This post is sponsored by Oriental Trading. All opinions are 100% my own.
A tradition that my husband’s family had on Christmas Eve was to get together with his mom’s sisters (there are 4 who live within a few minutes of each other) and their families and do a progressive dinner. They would stop at each home for one course of the meal and do an activity. One of the stops included telling the story of Christ’s birth and having the children act out the nativity.
When I married into Alan’s family we participated in the progressive dinner for a few years. We switched off Christmas Eve and Christmas Day between his family and my family. One of the years we participated, we had our daughter Kami who was 10 months old at the time. Alan and I got to be Joseph and Mary and Kami was baby Jesus. That was really fun for us. And doing a live nativity is a great way to bring in the Christmas Spirit.
Over the years their families had collected costume pieces to wear to represent the people in the nativity. They had gowns and halos for angels, robes for Mary and Joseph, crowns for the wise men, lots of stuffed animals, and towels and string for shepherd hats. And of course a giant star. And with lots of cousins there are plenty of kids to fill all the parts.
We did our own nativity last year on our own and we just told the story and read a little from Luke 2. That’s all our children can handle for now. Alan’s family, with the older cousins, does more of a program. If you would like to do a program with reading in the scriptures and singing songs, you can try this one!
Nativity Program
Read Luke 2:1, 3-5
(Jospeh and Mary knock on Inn door, Innkeeper says there’s no room, but they can go to the stable)
Read Luke 2:6-7
Sing: Away in a Manger
Read Luke 2:8-10 (first sentence)
(Angels: “fear not”)
Read Luke 2:13-14
Sing: Far Far Away on Judea’s Plaines
Read Luke 2:15-19
(Shepherds go to Mary and Joseph)
Read Matthew 2:1-2
Wise men sing: We Three Kings
Read Matthew 2:9-11
Sing: Silent Night
Nativity Costumes
When we acted out our own nativity last year, Kami wanted to be Mary, my husband was Jospeh, Nathan was a shepherd, Jack was a week old so of course he was baby Jesus. And Chloe…well Chloe is my child who will not be forced to do anything. She did not want to wear a costume and did not want to participate. So she elected to be stage manager and helped tell people where to go. Good enough. We just gathered things we had around the house to dress up as best as we could.
But this year we ordered costumes from Oriental Trading and they are awesome! And soooo affordable. We’re doing a Christmas Eve activity with some friends this year and will be acting out the nativity with other families so I got enough costumes for every member in the story: Mary, Joseph, shepherds, wise men, and angels.
I was so excited to get these Nativity costumes! They will be perfect for our nativity for years to come. And the kids were so excited to dress up too!
Here we have Mary, a shepherd, and a wiseman. All the outfits are cute, but I especially love the wisemen. I love the details and they feel well made.
Switching up the costumes a bit so you can see one of the other wisemen. My kids wanted to try on all the different costumes and being Mary was the most coveted by my girls.
We also got this classic picture with Nathan. And sorry the pictures are so dark. You guys, it gets dark here in Wisconsin by 4:30! So we have hardly any light to do anything involving pictures after school. Ugh.
I’m super excited to have these costumes and be able to act out the nativity with my family each year. This is a tradition I know I’ll look forward to and it’s a great way to help my children remember that we celebrate Christmas to remember the birth of the Savior, our Redeemer. I hope you have a Merry Christmas!