By Bethany Pitman
This year on Christmas Eve or during the Advent season, throw a birthday party for Jesus! This is a fun, easy way to keep kids focused on and excited about the true meaning of Christmas. Below are some party ideas:
- Decorate the room with balloons and streamers just like you would for a birthday party.
- Bake a cake for Jesus and let the kids frost and decorate it. Put candles in the cake and sing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus. Instead of singing the “How old are you” verse, kids can sing “Thank you for coming to earth! Thank you for coming to earth! Thank you for coming to earth, Jesus! Thank you for coming to earth!” All the kids can help blow out the candles.
- In a Sunday school or school setting, students can decorate their own cupcake and blow out one candle in the cupcake.
- Read the Christmas story out loud. Invite kids to act it out if they would like. Older students can break into teams and take turns presenting the different sections of the story.
- Play “pin the hay on the manger.” Draw a manger and cut out some pieces of hay, enough for each participant. Blindfold kids, spin them around, and encourage them to put the hay (with tape) on the manger. It would also work to cut out a baby Jesus and ask students to try to put Jesus into the manger.
- Play nativity bingo. Printable cards are available on various Pinterest sites. Students can use gumdrops as markers.
- Instead of children receiving a gift, you can encourage them to bring in a gift to share with someone else. Food for a local food pantry or new gifts to be shared with children who might not receive gifts are two ideas.
- Make Christmas cards to take to a nursing home or to send to the homebound.
- Send them home with a party favor bag! This could include a candy cane, some stickers of the nativity scene, and a birthday pencil.
Editor’s note: Some ideas were inspired by https://www.blessedbeyondadoubt.com/jesus-birthday-party-ideas/. CTA has many options for Scripture-based items, perfect as Christmas party favors.
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