Christingle

My friend invited us over to participate in their Christingle celebration.  I hadn't heard of this before and was interested to see what it was.  This tradition began in Moravia, however the Church of England began to hold Christingle services in 1968, usually during their children services.  Christingle Services are held in Advent to help the children remember why Jesus Christ came into our world, and to help the children remember the people he came to help.

My friend put together a lovely information sheet together for us, which I have scanned into our computer to save for future reference

To make your own Christingle you will need:
an orange
small square of foil
cake candle and holder
red ribbon (long enough to encircle the orange)
4 toothpicks
4 marshmallows
4 soft candies

With each picture I will show you how to assemble your Christingle and the meanings of each item.

The Orange is a sphere and it represents our World

The red ribbon is wrapped around the whole orange.  It is red because that is the color of blood.  Jesus bled as part of his sacrifice to rescue the whole world

Toothpicks represents the four "corners of the Earth"  in other words there's not a bit of our World that God does not care about

The marshmallows and candy represent the gifts that God gives to us --  all that we need each day, enough for all of us.

Lastly a candle is added -- first punch the candle holder thru the aluminum and then into the top of the orange -- the aluminum's  purpose is to help catch the wax.  The Meaning of the candle is Christ is the King of all the Earth.. which is why it is at the top, but also HE is the "Light of the World"

Light the candle

The Christingle Prayer:

God our Father, your Son our Lord Jesus is the light of the world.
Please help us to shine with his light,
so that everyone in the world can know him, worship him and obey him.
Thank you for making him known to us.
Amen

Then the kids blow out the candles.

We enjoyed learning about this tradition of the Church of England and we especially enjoyed the time we spent with our friends.  Thank you for sharing this wonderful tradition!

I am continuing to take a little bit of time off from blogging to spend it with my family will be back to posting 3X a week Jan 4th:) Until then, enjoy spending quality time with your family:)