Sara has created a free PDF booklet with seven sessions of simple, embodied prayer and worship for families to use over Christmas 2020. You can print it yourself or read from a device.

At Christmas, we remember the Incarnation, the act of Jesus taking on flesh as a human being; the mystery of being ‘in very nature God’ yet making himself into the weakest of all - a newborn, human baby.

To celebrate and remember the Incarnation, we want to encourage engaging physically with the Bible, prayer and worship as families this Christmas. In 2020, many of us have experienced a strange out-of-body existence, as we stare at screens and see friends only from a distance. The embodied act of shaking hands, of hugging a friend and of a friendly pat on the shoulder has been impossible.

Many of us are also planning a very different Christmas than usual. Less seeing people, less travel, less busy. Rather than fitting in another Disney movie in that new space, could we dive deeper into the mystery of the Incarnation? Could we spend time seeking God, however messily, as families, and see God meet us and lead us into 2021?

So choose a time that suits your family - after breakfast or just before bedtime works best for our family - where you can create a holiday habit. Explain to the child/ren that you will follow a special prayer diary over the holidays. Choose how many and which to use, depending on what suits you. We have older children, so have added some questions that would not work with toddlers - we have marked these as “for longer attention spans” as all kids are different, it’s not just about age!

Remember to adapt these to your situation, and particularly to the physical abilities that are present in your group.