Opening Song:  Jesus Once was a Little Child, pg 55 Children’s Songbook

Opening Prayer:   Assign

Game Ideas:

*Pass the Orange: This game requires very little: only two oranges (no problem…) and people with both a neck and a chin (now that'll be a bit harder to find…) Divide the group into two teams. Once you say "Go!" the players must pass the orange from neck to neck using only chins and necks. The team that can get the orange to the last neck in line the quickest without dropping the orange wins. For fewer people, just make it a “working together” exercise to see how difficult it is to pass the orange along the line.
 

*Orange Dance:  turn on the music and dance while holding an orange between your forehead and your partner’s forehead.  It can be a contest between teams, or for fewer people… just dance and have fun, and try to keep the orange from falling.
 

*Battle of the oranges… each child has and orange on a spoon ,and tries to knock the other players oranges off using only the one hand that holds their spoon and orange, with other hand behind their back.  The winner is the last one balancing their orange.
 

Lesson: 

Tell The Christmas Orange Story (See below).  Discuss the importance of loving others, selfless deeds, and service.
 

Closing Song: Have a Very Merry Christmas, Children’s Song Book pg 51
 

Closing Prayer:  Assign    
 
Treats (choose one):

                                    A Chocolate Orange

                                    Orange Slice Candies

                                    Easy Orange Crescent Swirls

                                    Wassail (a warm orange drink)

                                    Christmas Orange Balls

                                    Orange Biscuits

The Christmas Orange
 

I'd like to tell you a story my grandmother told me when I was six or seven years old. We had gone to her home for Thanksgiving dinner and the drive was rather a long one. I had filled the time with making a list of all the things that I wanted for Christmas that year.
 

Later that evening after I was ready for bed, I showed the list to my grandmother. After she read it, she said, "My goodness, that really is a long list!" Then she picked me up and set me on her lap in the big rocking chair and told me this story:
 

"Once there was a little girl who came to live in an orphanage in Denmark" (Now my grandmother was from Denmark, so this story might even be true.) "As Christmas time grew near, all of the other children began telling the little girl about the beautiful Christmas tree that would appear in the huge downstairs hall on Christmas morning. After their usual, very plain breakfast, each child would be given their one and only Christmas gift; small, single orange."
 

At this point I looked up at my grandmother in disbelief, but she assured me that was all each child would receive for Christmas.
 

"Now the headmaster of the orphanage was very stern and he thought Christmas to be a bother. So on Christmas Eve, when he caught the little girl creeping down the stairs to catch a peek at the much-heard-of Christmas tree, he sharply declared that the little girl would not receive her Christmas orange because she had been so curious as to disobey the rules. The little girl ran back to her room broken-hearted and crying at her terrible fate."
 

"The next morning as the other children were going down to breakfast, the little girl stayed in her bed. She couldn't stand the thought of seeing the others receive their gift when there would be none for her."

"Later, as the children came back upstairs, the little girl was surprised to be handed a napkin. As she carefully opened it, there to her disbelief was an orange all peeled and sectioned."
 

"How could this be?" she asked.
 

"It was then that she found how each child had taken one section from their orange and given it to her so that she, too, would have a Christmas orange."
 

How I loved this story! I would ask my grandmother to tell it to me over and over as I grew up. Every Christmas, as I pull a big, juicy orange from my stocking, I think of this story. What an example of the true meaning of Christmas those orphan children displayed that Christmas morning. How I wish the world, as a whole would display that same kind of Christ-like concern for others, not just at Christmas, but throughout the year.