Today at Eastport Bible Church, we had our first ever Sunday morning Children’s Christmas Celebration. Usually we do our program in the evening, but this year decided to try something new and I’m happy to share that everything went well.
We kicked off our program with our Nursery and Toddler babies singing and jingling bells. Sure, there were a few tears, because it’s a little intimidating to be in front of an entire church.
But overall, these precious little babies did an incredible job!
When it was time for the big kids to walk in, they did so to the song Christmas Hallelujah. If you haven’t heard it, you should, it’s so beautiful and was the perfect song to set the mood for our play.
Also this year, for the first time ever, we had a real, live Baby Jesus. Which is way cooler than the random plastic nursery doll we usually end up wrapping or should I say swaddling in the cloths. I have to share, when planning our program I secretly prayed that we could have a real Baby Jesus. But the babies that I knew were older than one and I figured it could be kind of tricky to convince a one year old to stay put and not jump out of the manger.
So yesterday at our practice, when I was telling a group of kids how I had really wanted a real Baby Jesus this year, the sweetest mom of some of our Hangtime students walked right up and offered her darling little 3 month old for our play. My silly prayers were answered and he was absolutely perfect!
I am so incredibly proud of all of our children!
From the shepherds to the angels to the stable animals everyone was fabulous.
We keep our Nativity play simple for a variety of reasons.
But simple is good and it gave the opportunity for our children to share in the sweetest way the story of Jesus’ birth.
These lovely girls sang “Heaven Everywhere” by Francesca Battistelli, which is another lovely Christmas song that everyone should hear.
Most of these girls have participated in our Stronger Workshop at Hangtime which is a group to encourage girls in 5th and 6th grades.
Overall, the morning was perfect.
There is something so wonderful about being a part of a church that loves and values children.
A huge thank you to everyone who was involved in making our Children’s Christmas Celebration a great success this year! Thank you for joining us in celebrating the best reason for this Season and that is Jesus, coming to earth as a baby to be our Savior. It was something so needed back then, and something that we continue to need today as well.
Laura Herr Photography 