Tips and Tricks
What are you already doing?
1
Love Christmas becomes a part of the wider Social Transformation ministries which your church is involved with. It does not have to be something new or run separately to the amazing work that you are already doing. Thinking about what you are already doing, and how this could connect to Love Christmas, is a great way to start your Love Christmas journey.
Can you talk to the community groups you already support to see how they can be blessed this Christmas? For example; the team at Saint Mary’s Southampton adapted their Bags of Kindness to better suit the refugees in their community. Changing from paper bags/boxes to a drawstring backpack that can be reused, small elements like this increase how you can bless others who would otherwise go without a gift.
Who can you bless?
2
Who is in your community/church that you can serve? Love Christmas is all about reaching out to your neighbours with an act of Kindness, so having a think about who you can bless through this is another great place to start. Do you already have connections with community members or a local charity?
Finding your who, and through them your why, gives your Love Christmas a purpose and story. This story becomes your anchor. Like when Peter became a disciple, the miracle of the abundance of fish in his net anchored his faith and discipleship with Jesus. The story of your community, the people who will be blessed, provide your anchor and keeps you persevering towards your goal of spreading kindness into your community.
Start small
3
Love Christmas can be used in all scales, from tens to thousands of Bags of Kindness, by churches across villages, towns and cities. Every person blessed is another person impacted by the national wave of Kindness this Christmas. So, there is no Love Christmas which is too small.
We would encourage you to start local, taking every opportunity for Kindness that you are able to. Building on those opportunities year on year to create steady, sustainable growth. If we all make the greatest impact we can by reaching into our neighbours lives, the nation as a whole will be exponentially blessed. Doing this together is key; every person, every church and every act of kindness counts!
Get your church involved
4
Church is a community, and Love Christmas works best when your whole church feels involved and can have an ownership over the project. This can look different in all contexts. Maybe it is having a team of volunteers take the lead on organising the logistics, or having Youth and Student ministries hosting packing nights for their peers. Fundraising at the local Park Run dressed as a reindeer, or inviting colleges to come pack bags of kindness for their students.
No one runs Love Christmas alone so it can be really encouraging to bring your church community together around the project. Engaging with local schools, universities and community services through your congregation places Love Christmas in the hands of everyone. ‘Do you know someone who can be blessed?, Please let us know!’ The invite is open, so anyone can bless another person with kindness this Christmas.
Prep for your bags
5
The Bags of Kindness which you pack are chosen by you, so prepping for them in advance is a great way to ensure that you gather the items you need as well as checking that the Bags can be assembled easily without breakages or spillages.
Decide on your list of items and make sure to check where sales/offers are running. Many local supermarkets have a ‘Community Engagement Champion’ so explore reaching out to them for their assistance with buying/collecting your items. It is also a great idea to trial your Bag, packing all the items into the bag and checking that they are durable and that the presentation is what you had planned. Thinking about how the sustainability of the bags and how they can be reused/recycled.
Be Creative
6
Love Christmas is not a set of rules, a prescribed list or a perfect model. Each church involved will be blessing their local community with bags of kindness, but this will look different for every person involved. There is so much room for Love Christmas to be yours. Engage with your volunteers and hear their ideas, look at what your unique role in the community is and run this ministry in the best way for your team.
Hosting events which align to your churches mission is a perfect place to start e.g. a partnership shopping experience with your foodbank/clothing bank which gives every attendee a choice in what they receive. Where can your church be ambitious and reach into the community you are planted in.
Include a Personal Touch
7
Love Christmas is all about blessing each individual person with a Bag of Kindness. Ensuring that through each Bag, your community feels seen, recognised and loved. Adding a personal touch to your Bags of Kindness give you a greater opportunity to personally connect with each individual and makes each Bag unique and specially designed for their receiver.
A simple way to do this is to include Christmas Cards/Tags in your Bags of Kindness. These can be handwritten, printed by the church or you could partner up with local schools/colleges to have students write the card. Make sure that they are encouraging messages, spreading love and kindness this Christmas. .
Partnership is at the heart of Love Christmas and central to spreading a wave of kindness to all corners of your community. These partnerships are not just for Christmas but are fostered through consistent connection over years, working together with schools, churches and charities to meet the needs of every individual.
Explore your current connections and reach out to those people to see if they would like to be involved in Love Christmas. Then you can start to see how local businesses might be involved or if you can take referral’s from local agencies/schools to bless people in their communities. Love Christmas is a great way to spark partnership, as testified by Hillsong UK, ‘Love Christmas has helped us to reach out more.’ Every contribution is valuable and gives us an opportunity to learn from each other’s experiences. Our effort is united and multiplied when we are working together.
8
Be in community
To view the timeline, see and download our resources and more, head to the Love Christmas resource page below.