Nativity Tradition

One of the common traditions for the Christmas season is to do a reenactment of the Nativity scene. There's always Mary, Joseph, wise men, shepherds, the inn keeper, baby Jesus, a donkey, sheep, angels, and whatever else we can think of until we run out of people. I actually love doing the nativity reenactments. Even though it's the same story year after year, no two are ever the same.

We were lucky this year that our friends from church were willing to come a couple of days before Christmas and join us for the annual nativity . Both of our families have 5 kids, so it was a great big group.

Our friends brought a big bin full of nativity dress up clothes, too! It was perfect! I do love playing dress up! The kids were in heaven.

I was pretty pleased that Kingston allowed us to dress him up as an angel. He's hit or miss with those kinds of things.

I'm pretty sure Kingston's willingness to be an angel was related to the fact that his "favorite Julia" was also dressed as an angel. Hey. I'm all for positive peer pressure.

Britta was very excited to play Mary. When I was in preschool I got to play Mary for our preschool nativity. I still remember it. All little girls want to be Mary for the nativity. She's the girl. 

Baby Jesus was played by a baby doll. That was probably for the best. I'm not sure either of the "babies" would have sat still long enough. They were both running around the room most of the time.

The narrator read through the script and everyone did their best to act out their parts. Normally I'm pretty serious about keeping everyone quiet and making sure they are paying attention, but with a crowd of 10 kids ages 1 to 12, there wasn't going to be any quiet. Thankfully it was still a very fun activity.

We sang a few songs throughout our performance. I love how singing invites the spirit. I also like that it can bring a bit of order amidst the chaos. I love Christmas carols!

I do think most of the kids' favorite part of the evening was riding the donkey. Mary was technically the only one that was supposed to get to ride. That didn't stop some of the other kids from soliciting a lift as well. I guess I couldn't blame them.

Overall it was a very fun way to commemorate the story of the birth of the Savior. Getting together with friends and family and remembering Him really did bring the spirit of Christmas into our hearts. I'm glad we were able to enjoy the tradition again this year.