You can share the real meaning of Christmas with others. Find your way to promote Christian evangelism and community outreach this holiday season.Take Neighbor Kid to a Church Concert
Churches put on free Nativity plays, Music Concerts, and Christmas parties during this time of the year. It’s a good opportunity to invite a neighbor friend along, especially if there will be free cookies and hot cocoa.
Merry Christmas Military
Send Christian Christmas Cards to soldiers. You’ll need to send the cards early. It takes awhile for the soldiers to receive their mail.
For just $3.25 you can have a Rapid Deployment Kit delivered to a soldier. This is an evangelistic ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ Ministry #2286536 The kit includes: a camouflaged New Testament, a 90-day “Our Daily Bread” devotional guide, a “Would You Like to Know God Personally” booklet, a subject-appropriate list of crucial Bible verses called “Guidance from God’s Word” and more-all in a waterproof bag designed to slip into a soldier’s pocket.
Santa Claus Money
Pass out $50,000 Santa Claus Bills with a salvation message. Set yourself a goal, like giving away 500 Santa Bills between Thanksgiving and Christmas. (500 for $25 ). Here are some places to give them away - Christmas parades and events, Christmas parties, hand them to everyone you meet in stores and restaurants, leave them in bathrooms and parking lots, and give some to kids to pass out to their friends.
Christmas Tree Giveaway
A few days before Christmas, lot owners are usually willing to give their leftover trees away. You can pick up free trees and deliver them to financially stretched families.
De-icing and Snow Removal
After an ice storm or snowstorm, you can help low-income Seniors clear their sidewalks and driveways. Rock salt on a slippery sidewalk can prevent falls. Clearing a driveway can prevent a heart attack if someone’s health isn’t well enough to shovel snow.
Earn Money for the Kettle
Prior to Christmas, give your kids opportunities to earn money. They can decorate their own jar that will hold the change that they earn. Find a store that has a Salvation Army bell ringer standing at the front door. Your kids will be so proud as they pour their individual jars of money into the kettle. The bell ringers stop collecting money around a week before Christmas.
A Birthday Party for Jesus
Have a real birthday party for Jesus. You can take the family to the store and buy presents to give away to a church’s Angel Tree. Wrap them up and they will be Jesus’ birthday gifts. Decorate with balloons and streamers. Plan party games, too. Some families make a chocolate cake with white frosting and cherries. The chocolate stands for our sin. The cherries stand for His blood that was shed for us. The white frosting stands for His forgiveness and our cleansing. You can invite a non-Christian neighbor kid to come to your Birthday Party for Jesus. Angel Tree shares the Gospel when they give the gifts to the children of prisoners.
Decorate a Christmas Tree
Your family can decorate a Christmas tree and give it to someone who would otherwise not have one. You can decorate it with a theme. For example, a single mom with a new baby could receive a tree decorated with baby toys.
Elves of Kindness
During the Christmas season, your family can pretend to be elves and perform acts of kindness. Here are some ideas that you might be interested in: anonymously leave a gift on someone’s doorstep, send parents a Christian Christmas card with a Toys R Us gift card or Gas gift card inside and do no write your return address on the envelope, dress up as Santa and his elves and deliver toys and food to a family in need, shovel or plow someone’s snowy driveway before they get home from work, deliver and stack firewood before the family returns home, fill a stocking and hang it from someone’s front door knob.
Neighborhood Collection
Pass out flyers in your neighborhood announcing that you will be coming around next Sat. to collect donations. Canned Food for the Church Food Pantry. Clean, gently used coats for Coats for Kids. New toys, new kitchen items, and new towels for the Battered Women’s Shelter, Clean Blankets for the Homeless Shelter, etc. This way people can give what they can. A family may not have enough food, but may have a few used children’s coats to donate.
Retrieving Cars Stuck in Snow
If you have a four-wheel drive truck, you can go out on a heavy, snow day and help pull cars out of ditches. There tends to be places and hills where cars get stuck. Our family sure has appreciated those people that have done this for us. They just happened to be there to pull us out when we need it. They sure saved us a lot of money, by not having to pay for a tow truck.
Filled Stocking
Fill up Christmas stockings for your neighbors and hang them on their doorknobs. You can give items like: a Christmas Evangelism Booklet, homemade ornaments, tangerines, and candy.
Toy Party
Throw a festive Christmas party with decorations, Christmas music, and snacks. Invite your guests to bring a new, unwrapped toy to benefit the Angel Tree or Battered Women’s Shelter.
12 Days of Christmas
Every year, the Christian organization Operation Blessing, celebrates the 12 Days of Christmas. They make Christmas special for 12 different groups of people - the elderly, shut-ins, the mentally ill, prisoners’ families, the homeless, battered women, teens in crisis, the visually impaired, foster kids, people with developmental disabilities, migrant workers, and homeless families. With financial help from others, Operation Blessing can give Christian love, a special meal, and gifts to these people.
Mitten Tree
You can set up a Mitten Tree at home or church. Your family or church members can buy or knit mittens, gloves, scarves and socks and then hang them on a Christmas tree. Donate the items to an organization or shelter that will pass them out.
Christmas Website
You can either make your own Christmas website or promote one that already exists. Explain how Jesus is the Reason for the Season, give people and invitation to Salvation, or promote Christmas Evangelism.
Write about being a Christian in your letter
Include personal stories in your family’s Christmas letter that credit God for helping you in your life over the past year.
Send out Christmas cards that include a Salvation Message
Buy or make Christmas cards that include a verse like John 3:16. Include a basic statement about Jesus being the way to Salvation.
Outdoor Decorating
Decorate the outside your home, promoting a Christian Christmas. You can set up a full nativity scene or just a baby Jesus display with a lighted star above it and a Happy Birthday Jesus banner. Maybe you want to take it even further and display a lighted cross with a salvation message.
Christmas Conversations
Ask people what they will be doing for Christmas. It’s a way to get a conversation going that may lead to talking about Christ. If they return the question, you will be able to explain what Christmas means to you.
A Charlie Brown Christmas
Invite friends over to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas DVD. The highlight of the show is when Linus reads the Christmas story.
Short Term Mission Trip At Christmas
Go to Japan to distribute the Jesus Film. How about beach ministry in the Bahamas or Katrina Relief during your Christmas vacation? Your church group can even customize a trip to Mexico, Appalachia, or Washington D.C.
Online Gift Catalog
Your family can buy a gift online and have it delivered to a family in need. Some of the Christian organizations that have online catalogs are Operation Christmas Child, Mercy Ships, Operation Blessing, and World Vision. There are many types of gifts with a variety of prices to choose from: baby chicks, Bibles for the Middle East, Bible lessons and storybooks for children, materials to build schools, churches, and hospitals, hot meals, bicycles and vehicles for missionaries, clean water, surgeries, dental care, help orphans, wheelchairs, and fishing kits.
Candy Cane Cards and Ornaments
Pass out hand made candy cane ornaments and hand made candy cane cards to your neighbors. Print the “Legend of the Candy Cane” on the inside of the cards. You could also print: John 3:16 and Jesus is the Reason.
Christian Christmas E-mail Signature
Add a signature to your e-mail that expresses the true meaning of Christmas.
Christmas T-shirt Evangelism
When you go out shopping, wear a t-shirt, sweatshirt, or cap that tells about Jesus being the real meaning of Christmas.
Sell Handmade Ornaments
Help the kids make ornaments out of craft supplies. Sell them for $1 or so and donate the money to your favorite Christian Evangelistic Organization. You can even write the name of the organization of the ornament. Oriental Trading has lots of ornament ideas and craft kits for sale.
Interactive Nativity for Children
This Interactive Nativity Set includes a pop-up nativity, illustrated poem, and seven gift boxes. It’s an easy to use, hands-on lesson that tells the story of Christ’s birth and opens a child’s heart to Jesus. You can use it at Christmas parties, when you invite the neighbor children over to play, in Sunday schools, and for family devotions.
Support a Child
This Christmas, your family can commit to support a needy child in another country. For $32 a month Compassion International will provide the following for your sponsored child: opportunities to learn about Jesus, education, health care and supplemental nutrition, safe recreation, and ways to learn life skills. Or, you could give $18 to Compassion’s Christmas Gift Fund. All sponsored children, and those still waiting for a sponsor, will get a gift to open on Christmas Day.
Christmas Cards with a Message
Choose to send out Christmas Cards that have a Christian message. You can also find Christmas E-cards that explain the true meaning of Christmas.
Christmas Card Packets
Instead of just sending out a card, assemble packets to send. You can include a Christmas Card with a Christian message, a family photo, a Christmas Booklet with a Salvation message, bookmark, tract, ornament, personal letter, or whatever you can think of.
Financial Support to Evangelistic Ministries
There are a lot of Christian organizations trying to raise money for their outreach project. Your financial contribution can help them reach more people this Christmas or through out the whole year. Your church may be putting on a Christmas Outreach Program that needs more funding. Operation Blessing puts on Christmas parties complete with presents for poor children in the U.S. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association takes the Gospel to the U.S. troops, prisoners, and to the entire world through TV.
Care Packages for Soldiers
If you know anyone in the military, you can send that soldier a care package. A woman named Angela has made a Website that gives helpful ideas and tips for making a Military Care Package. Along with much needed practical items you can include a Christian book like The Key to Personal Peace, Christian Devotional, Christian CDs, or Christmas Booklet.
Candy Giveaway
Give out Christmas candy in front of stores or on busy walkways. Make it good candy, like a chocolate Santa. You can also give a lighthearted Christmas tract and Say “Merry Christmas!”
Be a Bell Ringer
Volunteer to be a Bell Ringer. Since there has been such a decline in volunteer bell ringers, the Salvation Army has less kettles being filled at Christmas.
Special Advent Calendar
Make a special Advent calendar that lists different generous acts and fun activities for the kids. For example: baking cookies for the local retirement home, going out to see a Christmas movie, shoveling a walkway for someone who can’t, making a Christmas craft, taking unwanted clothes or toys to a homeless shelter, and buying a gift and placing it under an “Angel Tree”.
Toy Party
Throw a festive Christmas party with decorations, Christmas music, and snacks. Invite your guests to bring a new, unwrapped toy to benefit your church’s toy collection program or a battered women’s shelter.
Happy Birthday Jesus Cakes
My kids enjoy decorating their own Birthday cakes for Jesus. I bake each one of them a round, single layer cake. When the cakes have cooled, the kids frost and then decorate them with candies, flaked coconut, marshmallows, and sprinkles. I don’t make any rules about how much candy to use. They get to decorate cakes for Jesus, all by themselves. We light a candle in each cake and sing Happy Birthday. Invite the neighbor kid over when it is time to eat the cakes. Make sure that your children explain to him why they made cakes for Jesus.
A Gift for Jesus
Give Jesus a gift of service. Volunteer for a program that just needs helpers, like a Soup kitchen or your church’s Christmas program.
Christmas Prayer Cards
When you receive Christmas cards from non-Christian friends and family, set their card in a special spot on the dining room table. At dinner, pray for the family that sent you the card. Pray that God will show your family a way to evangelize to them
Reason for the Season
Every year at Christmas, think of a new way to promote the “Reason for the Season”. Wear a Christian Christmas T-shirt or cap, deliver flyers door-to-door promoting a Christian Christmas website, dress as Santa delivering Christmas tracts with candy, make your own Christian Christmas website, make and pass out nativity ornaments, or buy discounted Christian Christmas CDs and deliver them to your neighbors with a Christian Christmas card.
Email Jesus
Write a Happy Birthday letter to Jesus and have it posted on the Internet.
When non-Christian friends come over to play, read some of the Happy Birthday Jesus messages aloud. You can also email your adult friends and tell them about the website.
Top Ten
Make a list of ten non-Christian people that you know. Pray for them and think of individual ways to evangelize to them this Christmas. These ideas are not to replace presents, if you normally give presents to some of these individuals. For example: You could send a Brio magazine subscription to a teen girl or a Breakaway magazine subscription to a teen boy. You could invite a neighbor to a Christmas Activity at your church. You could loan Christian Romance Books or Christian Romance DVDs
to a friend. You could loan a Newsboys DVD or a Livin It DVD to a family with teens.
Act Out the Story of Christ’s Birth
Your family can create some simple costumes, gather together some props and act out the Christmas story. Invite a few non-Christian neighbor kids over to watch. Perform at your own Christmas party or a relative get-together.
Doggie Treats
If you go door-to-door delivering things to people you can deliver doggie treats, too. Either make your own Doggie Treats or buy fancy ones from a pet shop.
Face Painting
Buy some special paints for face painting. Set up a couple chairs and a TV tray in a public place. Offer to paint Christmas pictures on faces for free. While you are painting someone’s face, you can have a conversation about the real meaning of Christmas. You may want to have a basket filled with tracts and cheap toys so you can offer the kids a treat to take with them.
Christmas Posters
Download and print Christmas Posters that have a Salvation message. Put them up at a University Campus, pass them out door-to-door, or mail them.
Postcards or Door Hangers for Your Neighborhood
Mail your neighbors a Christmas postcard or deliver a Christmas door hanger to their doorknob. The postcards cost about .20 each and the door hangers about .17. On the back of each one - write or print your Christmas message or invite them to your church for a special Christmas service.
Merry Christmas Missionaries
Send Christmas Cards to the missionaries that your church supports. You can also send a Christian Book or Christian Devotional. You can send used Bibles, tracts, devotionals, Christian books and magazines to missionaries through an organization called Love Packages.
Shopping Assistance for Shut-ins
Help shut-ins with their shopping needs this Christmas. You can either take them to the stores, shop and deliver to them, or teach them how to shop online. Check with your local Senior Center, Agency on Aging, Meals on Wheels, and your church members to find people interested in your help.
Activities in the Community
Put out a flyer and make a website promoting all of the Christian Christmas Activities. Call every church in your area to find out the details. Print up flyers and pass them out door-to-door. On the flyer, advertise your website that gives even more details, directions, and links to the church websites.
Promote Christmas Evangelism
Make a flyer listing Christmas Evangelism ideas. Pass it out to your Christian friends and family. Get permission to include it in the church bulletin.
Holiday Plant for Nursing Home Resident
Deliver some holiday plants to a few nursing home residents. The front desk workers will probably know of a few residents that need some extra Christmas cheer. It will give you a reason to go visit and provide you with a way to start a conversation with some of the residents.
Christmas Care Packages to College Students
Make care packages for an entire dorm. Include such things as: packages of hot chocolate, microwave popcorn, cookies, Christmas candy, silly toy, Christmas card with Christian message, and an invitation to a Christmas Event at your church.
Gifts for Nursing Homes
Your church group can donate Christian books on CD and Christian Christmas music to nursing homes. These items help pass the time, allow residents to use their imagination, and tell about Jesus and how to live as a Christian.
Weatherize Windows
Many seniors, on fixed incomes, cannot afford the plastic to weatherize their windows. However, if they had the plastic on their windows, their heating bills would be lowered. Your group can help them by purchasing the plastic, taping it around the windows, and tightening it with the heat of a hair dryer. Your local Agencies on Aging or senior center may know of people who need this service. They might already have a program like this and they are just looking for volunteers to help.
Winter Survival Kit
When people don’t have enough money for their basic needs, they are not able to buy personal items that would be helpful to have during winter. Your group can put together Winter Survival Kits and pass them out in low-income neighborhoods. In a zip lock bag, include things like: tissues, cough drops, lip balm, lotion, tea bags, and instant chicken soup packets. Stick a label to the front of the bag saying - Compliments of “your” church.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Doughnut Giveaway
Many people have to work during Christmas Eve. Get a church group together to pass out doughnuts to mall workers or whomever else you can find having to work on Christmas Eve.
Caroling and Candy Canes
Get a group together to go door-to-door caroling. You can wear matching hats that represent your church. Pass out candy canes and an invitation to your church event.
Door-to-Door Poinsettias
Your church can deliver poinsettias and Christmas cards to the neighbors that live near your church.
Wrapping Paper Giveaway
Get a group of volunteers from your church to deliver rolls of Christmas wrapping paper door-to-door. You can also include scotch tape. Tell which church you’re from or invite them to your Christmas event.
Ham Giveaway
Deliver hams in a lower income neighborhood, compliments of your church.
Mini Christmas Trees for Nursing Homes
Your church volunteers can decorate artificial mini Christmas trees or wreaths with ornaments. Then, deliver them to nursing home residents. Your volunteers can also go caroling at the nursing home, conduct a Christmas sing-a-long, or transport residents by van to your Christmas event.
Meals for Firefighters
Your church can show kindness and appreciation to firefighters by providing some steaks to grill. Include other foods like deli salads, and rolls to give a complete meal. Let them know in advance that you are coming, so they won’t have dinner already made.
Christmas Day Baskets
Find volunteers to deliver baskets of cookies or other treats to those who have to work on Christmas day - police departments, fire stations, and hospitals.
Community Christmas Party
Get someone to dress as Santa. He can go door-to-door passing out flyers inviting families to a Neighborhood Christmas Party at the church. The kids can play games, make Christmas crafts, watch a Christmas DVD, and have hot cocoa and cookies. The adults can enjoy a Christmas Music Concert, Coffee, Hot Cocoa, and cookies.
Indoor Details
If visitors will be coming to your church during the Christmas season, make sure you take care of all the details. You can have a bulletin board that displays photos of fun events at your church. You can have a bulletin board announcing upcoming events and classes. Have brochures available in obvious locations that advertise what your church has to offer. Encourage church members to be friendly and accommodating to visitors.
One Invitation - One Guest
Hand out printed invitations to your Christmas Event to all of your regular attendees. Ask them to pray for one person that God is leading them to invite. They can either mail or hand-deliver the invitations to the person they’ve been praying for. Make a goal like - one visitor for every church member.
Winter Carnival
Invite the public to an outdoor winter carnival. Some entertaining ideas are: ice carving demonstrations, broom hockey, costumed characters walking around, outdoor Christian rock concert, snow mobile races, tug-of-war, log sawing contest, snowshoe races, bonfire, hayrides or sleigh rides, and food. People will stay longer if you open up the church basement and invite everyone if to warm up with hot cocoa and cookies.
Another Location
Instead of holding a Christmas service at your church, you can have it at a neutral location. People may feel less inhibited if they don’t have to worry about going into a church or what they should wear. Some ideas for a Christmas service are - a park, a Christmas tree farm, a school gym, a mall.
Free Babysitting
Your teenagers can offer free babysitting at the church the 3 weekends before Christmas. Church members can get their non-Christian friends to sign up for an evening of free babysitting at the church while they get to go Christmas shop. Maybe the kids will want to come back on Sunday for children’s church.
Celebrity Connection
Invite a local Christian “celebrity” to participate in your Christmas program. You could ask the mayor to provide narration, have the local pageant queen sing, or have a local DJ or news anchor participate.
Business Outreach
Visit the various businesses around your church. Surprise the employees with a basket of cookies and Christmas candy to share. You can say - “Merry Christmas from your neighbors at ____ church.”
Free Coffee and Doughnuts
Announce on your reader board that the church will be providing free coffee and doughnuts in the mornings the week before Christmas. Provide a nice Christmas atmosphere in your foyer with decorations, Christmas music, and friendly hostesses.
Make sure to invite everyone to your Christmas church service.
Holiday Travelers
Get church volunteers to help out at rest areas. It may be against the rules to set up a table. But your volunteers could pass out doughnuts and coffee or free coffee coupons. Wear T-shirts or caps that identify you as part of a Christian church group.
Your volunteers could also make special arrangements with a gas station. Give each driver a $2 card towards the purchase of their gas, compliments of your church. Or, pay for 1 gallon of gas. You can also clean their windshield, give out free coffee, and wish them a Merry Christmas.
Christmas Tree Collection
Everyone needs to get rid of his or her tree. A few days after Christmas, offer to haul them away for the neighborhood.
Coffee at Bus or Subway Stops
Church volunteers can take coffee and donuts to bus stops and offer it to those waiting for the bus. You can print your church name on the coffee cup sleeve if you want.
Free Cappuccino
Set up a portable espresso machine on a college campus. While the free coffee drink is being made, you can have a conversation with the student. You can also set out flyers advertising the Christian clubs on campus. You may need to do this outreach through a campus club.
Craft Night
Host a Christmas Craft Night. Kids can make crafts for their parents and grandparents for Christmas presents. Oriental Trading has over a hundred low cost Christmas Crafts Kits to choose from or just to get ideas.
Umbrella Escort
On a rainy day, volunteers can go to a store and help people to their car with huge golf umbrellas. This would be really helpful if people are hauling a bunch of presents to their car.
Church Float
Create a float for your local Christmas light parade to advertise your church. Fill the float with happy, waving volunteers. Some people can be handing out Little Christmas Toys . Have some people hand out flyers announcing the Christmas Concert, free cookies and hot cocoa after the parade.
Snack Booth
Set up a booth at a community Christmas event and give away free drinks and Christmas snacks - like red and green sprinkled doughnuts.
Hot Dog Giveaway
Decorate the outside of a hotdog card and fill it with hotdogs. During a busy Christmas shopping day, give away free hot dogs and an invitation to your church Christmas event. You might even want to have a trio playing Christmas music.
Free Christmas Balloons
At an outdoor mall, give out free Christmas balloons. Maybe you will want to have them printed with your church name, too.
Christmas Dress Up
A group can dress up as Santa, Mrs. Claus, and elves and spread good cheer. They may want to pass out invitations to the Church Christmas Party, concert, or service.
Christmas Sing-a-long
Invite the Community to a simple sing-a-long at your church. You may want to advertise it as a casual event, so people will feel comfortable coming in their regular clothes. You can sing both religious carols and secular Christmas songs. Afterwards, invite everyone to have cookies and hot cocoa.
Ornaments for Socks
Have the children at church make Christmas ornaments. Oriental Trading has a lot of easy Christmas ornament kits for kids to make. Church members can exchange packs of white tube socks for an ornament. Then, you can donate the socks to a local charity.
Live Nativity Story Exhibit
Set up a live nativity outside of your church. Have a starting point and start the Christmas story with the first exhibit. Use real people and animals, if you can. Continue with the Exhibits ending at a door to your church. Invite guests in for hot cocoa and doughnuts. Have your church members provide conversation and information about your church.
Christmas Movie Night for the Children
Invite the children in the community to come watch Christmas movies like A Charlie Brown Christmas, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Adventures in Odyssey Electric Christmas, and Veggie Tales Christmas
Christmas Supper or Potluck
Put on a supper with donated food or have everyone bring potluck food. Ask for donations from your church members who attend. Send the money to the Missionary Families that your church supports for their Christmas gifts. Or, send the money for something special that is needed like a bicycle or vehicle. Your church members can invite non-Christian friends to come to the supper. But, don’t ask them for donations. Your choir or youth may want to provide Christmas music.
Christmas for Prisoners
Get a church group together to put on a Christmas program and deliver Christmas gifts to prisoners. You’ll need to work with the prison to find out all the rules about what you can and can’t do.
Alternative Gift Fair
Set up a table to display items that can be given out through evangelism. Example: baskets of food, toys for “angel tree”, laptops showing the websites of Online Gift Catalogs, etc. Send a Christmas card to the person who the gift was given in honor of. Or, everyone who makes a gift purchase is entered in a drawing for donated door prizes.
Christmas Bazaar Fundraiser
Ask volunteers to make and donate crafts and baked items for a Christmas bazaar. Send the profits to an evangelistic organization or use for an outreach project.
Public Concert
The church choir or children’s choir can sing at a local mall. You’ll be able to promote your church and your Christmas events. The retailers will appreciate the free entertainment.
Free Picture with Santa
Offer free pictures with Santa at a public place. You can use a digital camera and digital printer, so that the picture is ready quickly. Santa can give out good candy - like a chocolate Santa, and a Kid’s Tract.
Winter Car Washes / Desalting
In the snowy parts of the US, roads are de-iced with salt and sand. Salt corrodes the underside of cars and needs to be sprayed off. On a day when it isn’t too cold, your group could offer free desalting and car washes.
Windshield Ice Scraping at Apartment Complexes
After a snowstorm, get a group of volunteers to head out early to an apartment complex. Clean the snow off all the windows. You can leave a business card on the windshield that says - Merry Christmas. We hope you’re having a joyful holiday season. Your neighbors at ___ Church.
Windshield Ice Scrapers
Buy scrapers with your church name imprinted on them. Add a slogan that would make people interested in visiting your church. Distribute them on car windshields freshly scraped by a group from your church.
Free Hot Cocoa Coupons
Purchase hot cocoa coupons from a place in the mall. Give them out to shoppers on a Christmas shopping day.
Free Christmas Gift Wrapping
Your group can wrap Christmas presents at a mall. Advertise your church and invite people to your Christmas Event through your free present wrapping table. Consider offering other free items like the book More Than a Carpenter or a Bible or Christmas tracts.
Grocery Bag Loading Assistance
Get permission from the store first. Then, gather together a group of people to load bags from the carts into the cars. This will be especially helpful for moms with little kids and Seniors. It also provides an opportunity for a short conversation and to spread some Christmas cheer. Wear nametags, T-shirts, or caps to identify your group. It will make your loading assistants look more official and it will advertise your Christian group.
Bag Packing at Self-Serve Grocers
Work out an arrangement with the store manager of a “bag your own groceries” store. Get cheerful volunteers to help bag up groceries at the end of each checkout counter. Your volunteers can wear matching aprons with your logo on them.
Grocery Cart Returns
In a store parking lot, offer to return shopping carts for shoppers. Your group can wear certain hats that represent your church. You can tell shoppers that your church is doing a service project for the community.
Red Roses
Hand out red roses or carnations in a busy shopping area. Offer them to men also. They can give them away if they want to. Your volunteers may want wear something to represent your church.
Christmas Candles
Volunteers can go door-to-door in the neighborhood and pass out a scented Christmas candle and a matchbook with your church name printed on it.
Firewood Giveaway
Ask around the church, at the Agency on Aging, and the Senior Center if anyone knows of Seniors who need some firewood. Recruit some church members to deliver the wood and stack it.
(Fish Nativity Image by ChristArt.com)
