A Christmas Story

Last night at small group, we did our “Christmas night”, which always consists of studying something related to, well, obviously the Christmas story.

However, this year, Greg had the great idea of doing the Christmas story for the kids before they went to bed. Then Lydia took that idea and made it brilliant by gathering scraps of material and letting them dress up and act it out.

So, without further ado, I will introduce you to the cast:

Claire made a perfect little Mary. . . and even though we had multiple baby boys to choose from to be Jesus, someone wisely chose a baby doll for the role.
Benjamin and Nathaniel played Shepherds with the help of some Hallmark sheep to add to their authenticity:
AJ was Wise “Man” #1. . .
Abby was Wise “man” #2. . .
And Ali got the role as Wise “Man” #3 (which, by the way, is a MUCH better role than I got in the one Christmas Story play I was in as a child. I was either the Donkey or the Cow, I can’t remember which. I just remember the huge, stuffed, brown costume).. . . and Brooks was Gabriel:
Who knew we had such a shortage of men until we assigned these roles? Good thing Radford and Zechariah are growing up fast – we need them!

So. After getting everyone dressed, we handed out props. The Wise Men received their presents:
. . .and inspected them thoroughly.
You know, it’s wise to make sure that gifts are safe that you’re going to give a King. No bombs, poison, etc.

They also had wise conversations. . .
But then it was time to start the play!!!

As the narrator (Lydia) read, Gabriel came out and proclaimed the good news to the shepherds (and one wise man who was a bit early in her arrival):
As Gabriel left, the shepherds were SORE AFRAID (however, the wise man, being wise, was quite calm about the whole affair):
The shepherds immediately went to find Baby Jesus. . .
. . . and bowed down to worship Him. . . or at least one Shepherd did. The other one was having a discussion with the early-arriving Wise Man about what was a better gift: a stuffed sheep from Hallmark or Myrrh?
The wise men anxiously “listened” to the story, waiting for their cue to arrive on the scene. . .
And they proudly presented their gifts to Baby Jesus:. . .despite the fact that even wise men have wardrobe malfunctions.
Or maybe I should say, despite the fact that wise men especially have wardrobe malfunctions.
After the play, everyone got a turn to pray and thank Jesus for coming:And AJ’s little prayer hands during her turn were just precious.
And one more picture of (almost) all of the cast:
Encore!! Encore!!