve service celebrates the birth of our Savior with scripture readings and favorite carols. But it will also take your congregation back in time to the 1940s, those crucial years when light and darkness clashed, when good and evil battled, and life and death hung in the balance. When you think about it, the time of the birth of Christ reflected the same type of conflicts of good and evil, light and darkness.
