Creative Christmas Cube
Recently, the Pulse team visited the New England Northwest Presbytery and we were talking about how we could support work with emerging generations in the Churches in this region.
Tamworth Uniting Church asked if we could do Advent packs for families to reflect on Christmas, particularly as many families are affected by the drought.
As I reflected on what are the struggles of Christmas in the middle of a drought, I was thinking about how we often invest so much in physical gifts and that this is not always realistic for families who are doing it tough.
I also reflected how it isn’t a good reflection of what Christmas is actually about. So I designed the Creative Christmas cube.
At Christmas we celebrate the most generous gift we can ever be given, that God sent Jesus to tell us of God’s love for us. It was a generous, kind, compassionate action. A gift of himself and of his time and life. Our Creative Christmas cube is an opportunity to reflect this gift of generosity and love, with those around us and those we love.
There are many ways you could use this cube, as a whole family, or on your own as you think about people who are important to you or even as a way of doing your secret Santa.
The cube is a wonderful way of expressing yourself to those you love that doesn’t necessarily require money.
Once you create the cube and decorate it, it presents you with six possible:
- Time: give a gift of time, do something for someone else or that they would enjoy doing together.
- Creativity: Write a poem, draw a picture, make a collage about what you appreciate about the person. You don’t have to be amazingly creative you could just make a limerick or write a Haiku.
- Help: Is there a job you could do for this person, or help them with something they have to do?
- Kindness: Is an action that is kind, it could be writing them a note, say something kind or do something they would appreciate (my son said scratching his head!)
- Remembering: Share a story of a time where they did something special for you or a special story from something you did together.
- Make something: Bake something, or make something from the things you have lying around you house, or make something useful / beautiful for them or even create a find a word or maze. Everybody treasures a gift that comes from the heart.
Download the pattern for the Creative Christmas Cube here and spend some time decorating it and then using it to help your family decide what you would like to do this Christmas.
Karen Mitchell Lambert, Pulse Team Leader
