Visions of Children's Christmas Parties Danced in Their Heads

As you look through these pictures from the Children's Christmas party, imagine that the whole event is taking place in the dining car of the Polar Express. Check out the window panels. Those were all hand-cut out of roofing paper by a member of the committee. 

We started the morning by welcoming the children, praying, then immediately splitting them into two groups. The first group watched an ebook of The Polar Express narrated by Liam Neeson, courtesy of our public library.

The second group was split into five much smaller groups and played games, rotating through five rounds.

Then group one and group two switched.

Both groups loved the train tracks on the hallway floor. I loved that those tracks directed people in and out of one door, thus helping control traffic.

After the opening prayer and before the games/story, the kids colored Polar Express coloring pages.

Then we let that mass of children loose on the food. We enjoyed mini-muffins, doughnut holes, and hot chocolate. It was all wonderfully easy to clean up.

After that a special visitor arrived and handed out the first gift of Christmas, a bell attached to the handwritten testimony of one of the adults that attended the party the night before. The children were also reminded that the real first gift of Christmas was Jesus Christ.

We ended with a slide show of the kids' pictures set to Josh Groban's song Believe, the theme song of The Polar Express.

At that point families had the option to go home, or stay and have their picture taken with our jolly guest.

It was a highly structured, pretty successful morning.