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Christmas Lesson: Inside / Outside

by The UKI Territory Evangelism Department

Optional: Play a game about being inside and outside, e.g., in the water/out of the water.

Picture activity

Show the children a variety of pictures of Christmas celebrations and Christmas scenes. You could use Christmas cards, works of art, photos etc. Including some images of homeless people/rough sleepers.

Spread the pictures out on the floor with space between them if possible, and ask the children to wander around them and look at each one carefully. You could play some music while they do this.

Now invite the children to sit down around the pictures so everyone can see them.

Questions:

Which picture do you like best? Why?

What do you think these pictures are trying to say?

How do they make you feel, or what do they make you think about?

Which pictures are about being inside and which ones are about being outside? Invite the children to rearrange them so the ones which are about being inside are on one side and the ones about being outside are on the other.

Inside/outside

Read out, or give out copies of this poem, written by a school pupil in a Primary Seven class at Braehead Primary School in Stirling, Scotland. (Reproduced with kind permission from the pupil and class teacher.)

Inside/Outside

Inside. Lying in your bed, waiting for Santa to come.
Outside. Huddled up in rags, waiting for a remorseful passer-by.

Inside. Warming by the toasty fire, unwrapping new, shiny presents.
Outside. Holding up a pleading message, undoing knots tied in grimy bin bags.

Inside. Enjoying merry chats with friends and family who love and care.
Outside. Dreading another day of begging and pleading for one penny to shed light on your day.

Inside. One bite of homemade succulent turkey and roast potatoes makes every taste bud tingle.
Outside. The bitter taste and awful stench of last week’s fish supper, salvaged from the foul filthy bin.

Inside. Glancing at the beautifully decorated tree. The baubles glisten and shine against the bright light, sending a warm glow around the room.
Outside. Looking into windows wishing you were somewhere. Anywhere but here in this dark alleyway.

So while you are inside your warm, cosy house,
Opening one present after another.
Could you please give a thought to the adults and children freezing and even dying on our streets each day?

By Lisa Ivatt (Age 11)

What do you like about this poem?

How does it make you feel, or what does it make you think about?

Who do you think this poem is written for?

Read Luke 2:1-7

Questions:

Was Jesus born inside or outside?

What do you think the people inside the inns were doing while Jesus was being born?

Would you have liked to have been inside the inn, or outside on that night?

Go deeper

Show the bus shelter nativity picture (www.churchads.net).

This picture was painted by the artist Andrew Gadd for a campaign in the United Kingdom to help people think about what Christmas is all about. It’s a picture of the nativity – Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus, but shown in a modern-day bus shelter. The artist was trying to make people think about where Jesus might have been born if he was born today.

Would you put this picture inside or outside?

What would you like to say about this picture?

Creative activity

Write your own poem, or create a piece of art, which shows a contrast between Christmas inside and Christmas outside.

This might mean different things for different people – and different things in different countries and climates!

Children & Adult Ministry
Evangelism Department
United Kingdom Territory

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