This Christmas season, what if the most powerful moments of faith formation happened not in big programs at the church—but right in the warmth of the family kitchen? Several years ago, I wrote an article, “Baking God’s Story with Kids at Christmas,” exploring how a simple tradition of rolling out cookie dough and cutting out shapes can become a sacred space for conversation, wonder, and retelling the story of Christ’s birth.
The beauty of this idea lies in its accessibility: any family can do it, regardless of baking skills. But the impact doesn’t have to be limited to home. As ministry leaders, we can lean into this practice to nurture connections, deepen faith, and build intergenerational relationships throughout our congregations.
Here are several creative ways your church or children’s ministry team can leverage the baking-cookies idea as a faith formation practice for families:
Host a Christmas Cookie-Bake Event
- Invite families to a church-hosted cookie-decorating night: provide the dough, cookie cutters, and decorating supplies, and facilitate table conversations around the shapes and their significance in the Christmas story (tree, angel, shepherd’s crook, star, etc.).
- Use the event to model “wondering questions” (e.g., What do you wonder about this shape and its connection to Jesus?) and encourage parents to continue those conversations at home.
- Make it multigenerational: invite grandparents, youth, children, and all ages to bake and talk together.
Create a Take-Home Faith-Formation Kit
- Assemble little kits for families: rolled cookie dough (or a simple recipe card), Christmas-story cookie cutters, the list of wondering questions from your article, and even printable conversation cards.
- Distribute these kits at church (during worship, Sunday School, or as a Christmas “gift” for families).
- Encourage parents to use the kits as a family devotion in their own time, building faith practices at home in a fun and interactive way.
Use as an Outreach Tool
- As part of your Advent or Christmas outreach, invite neighborhood families or newcomers to join in the cookie-baking faith experience — even if they are not regular attenders.
- Use the baking activity as a gentle, low-pressure way to introduce spiritual formation to families who might not yet be plugged into your church.
- Partner with your church’s hospitality team to offer this as a “Christmas blessing” activity: provide ingredients and materials, then deliver cookie kits to families in need or to homebound congregants.
By putting this fun holiday activity into motion, your ministry can do more than bake cookies—it can bake in faith, curiosity, and deep conversation. This Christmas, let your church not only celebrate the story of Christ’s birth but also participate in it in a meaningful, hands-on way.