Adventskranz-Run

Advent Wreath Run - Teens and Community

It was just before Christmas and we were looking for a suitable evening program. Alongside this, we were concerned that there was often little contact between our teens and the older members of the congregation. That's when the idea of the Advent Wreath Run was born.

Preparations

Before the TC evening, we leaders asked a few families in the congregation if they would be willing to participate in our post run. They were enthusiastic! So we deposited materials and tools at each address that could eventually be used to make an Advent wreath:

• pipes
• Candles
• Advent ribbons
• Decorative materials (anything you can find in mom's junk drawer that looks like Christmas)
• Wrapping wire
• Wire cutters
• Tree shears D
• Wire to secure mesh and decorative material
• Agraffes

It's worth getting advice and materials from a gardener or florist. We received fir brushwood free of charge from a farmer.

On the TC evening:

Today, when asked, "Wag's on?", the teens didn't get a useful answer. In addition to a large plastic bag, they were handed a post slip with an address (no name) in groups of two and off they went.

Each group started to collect the material at a different corner of the village and at the latest with the candles or straw hoops it dawned on everyone what today was all about. Of course, the things were not just handed to them. At each family there was a task to be fulfilled: Solve a riddle, make up a Christmas poem, sing a Christmas carol, decorate a gingerbread star with colored icing and colorful candy, etc. Over hot tea or punch, interesting conversations are said to have taken place ...

At each post they got the next address or maybe just sometimes the name or a phone number. We had expected that such a post run would take a lot of time. However, it became a bit late.

Back in the Jungschi room we got to work. In the meantime, we leaders had cut the fir and box branches to fit the wreath, as time was running out. We covered the floor and table with plastic so that the evening would not remain sticky in our memories due to the resin stains.

At the end we wanted to award a prize to the most imaginative wreath. But we couldn't because all the groups surprised us with their creativity and we didn't want to offend any work of art (or rather its creators).

After the program, we enjoyed the decorated gingerbread stars, nuts and mandarinli and so it became quite late that evening ...

The following Sunday morning at church there was lively sharing, laughing and discussion about the TC evening.

Source reference:

Content: Copyright BESJ, www.besj.ch

Author: Marlis Bühler, TC Degersheim

Title image: www.juropa.net