Two years ago, I had the opportunity to host Jingle Jam for our for a Family Experience the week before Christmas. I wrote about it here. Just a few weeks ago, we decided to double down on our Christmas experiences here at MISSION Church. Our vision at MISSION is to be an irresistible church for our next door neighbor and the next generation. In years past, we wouldn’t program for elementary aged kids because pulling off a program for elementary on Christmas Eve is challenging. However, not offering something for elementary kids really doesn’t align with our vision. All the 9 and 10 year old kids who have to sit with their parents for an hour-long Christmas Eve service would find church very “resistible.”

We decided that it’s worth the extra effort and we’re going to create the most incredible Christmas Eve experience for kids this church as ever seen. Once the decision was made, the staff asked, “what are we going to do?”

It took me less than a second to reply, “We’re going to do Jingle Jam!’

Jingle Jam is written as a FX (family experience), but we’re going to make a few modification so that it’s the perfect K-6th grade program.

Here’s what makes Jingle Jam amazing:

  • Inexpensive to pull off: Honestly, it’s only going to cost us around $500 in supplies and things. The space we’re hosting the service requires us to rent some extra technology, but if you’re doing this in your auditorium, you can certainly do Jingle Jan on a modest budget.
  • Requires only a few people: There’s a comic host, credible host and an actor. Those are the key players. We’ll have a small worship team that we’ll add to this as well. It’s an amazing production that isn’t people heavy.
  • It’s fast paced and fun. It’s a really fun story that plays out well for families, but has some fun games and video components that invite the audience to participate and fill the whole hour.

If you’re looking for a FANTASTIC family experience or one-time program for the holiday season, definitely check out Jingle Jam! Below is the video of Gateway’s 2014 Jingle Jam FX.

Jingle Jam 2014 from Gateway NextGen on Vimeo.