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Shepherds at the Manger
The following sample story/skit is from Meet Me at the Manger, a Biblically-based Christmas Party Event for Children's Ministry ( K-5th grade). Very little preparation is required, just gather a few items and you're ready to go! Our Christmas Party Event Planner helps children joyfully celebrate the Advent season while learning about the birth of King Jesus, the real reason for the season, as recorded in the shepherd narrative from the gospel of Luke. This also makes for a great outreach event to the children in your community.
Preparation
Narrator reads while children
act out the following story based on Luke 2:1-20. Emphasize the bolded words, pausing long enough to give children time to pantomime them.
Before beginning, review the bolded words and the actions suggested below, or allow children to help decide the hand motions. For example,
Counted: count your fingers; Baby: rock “baby” in your arms; Animals: assign animal sounds to the class, e.g. cows: moo,
sheep: baa, goats: maa, horses: neigh, ducks: quack, chickens: cluck, etc.;
Pee-ew: pinch nose; Shepherds: cup hand over eyes as if watching out for the sheep;
Sheep: say, “baa-baa”; Angel: wave arms, “wings” up and down;
God: point up; Afraid: scared face; Praise/praising: hands lifted in
praise.
Narrator
“In those days, Caesar Augustus, the leader of the Roman Empire, made a law. He decided that all people living in his territory must return to their hometowns to be
counted.
Joseph obeyed the order and returned to Bethlehem of Judea, his hometown, the same city where King David once lived. Joseph went there with Mary to be
counted. Mary was pregnant and knew the baby would be born soon. They needed to find a place to rest. But the town was packed with people who were also coming to be
counted! The only vacant place for Mary and Joseph to stay was in a stable full of
animals! It must have smelled terrible! Pee-ew! While they were there, Mary gave birth to her first
baby—a boy! She wrapped him in strips of cloth and placed him in a manger, a food trough for
animals, because there was nowhere else for them to stay!
That night some shepherds were in the fields nearby, watching over their
sheep. Suddenly
an Angel of the Lord appeared to them. God’s glory, his wonderful Holy Presence, shone
around them. The shepherds were very afraid! The Angel said . . .
"
Did you enjoy this sample story/skit? Learn more!
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Bethlehem Drive-Through
Community Witness Christmas Drama
Our Bethlehem Drive-Through event is the perfect Christmas drama for your youth ministry! It is a fun and effective way to witness to your community during the Advent season. Stations are set up to tell important parts of the Christmas story as visitors drive through "Bethlehem," passing each station, and then arriving at the manger scene for the final destination.
Once people have driven by the stations, you might invite them to park their cars, and come inside your church to watch the movie "Jesus," and/or serve cider and cookies during a Christmas carol sing-along.
The book includes planning, actor parts, set up ideas, and patterns to create background silhouette scenes. If you use this function as a fundraiser, you could collect donations at the exit.
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Your webservant,
Sarah Keith
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