This month of December, we’re trying to prepare our young children’s hearts for Christmas through stories and activities a few days a week. This year we’ve mainly done the Crossing Kids Family Advent Devotional (the PDF is at the top of this page), although we’ve had to adapt it for our younger kids. The past few years, though, we’ve done our own short, preschool-friendly devotions at home. It was nothing too fancy, but the kids have loved it. Here’s what we have done:
Read the story to your child. Here are a few good ways to communicate the story:
- Read “The Birth of Jesus” (p 28) from A Little Child’s First Bible
- Read “The Special Baby” (p 222) from The Rhyme Storybook Bible
- Read “He’s Here” (p 176) from The Jesus Storybook Bible (this Bible is best for older preschoolers)
- If you don’t have one of these books, read Luke 2:1-7 yourself and share it with your child or children in your own words.
2. Reinforcement and Application Activities: Choose one or more of these activities to help your child understand and apply the story to his/her life.
- Play with a nativity set or whatever toys work around your house to make your own. (We pulled out the Little People horse stable and some pieces from our Little People house set to creative our own nativity scene. We don’t emphasize the fact that our Joseph has a cell phone!) Act out the story with the nativity pieces.
- Wrap a baby doll in cloths and lay him in a “manger” (i.e. a box). You might even want to pull some grass (i.e. hay) and put in the manger. Talk about how Jesus—God’s son–was born as a baby on Christmas Day and placed in a manger. A manger was a feeding trough for barn animals.
- Dress up as different characters from the story using sheets over your head and robes and acting out the story together. Ideas for characters: donkey, Mary, Joseph, inn keeper, animals from the stable. Your child will love being Joseph as he pulls the “donkey” or Mary as she rides on the “donkey”.
- Pull out all your stuffed or toy animals around the house. Ask kids the animals’ names, what sound they make, and if they may have been at the stable when Jesus, God’s Son, was born. Kids (and parents) may even want to pretend to be the different animals in the stable.
- Color or watercolor paint a picture or Christmas ornament of the nativity scene as you talk about the story together.
Read the story to your child:
- Luke 2:8-20 (paraphrase in your own words)
- “Shepherds” in The Rhyme Storybook Bible (p. 238)
- “The Light of the Whole World” in The Jesus Storybook Bible (p. 184) (best for older preschoolers)
Reinforcement and Application Activities: Choose one or more of these activities to help your child understand and apply the story to his/her life.
- Place “baby Jesus” (or other nativity figures) somewhere in your house. Then, read Luke 2:10 (what the angels said to the shepherds). Have your child pretend to be a shepherd and run as fast as he can to find Jesus. Ask: What do you think the shepherds did or said when they saw baby Jesus? Who do you think they told about this good news? Have them act it out.
- Dress up as shepherds (i.e. a robe and sheet over head). Hide a plush sheep (if you have one) in the house and have your child try to find it. Talk about how shepherds walked around over fields, protecting their sheep, day and night.
- Sing and/or dance to a favorite Christmas song (one that praises God and/or speaks of Jesus, of course). Some song ideas: Joy to the World, Angels We Have Heard On High, Go Tell It on the Mountain, Away in a Manger. Talk about how the angels and shepherds sang to and praised God the night of Jesus’ birth.
- Color a picture of the shepherds and/or angels who came on Christmas. Here are a few coloring Sheet links:
http://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/print/christmas-shepherds-coloring-page/
http://www.itmimg.org/images/youth/Shepherds.gif
http://www.teacherhelp.org/pdf/luke2-11niv.pdf
- Talk about how the shepherds shared the good news of Jesus’ birth with others. Ask: Who can you tell about Jesus’ birth this week? Perhaps your child can send or give one of their Christmas coloring sheets to a neighbor or family member. Or, have your child help you send out Christmas cards that “tell the good news”.
Read the story of the Wise Men to your child:
- Matthew 2:1-12 (paraphrase in your own words)
- “The Wise Men” in The Rhyme Storybook Bible (p. 250)
- “The King of all kings” in The Jesus Storybook Bible (p. 192) (best for older preschoolers)
Reinforcement and Application Activities: Choose one or more of these activities to help your child understand and apply the story to his/her life.
- Hide baby Jesus somewhere in your house. Take a shiny star or ball ornament off of your Christmas tree to be the “star” that the Wise Men followed to find Jesus. Have your preschooler carry the Wise Men and have them follow the star (that you will carry to baby Jesus) until they find Jesus. Switch roles and let your preschooler guide the Wise Men with the star.
- Color or water color paint a coloring sheet of the Wise Men while discussing the story.
o http://dailycoloringpages.com/images/three-wise-men-christmas-coloring-pages-01.png
o http://dailycoloringpages.com/images/three-wise-men-christmas-coloring-pages-04.png
o http://dailycoloringpages.com/images/three-wise-men-christmas-coloring-pages-06.png
- Find three different gifts around your house that the Wise Men can give to King Jesus. (We used a Little People treasure chest, a coin, and a scented candle to represent the different gifts.) Reenact this part of the story. Talk about how the Wise Men wanted to worship and show their love for King Jesus by giving him wonderful gifts.
- Explain that when we give gifts to others (like the Wise Men did to Jesus), we are worshiping and showing our love for Jesus. Think of a way to help your child learn to give to those in need this Christmas. Some ideas:
o Pick out an animal from the World Vision catalogue to purchase and give to someone in a impoverished country.
o Have him/her give some money to Salvation Army at the grocery store.
o Make food or cookies for an elderly neighbor.
Week 4: Review
For the final week before Christmas, we just reviewed each of the previous three stories and chose their favorite activities to do again. Young kids love and learn best from repetition, so it’s a great way to drive home the Christmas story.
This post was originally a series of posts in December 2009 on www.everysquareinch.net and www.healthyrefuge.com.
