Because of the pandemic, we won’t be able to have in-person worship on Christmas Eve. But the staff has been working hard to make sure that our Christmas Eve services will be fun and special. We will have two services, one for kids and families at 4:00 PM, and a “midnight mass” starting at 8:30 PM, which will neither go until midnight nor include a mass, but will include beautiful music and lovely readings.
The 4:00 PM Service
This will be a service of readings, carol singing, and kids showing off shoebox nativity scenes that they’ve made. Children are invited to create a nativity in a box, using their favorite toys or figures that they’ve made themselves. This should be light, goofy, and fun. If they can, the kids should try to include:
- The baby Jesus.
- Mary and Joseph.
- Some shepherds.
- The three magi.
- Angels.
- Animals.
- A star.
They can also throw in trees, plants, furniture, or anything else that honors the beauty of the story.
Participants in the service can request hymns, which will be led a cappella by some of our talented parish singers. Readings will be interspersed with the hymns and nativity scenes.
The service will take place on Zoom, since this will allow kids to share their nativity scenes. You can join the service by clicking this link:
The 8:30 PM Service
The service will begin with half an hour of music provided by the Davenport family, and interspersed with carol singing. We will choose carols based on your requests, so please email the names of your favorite carols to Dennis by clicking this link.
At the end of the service, we will all light candles and sing Silent Night together. For this reason, this service will be on Zoom, although, unlike the 4:00 PM service, it will also be live-streamed to our Facebook page. We ask that you join through Zoom if you feel comfortable doing so, participate with your mic muted and your video off until it’s time to sing Silent Night at the end of the service. At that point, we’ll all turn our videos on and light candles in sight of the cameras on our computers, so that the screen will fill with candlelight. You can join the service by clicking this link:
This service will also be live-streamed, for those who don’t want to join by Zoom but would like to watch on Facebook.
