How to Organise a Carol Service for Children

 kids

Organising a carol service at your school or church is an excellent way to get everyone in the spirit of Christmas and remind them why we celebrate this special time of year. You could even take the opportunity to raise awareness and funds for less fortunate children around the world. This article explains how to organise a carol service for children, helping you ensure that the day is a success.

Organising a Christmas Carol Service

Before you do anything else, let the school headmaster or church pastor know that you're thinking of organising a children's carol service. Once you have their permission, book a venue (e.g. the school hall or local church) at a time and date that makes it easy for children and their parents to attend.
Here's what you'll need:

• Order of service
• Welcome speech, prepared by yourself / headmaster / head boy and girl / church pastor
• Good selection of children's Christmas songs. Give the carol service a celebratory yet moving atmosphere with a mix of fun, contemporary Christmas songs and more traditional, more poignant ones. Ask a pianist or band to play the accompaniment, or, if you're short of time, use an audio CD with backing tracks.
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• Readings. The readings should also be varied, with a good mixture of biblical messages and topical stories. Speakers could include anyone from the children to esteemed members of the church. The more of a mix you have, the more varied - and interesting - the carol service will be.
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• Fundraising ideas. Organising a carol service for children is also a great opportunity to raise money for charity and, in doing so, teach them valuable lessons about caring for others. Organise a collection at the beginning and/or end of the service and include a reading about your chosen charity. You could even incorporate a festive bake sale, or ask the children to bring in unwanted items to send to disadvantaged children.
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• Christmas blessing / take-home message, prepared by yourself, the headmaster or the church pastor. This should consolidate the lessons learnt throughout the service.

Once you have found willing volunteers for the welcome speech, musical accompaniments, readings and so on, organise a meeting so that everyone can discuss their ideas and combine them to create a coherent carol service with a consistent message.

Allocate a specific amount of time to each speaker (e.g. 3 - 5 minutes per reading), and let them go off to plan their individual readings. If you're at all worried about the running of the service on the day, get everyone together again beforehand for a quick rehearsal.

Now that you have a better idea of how to organise a carol service for children, you should be feeling much more confident. For more fundraising ideas, check out the websites of charities such as The Children's Society, which offers some excellent tips.

If you need some fresh songs to sing, primary school music supplier kidstoteens.blogspot.com Out of the Ark has a great selection of songbooks containing traditional and contemporary Christmas songs for children.kidstoteens.blogspot.com Each one comes with a CD of backing and vocal tracks, saving you time and hassle.

Bronwyn is writing on behalf of Out of the Ark, supplier of children's songbooks, school play scripts and musical resources for the classroom.