Chalice Christian Church and Community UCC celebrate Epiphany with Alternative Gifts

San Carlos, California

Every year, Chalice Christian Church and Community United Church of Christ celebrate an Epiphany Party held in January. Traditionally, Epiphany Parties began at Chalice Christian Church and included a white elephant gift exchange. After several years of the white elephant gift exchange, the members in the congregation started to look for a different type of exchange of gifts, as many of the gifts in the elephant gift exchange were never gifts anyone wanted to keep. A member of the church suggested the church participate in Alternative Christmas with Global Ministries. There was a lot of excitement around this idea, and members of the church decided to create their own cards to share with each Alternative Christmas Gift given. Each card includes a picture from a Global Ministries partner, a description of the project being supported, and a note from the gift giver to the gift recipient. These cards are passed around during the gift exchange to between friends and family. Now, Epiphany Parties are celebrated each year with Chalice Christian Church and Community United Church of Christ.  The churches share that this has been a much more meaningful gift-giving activity to celebrate the holidays, and they plan to continue the new tradition of participating in Global Ministries Alternative Christmas for their future annual Epiphany Parties! 

*Pictured above is a sample of an Alternative Christmas card designed by Allen Foster, member of Chalice Christian Church.

To learn more about Alternative Giving with Global Ministries, click here.