Four ways to bring Christmas to life...

By Annette Osborne -

These are four quick ideas you can use to explore the Christmas story with children. They accompany photographs that I took in Israel in 2011. We want children to understand that the events of Christmas are not a fairytale. They happened in a real time and place, to real people. 
__________________________________________________________________ 

Spot it!
Print out pictures of Bethlehem and Nazareth as they look today, or download copies of the photos mentioned below. As a small group, look at the photos. Count how many differences you can spot between Bethlehem or Nazareth today and what it would have been like in Jesus’ day.

Israel photos:
Click on the photo's name to download the photo from our dropbox file:

__________________________________________________________________



Create it! 
In Israel, beautiful churches have been built in places where the Christmas story happened. They have amazing stained glass windows in them to help people to remember the stories of the Bible.  In those days many people didn't have a Bible to look at. 

Activity:
Create stain glass windows using cellophane and black paper. Choose a design that tells a part of the Christmas story, or like this one from Nazareth, shares an idea. This window pictures light bursting into the darkness, an image that reminds us that Jesus brought light into the world. Take your stain glass window home and hang it in a window somewhere to remind you that God sent Jesus to earth as a baby to show us how much he loved us. 
The Artful Parent: Here's a website of art activities to get you started. 

Israel photos: 
Click on the photo's name to download the photo from our dropbox file:




__________________________________________________________________

Sculpt it!  
Mary had to travel a long way to visit Elizabeth. She had to travel into the hill country of Judea, a difficult landscape. Find a large roasting dish and line it with tinfoil.  Fill it with sand at least 2cm deep. Use rocks, small branches and foliage for trees and Lego blocks for houses. Create the scene of Mary arriving at Elizabeth’s house. 

Israel photos: 
Click on the photo's name to download the photo from our dropbox file:



__________________________________________________________________


Dig it!  
Create a mini archaeological dig.  You will need a container. Start off by putting a layer of sand in the bottom. Add a couple of items (i.e. pottery pieces, shells or stones). Cover these with another layer of sand.  Add some more items and then another layer of sand.  Keep going till you reach the top. When the archaeologist comes to dig they must carefully dig away one layer at a time to see what they find. Talk together about what archaeologists have uncovered at Bethlehem. 
https://www.allaboutarchaeology.org/bethlehem.htm

 Archaeological dig at Bethlehem


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

12. Jesus has his first visitors.

By Annette Osborne -
Image
When a new baby is born, everyone wants to visit. People bring gifts and they take photographs. When Jesus was a baby some of the first visitors to meet him were these young guys who looked after sheep for a living. Some of them stayed in the fields to make sure the sheep we re okay, and a group of them travellled into Bethlehem to find this baby that the angels told them about.  This is a photograph of a painting of the shepherds. In this photograph the shepherd is an older man. Can you see how he carries the little lamb safe on his shoulders? They would have been a bit smelly. They lived out in the fields, with sheep for company. No showers, no soap and probably no change of clothes. But that doesn’t matter to God. You see, the Christmas story is full of people who weren’t famous or grea t leaders or seen as important. That’s what make it so amazing. God sent angels to tell the shepherds about the saviour of the world. Not Herod, not Augustus. Shepherds.  Do you think t
Read more

The Three Kings by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

By Annette Osborne -
Image
What a beautiful poem to read this Christmas, (despite the fact we don't know that there were three wise kings, nor do we know their names). This would make a great addition to an All-Age service, or as part of a church service during Advent. Find someone in your congregation with a great reading voice. You might even like to have them sit in a comfy arm chair with a lamp for light.  For extra drama, soak a little frankincense or myrrh oil onto cotton-wool balls and pass these out before you read the poem. Let people smell the spice of the wise kings gifts, as they listen to the poem, and take home the cotton-wool ball as a reminder.  The Three Kings  By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow  Three Kings came riding from far away, Melchior and Gaspar and Baltasar; Three Wise Men out of the East were they, And they travelled by night and they slept by day, For their guide was a beautiful, wonderful star. And when they came to Jerusalem, Herod the Great, who had heard this thing, Se
Read more

Waitangi Day

By Annette Osborne -
Image
Te Kawenata o Waitangi (the Covenant of Waitangi) The Treaty of Waitangi  signed 6 Feb 1840 “Te Kawenata o Waitangi is the name Māori gave to the Treaty of Waitangi. It means, the ‘Covenant of Waitangi’, and reflects the influence of the gospel on New Zealand history. The signing of the Treaty was not simply a contract but a covenant, in the Biblical sense of the word.” (Mark Grace, The Gospel and the Treaty of Waitangi, 2014) Waitangi Day is a great opportunity to reflect on our history as a nation, but also the part that Christians played in this historic event. Here are some ideas you might like to use in your Sunday School or children’s programme or together with all ages in your church services. Click on the links below to view and download free resources. We are keen to add to this col lection, so if you have an idea or activity we would love you to share it w ith us. Email: annette.o@sunz.o rg.nz A few main points:  Click here for a brief overview of the Tre
Read more