What God Wants for Christmas - Interactive Nativity

A friend of ours back in Illinois recently sent the boys a Nativity set. Now this isn't just a Nativity to set up for decoration. This is an interactive set that includes a colorful pop up stable, seven gift boxes, an illustrated story booklet, six hand painted nativity characters and a heartwarming surprise in box 7.

When we opened the box the boys were eager to open up all those boxes. I finally convinced them to sit through the story book with me as we slowly opened each box separately. Overall, it took about 20 - 30 minutes to set up our new Nativity.

Box Number 1 contained the angel Gabriel and the booklet has wonderful poems to illustrate each characters role in the Nativity as well as referencing Bible verses. When we opened Gabriel we talked about how the birth of Christ had been foretold many years before by Isaiah. We discussed the patience of God's people; even though God promises us things doesn't mean those promises will be fulfilled soon.

The figures include Gabriel, Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, a shepherd and a wise man. For each box opened and character placed in the stable, we read the poem and Bible verse that described their role. The end of every poem reminded us there is something God wants for Christmas but "be patient, it's in box 7."

Inside box number 7 is a mirror to reflect the thing that God wants most for Christmas....YOU!

The boys were very quiet when we opened this box and we had a short discussion, they're only 6 after all, about how much God loves us and wants to spend eternity with us. In order to do so we only need to believe in him.

This is such a wonderful way to present the Nativity to children! The last box, the gift God wants, reels in children's curiosity so they hang on every word. They can't wait to get to number 7! I would recommend this to anyone who wants to teach their child the deeper meaning of Christ's birth. Thanks Sue!

You can find it here, here, or here.

Merry Christmas!

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever! (with not a lot of fuss)

I love church Christmas plays and pageants. Of course, maybe I like them so much because I'm not in charge of organizing and corraling a bunch of little kids in costumes! Christmas plays can get crazy! This year, at our church here in Kansas, they have a fabulous way of putting on a great pageant without a pulling your hair out fuss.

Monday after school a bunch of families met at a little farm out of town loaded with as many sheperds and angel costumes as we could dig up. I think there were about 15-20 kids, most of which were lower elementary and preschool ages.

First, all the kids dressed up as angels and then all the parents took pictures out in a the grassy yard.

Then some of the boy angels changed into sheperd costumes and the kids started acting out the Christmas story. Here the angels are waking up the sheperds. Yip laid down in a big bunch of sand burrs that covered his backside...poor kid!

Then three sheperds changed into Wise Men and more poses were struck and pictures were taken. (BTW, those Hogwarts robes did a great double duty as sheperds robes!)

Of course there were scenes with Mary, Joseph and a donkey and plenty more of the sheperds, angels and Wise Men.

Finally all the kids met in the barn for a very organized (yeah, right) photo session of the manger scene.

Once we got home all the parents sent all the digital photos to Sue who will organize this mess into a slide show for Sunday morning church service. With all the parents shooting photos it was neat to way to get tons of shots from different points of view in a short amount of time. Sue is also heading to a sheep farm to take some photos to add into the slide show later. This way the kids will also get to see themselves in the slide show.

I thought this was an awesome way to have a pageant, especially with little kids. This way of having the kids change clothes made it seem we had a lot more kids than we did. Although it took about an hour after school, I think it was much simpler than trying to get everyone happy and cooperative for twenty minutes on a Sunday morning.

Is your church braving the craziness of a Christmas pageant this year?

Marker Monday - Simple Christmas Gifts for Teachers

I never really looked forward to Christmas when I was a teacher because inevitably Christmas in a school meant candy and cookies in the teacher's lounge and Christmas gifts of candy and cookies from students. I'm all for candy and cookies but sometimes teachers get hit with an overload of sugar!


Over the Thanksgiving weekend, after Yip and Yap and I were sufficiently stuffed with turkey and pie and needed something to keep us busy during Yahoo's naptime, we sat down to work on some teacher Christmas gifts not loaded with sugar. I actually got this idea from Pioneer Woman last Christmas.


A nativity set! We spray painted some sanded scrap 2x4's and then hot glued scraps of fabric, felt, pipe cleaners and ricrac. I think we made 4 or 5 sets and it went much quicker than I anticipated.


Yap also found some ceramic floor tiles left in our garage from the previous owners. For the last couple of weeks he's been making tons of coffee coasters out of them; this is just a little sample of his creations. He covered them with watered down glue and tissue paper. After they dried we added a layer of polyurthene on top and glued felt to the bottom.

I've really enjoyed working on these projects with the boys. First of all it gets them really thinking about giving to others without just buying something off a shelf. Besides these gifts cost us practically nothing to make.

What about you? Are you making any handmade gifts to give this Christmas season?