Skip to main content

Christmas & Advent

Join us for Christmas at UPUMC!

Christmas Celebration, Advent Services and More

 

We hope you will join us in the many wonderful opportunities for fellowship, reflection, and worship this Advent season. The church is coming alive with the sights and sounds of Advent and Christmas! 

 

Christmas Celebration

December 7 | 5 pm

Join us on December 7th for our annual Christmas Celebration and crockpot cook-off!  Family activities such as a petting zoo, photos, and hot chocolate will be on the Colgate Lawn while the cook-off takes place in the Activity Center. After you've taste-tested and voted on your favorite recipe, we will light the tree and sing Christmas carols together. Christmas memories are made here, so don't miss this exciting event to kick off your seasonal celebrations! Invite your friends and neighbors for this fun community event.

 

Crockpot Cook-Off

December 7 | During the Christmas Celebration

Registration is now open for the annual cook-off competition during the Christmas Celebration on December 7th. Support the Go, Do, Love! Missions Movement of UPUMC by entering your best crockpot recipe in the contest. Register your recipe through the link below.

CROCKPOT COOK-OFF REGISTRATION CLICK HERE   

 

Advent at UPUMC

Sundays, November 30 - December 21

You’re invited to worship with us each Sunday in Advent at 8:45 and 11 am as we prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ. Advent is a sacred season of expectation, hope, and renewal—an opportunity to pause, reflect, and make room for God’s light in our lives.

This year, our worship series will follow All the Good: A Wesleyan Way of Life, guiding us toward a deeper understanding of God’s grace and the call to live out our faith in meaningful, transformative ways.

If you can’t be with us in person, you can still join our 11 am service online via Facebook Live at @universityparkumc or at www.upumc.org/worship.

Let’s journey through this season of hope—together.

 

All the Good- Advent Worship Series

Sundays in Advent | Nov. 30, Dec. 7, 14, 21

The season of Advent offers time and space for Christians to prepare for the coming of Jesus Christ at Christmas through reflecting on the story of salvation.

In All the Good: A Wesleyan Way of Christmas, a group of diverse Wesleyan scholars will take you on an Advent journey guided by the practices in John Wesley’s means of grace. John Wesley’s emphasis upon practices of piety and mercy—or good works—drew from the larger Christian tradition. Such practices are often referred to as means of grace. Readers will look at preparing the way for God, the impact and significance of prayer, the substance of good works and caring for others, and sharing God’s mission to the world. (*Abingdon Press)
 

CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICES

December 24: 11am, 4pm & 7pm

Traditional Service: 11am service in the Caldwell room with communion. 

Family Service: 4pm participatory event for children of all ages in the sanctuary with candlelight.

Traditional Service with harpist: 7 pm Traditional service includes the Chancel Choir, orchestra, harpist, candlelight, and communion. Join us at 6:30pm as harpist Yumiko Schlaffer plays carols of the season before our 7pm worship service. 

All worship services will end with candlelight and the singing of Silent Night.

Livestream our 4 pm, and 7 pm Christmas Eve worship services through the link below.

Below are the many events and worship opportunities to enjoy this season. 

  • Music Celebration
    Music Celebration

    December 14 | 8:45am & 11am worship services
    Join us for a morning of music presented by the UPUMC Chancel Choir and chamber orchestra as they perform Best of Messiah. It's an experience you won't forget.

  • Sanctuary Poinsettia Donations
    Help decorate our sanctuary during Advent by donating a poinsettia in honor or memory of a loved one, friend, Sunday school class, or covenant group. If you want to donate a poinsettia, please click the image or pick up
    an ordering envelope at the Welcome Desk. Donations are $15 per plant, and you may pick up your poinsettia after the 6 PM Christmas Eve service on December 24.

  • Blue Christmas
    Blue Christmas

    December 14 | 5 pm | Caldwell Room (Wesley Chapel)
    For many, the holiday season can be a challenge. Throughout Advent, we proclaim hope, peace, joy, and love in the midst of difficulty. This is the church’s gift to the world–that our faith story is grounded in the presence of God that came and dwelt among us in the midst of hardship. It is important to name that sometimes hope, peace, joy, and love are distant feelings when we have encountered great loss. The anticipation of renewed grief as Christmas Eve approaches can be difficult to bear for many. This service will provide a place for us to be together, amid the difficulties and grief we face. There will be music, prayer, a brief discussion on grief in the holidays, and a time for communion and healing, with an option to be anointed with oil in the biblical tradition.

  • December 6 | 4pm
    All youth are invited to join us for a fun outing to Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington on Saturday, December 6. We will depart the church at 4 pm. The cost to attend is $30 dollars. If you need help covering this cost, please let Rev. Colin Craft or Ezri Gomez know!  Click the image to register for the event! 

Close