Journey to the Manger: An Interactive Nativity

We made it through Christmas Eve!!

Wait... Did I sound a little too excited? Maybe that's because WE MADE IT THROUGH CHRISTMAS EVE! And now I can relaaaax for the rest of break. Whew!

At my church, there is a tradition of having a live animal nativity before the 4:00 Christmas Eve service. Throughout the years it's gone through a lot of incarnations - We started out using Group's all-inclusive "Miracle of Jesus", and have since tried various combinations of games, crafts, and of course, animals.

Well, this year I wanted to switch things up a bit and get rid of the very firm "nativity"/"craft" split of the gym. I was inspired by our incredible Christmas program, Journey to the Manger, which tells the story of a cynical artist who journeys back in time with Mary and Joseph to see Christmas at different time periods, all the way back to the first Christmas in the manger. It was an incredible show and I thought that "journey back in time" aspect would be perfect for our interactive nativity!

In order to accomplish this, I used risers to divide our gym up into five sections, one for each time period the characters traveled to. In each section were volunteers ready to help the kids with crafts and games relevant to that time period. (Okay, some of them were a bit of a stretch to make them "relevant" - but I tried my best!)

Here is a tour of our gym!

On walking in, guests were greeted by one riser that gave instructions and a welcome in case I had been called away from greeting duty by one emergency or another. (That only happens, like, a million times a night, right?) The time periods started with the most modern and went backwards in history going clockwise around the gym.

Our first step back in time was the Great Depression!

At this station, kids could play Depression-era games of jacks and hopscotch. We made a hopscotch with painter's tape and put rocks next to it.

For jacks, I found a ton of packets for very cheap on Oriental Trading. They were very cheap but the kids loved it! We pulled down a low table and a volunteer helped teach the kids jacks - They were able to figure out the hopscotch pretty independently.

Next: Victorian England!

Because Victorian England was right around the time that Christmas trees were starting, I decided to make a tinsel-themed craft. This was one of our most popular crafts - In fact, we ran out of supplies 45 minutes in! Each kid got a clear glass ornament (found cheapest at Meijer) and filled them with garland. A SUPER easy craft that looks really neat!

Moving onward to: The Renaissance!

The snippets about each time period (which I put up on the "wall") are actually quotes from the musical. Great, right?!

For the Renaissance - the "stained glass" era - I decided to go with two stained-glass crafts, both from Oriental Trading. We chose two different ones because one was a bit tougher than the other, and I wanted options for all ages.
#1 (for "big kids"): Stained glass nativity suncatchers. I have to admit, I had my doubts about this one because it was definitely tougher - but it was a HUGE hit! I got more compliments on this craft than any other activity. One important key was to make the glue very watery - and it did take a number of volunteers to make sure every kid had supplies and knew what to do!

#2 (for preschoolers and littler kids): "Stained glass" nativity ornaments. This craft was great for smaller kids, but was very short and involved very little crafting. Really, the only actions needed were to punch out holes in the silhouette and stick it on the background. While it was definitely easier for little kids than option #1, most of the kids attempted the harder one instead - It was definitely more of a craft than this!

The next step back in time was to Austria during the composition of "Silent Night," when a church organ was broken down so they had to have a simple carol to be accompanied by guitar.

This is definitely the one station that was least popular and less of a real time period, so looking back, if I had to nix one of the stations, it would definitely be this one! Because the story was music-related, we had music-related activities. Each kid got a jingle bell, and could do a simple craft by choosing ribbon to add on to it.

We also had our instrument bucket out for them to play. Don't worry- I took the cymbals out before anyone came in!

Finally, we make it to Christmas at the manger!

This "station" was really just one thing - the petting farm! We have a great petting farm that we use; they bring in "nativity animals" and set the whole thing up for us. They have sheep, donkeys, even alpacas! These are definitely a huge draw and families LOVE to see them.

We also set up a nativity scene for families to take pictures at!

Whew... It was a lot of work, but I was so proud of the turnout! We had around 75 kids this year, which is definitely an increase from last year.

Merry Christmas!