Well, we’ve completed our Kindergarten Nativity Set project! And because my guys are too wiggly to sit through all the Bible passages that make up the story we celebrate each year, I paraphrased it for them and then added the pictures of the characters we just finished making. I’m dying to write a more humorous version because some of these characters (ok MOST of these characters) are truly funny-looking. But that’ll probably have to wait till next year when we pull this all back out.
For now, though, here’s the story of the First Christmas, foreshortened a bit by this Mama who’s about done spending time with hot glue and toilet paper tubes! 
The Christmas Story
(Taken from Luke 1:26-38, Matthew 1:18-25, Luke 2: 1-40, Matthew 2:1-21)
During the reign of King Herod of Judea, God sent an angel named Gabriel to the home of a young woman named Mary who lived in the town of Nazareth in Galilee.
He said to her, “Greetings, highly favored one! The Lord is with you.”
Mary was startled and a little bit scared. But the angel said to her, “Don’t be frightened. God loves you very much and is pleased with how you are living your life. He is going to give you a child – a son – and you are to name him Jesus. He will be unlike any other person and will be called the Son of God. He will be the King over God’s people forever.”
“How can this happen?” Mary asked, “I am a virgin.”
The angel explained, “Nothing is impossible with God. The Holy Spirit will come and make this happen, so that the child to be born will be called the Son of God.”
Mary answered, “I am the Lord’s servant; so let everything happen as you have said.” And Gabriel left her.
Now Mary was engaged to marry a man named Joseph,
but when he found out she was having a baby and knew it was not his child, he planned to break off the engagement quietly. He was a good man and though he was upset, he did not want to publicly humiliate Mary for what she had done. But after he had made his decision, an angel appeared to him in a dream and told him about God’s plan and Mary’s role as Jesus’ mother.
“She will have a son, God’s Son, and you are to name him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.” the angel told Joseph. When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel had told him and married Mary and brought her into his home.
But during that time, the Roman ruler, Caesar Augustus, decided he wanted to count all the subjects in his empire, so he issued a decree that everyone man had to take his family and go to his home town to register. So Joseph took Mary to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he was one of David’s descendants. There were so many travelers in Bethlehem, however, that they could not find any place to stay. Mary was very close to having her baby, and finally, one of the innkeepers felt sorry for them and offered them the use of his stable.
While they were there, Jesus was born. Mary wrapped him up in strips of cloth and put him in a manger.
Just outside of town, there were shepherds living out in the fields, taking care of their sheep that night.
An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the space around him lit up. The shepherds were terrified! But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I have great news to tell you! Today, in Bethlehem, a Savior has been born; he is Christ the Lord. You’ll know it’s him: he’s wrapped up in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Suddenly, a crowd of angels appeared, calling out “Glory to God in heaven, and peace on earth for his chosen people.”
When the angels left, the shepherds hurried into Bethlehem to see this baby about whom they’d been told. They found Joseph, Mary, and little Jesus lying in the manger.
They were so excited they told everyone they passed as they returned to their sheep. The people who heard them were surprised! But Mary quietly thought about everything in her heart.
Eight days after his birth, it was time for Jesus to be circumcised and dedicated to the Lord, so Mary and Joseph took him to the Temple in Jerusalem.
There was a holy man in Jerusalem named Simeon who sensed the Holy Spirit prompting him to visit the Temple that day. God had promised Simeon that he would not die before seeing the promised Messiah. When he saw Jesus, he knew this was the One, so he took him in his arms and thanked God for him.
That same day, there was also a prophetess named Anna who lived in the Temple and was waiting for the Messiah. When she met Mary and Joseph and Jesus, she knew he was the One, and she also thanked God for him.
Meanwhile, Magi from the east had seen a star in the sky and traveled to Jerusalem looking for a newborn king.
They arrived at King Herod’s palace, expecting the baby to be there. But King Herod knew nothing about it and was very worried because he didn’t want a new king to have been born. He asked the chief priests and teachers of the law to tell him where the Christ was to be born, and they told him, “in Bethlehem.”
So King Herod called the Magi back to meet with him secretly, and he told them to go to Bethlehem, find the child, and then report back to him so he could go worship him too. The wise men went on their way, following the star till it stopped over the house where Jesus and his parents were. They were overjoyed to meet him, and they gave him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
But they were warned in a dream not to return to King Herod, so the wise men went home a different way.
When they had left, God sent an angel to warn Joseph in a dream to take Mary and Jesus and run away to Egypt because Herod was jealous of Jesus and wanted to kill him. So Joseph packed up his family, and they fled.
Herod soon realized he had been tricked by the Magi and that they weren’t coming back. Furious, he ordered his soldiers to go to Bethlehem and to the villages around it and to kill every boy who was two years old or younger. He would be the only king, he thought.
But God had already protected Jesus and his parents and they were safely out of the way of Herod’s soldiers. Once Herod died, an angel visited Joseph in another dream and told him it was safe to return to Israel. But when Joseph heard that Herod’s son Archelaus was the new king, he decided to avoid Judea and took Mary and Jesus to Galilee instead. And so Jesus grew up in Nazareth.
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(The Whole Cast)
