Christingle Assembly Party

Children and adults will assemble these traditional Christmas Eve symbols in Walker Hall during coffee hour. Middle- and high-schoolers are invited to head to the Living Room for a White Elephant/Christingle Assembly party. Completed Christingles will stay at Grace until distribution to kids and youth on Christmas Eve (both services).

If you would like to donate a bag of clementines or a bag of gummy candies, please click here.

Did you know?

The idea of the Christingle began in Marienborn, Germany, in 1747. At a children’s service, Bishop Johannes de Watteville looked for a simple way to explain the happiness that had come to people through Jesus. He gave the children a lighted candle wrapped in a red ribbon. At the end of the service, while the children held their candles, the bishop prayed, “Lord Jesus, kindle a flame in these children’s hearts that theirs like thine become.”

In 1968, John Pensom of The Children’s Society adapted the Christingle and introduced it to the Church of England. Children decorated an orange with a red ribbon, dried fruits, sweets, and a candle, to create a new visual representation of Christ, the light of the world, celebrated by the lighting of the Christingle candles.

In England, most Christingle celebrations include songs, prayers, and performances, as well as a collection to help support the work of The Children’s Society, which serves some of the country’s most disadvantaged children and youth.

At Grace Church

Many years ago, when Grace Church was just beginning, parishioners Fran and David Moen* returned from a trip to England with an idea to share: Christingles!

Rev. Bill Harper, Rector of Grace at the time, was so taken with the concept that he and his family created baskets of Christingles in time for Christmas Eve. Ever since then, the kids and youth at Grace have enjoyed this fun and meaningful tradition every year on Christmas Eve.

*The Moens are Sofie and Harrison Cuadra-Moen’s grandparents!