Invite neighborhood children to your home to frost nativity cookies. Send children home with a plate of cookies and a pamphlet of Jesus' birth. Nativity cookie cutter sets may be purchased at www.coppergifts.com.

Display a nativity set in your yard or picture window. Add something new each day in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Visit www.woodcraftplans.com for patterns.

Invite your Youth class to carol in your neighborhood and encourage community young people to join in. Conclude caroling at your house and offer refreshments.

Purchase a book or video about Jesus to slip into a door bag. Include a packet of popcorn and a letter from your family telling neighbors what Jesus means to you. Encourage them to plan a relaxing evening with their family during the busy holiday season.

Invite neighbors to your home for a Christmas Eve reading of the Christmas story. Encourage them to bring their Bibles for a variety of translations. Take turns reading. Sing carols together and serve refreshments.

Ask elderly neighbors if they need assistance with decorating, shopping, addressing Christmas cards, wrapping packages, or mailing. Involve young people, they'll love it.

Organize a neighborhood excursion to your church or school Christmas program, or to a community Handel's Messiah singalong.

Select a tree in your neighborhood and designate it as "The Giving Tree." Send out notices inviting neighbors to decorate the tree with hats and mittens at a set date and time. Donate mittens to a homeless shelter, children's home, or your Adventist Community Services Center. Make it an annual tradition.

Diane Thurber, Lake Union Herald managing editor