Thursday, December 12, 2024
You may recall that I (Laura) have been in the midst
of refreshing our three bedrooms this fall,
as we turn our girls’ childhood rooms into a legitimate guest room and a home office.
We’ve lived with rotating furniture that’s been housed
in our living room and dining room these past weeks
as floors were refinished and new coats of paint were added!
As a result, we’re just getting around to decorating for the holidays ahead!
Just in time, too!
My Santa collection
and our decorated tree
are filled with such lovely reminders of the past…
Filled with gifts from former students, choir members, friends and family!
However, the Christmas decor I’m most excited to put out each year
is my collection of Nativity scenes!
We received our first Nativity set as a wedding gift 40 years ago!
Since then I’ve looked for them when traveling or at vintage stores
and I've even inherited a few!
My most cherished ones are on display
once Advent begins through the start of Epiphany and sometimes beyond!
A few of my favorites!
You probably won’t be surprised to learn
that I’ve also acquired my share of Nativity scenes for Littles along the way!
Our Nativity puppets are especially fun!
When our own daughters were little,
they’d put on a Christmas morning puppet show for my hubby and I!
Now I get to share these special “friends” and their story
with a new generation of Littles
and I’m always trying to find a fun way to plant seeds of faith
whenever and wherever I can!
Last year, we shared two posts
filled with meaningful ways to introduce Littles to the Christmas story.
In this post we offered suggestions for introducing or for retelling
the Christmas story with our Littles, including some favorite games and activities!
Last year Little L and I shared a simple and yummy Nativity idea with you!
I love this short video of Little L from last year!
She has grown so much since that sweet moment...
Back then I called myself "Gramma" and Little L called me nothing.
Now I'm her Bacco!
This year I wanted to come up with a new way
to share the Christmas story with Little L…
Then I remembered this fun way of retelling the story!
During our recent Thanksgiving visit, Little L was so excited
when her mom pulled out her Fisher Price Nativity set to unwrap.
Last year’s unwrapping!
Little L spent a day or two playing with the figures…
I’d name a character and she’d find it,
I’d hide one and she’d try to figure out which one was missing
And, of course, we acted out the story again and again!
We also watched this video (a few times... or more) and sang along!
It’s one I introduced last year!
And now we’ve been humming it for a few weeks once again!
Years ago, when teaching Sunday School, our class made this fun project..
It was a wonderful way to recall the people and events
that, together, tell the Christmas story.
While Little L is only two (she’ll be three in a few weeks),
I know that she loves stringing beads and that she has a great memory, too..
So, I decided to bring the project supplies along on a recent visit
to see what she’d think and do!
Our Little Santa was intrigued!
Nativity Bracelet Supplies (supplies for one bracelet)
🔵 a pipe cleaner
🔵 colored pony beads (see the next section for the colors we used)
🔵 a star bead
🔵 a heart bead
🔵 a jingle bell
PLEASE NOTE
A while back I had purchased a bag of assorted pony beads for other projects so I used colors that I already had available. (Here’s the bag I purchased - It lasts a long time!) Recently, I purchased a bag of shaped beads here.. However, you DO NOT need to purchase special shaped beads - you could always use a permanent marker and draw a small star on a yellow bead and a small heart on a red one. Also, I already had jingle bells in my stash of Christmas craft supplies. While you don't necessarily need to add a bell to your bracelet, it definitely adds a special touch! You can easily find jingle bells at Amazon or even a dollar store this time of year and they might be a fun addition to your own GRAND stash!
Making Your Nativity Bracelet
Before you begin, decide which bead color you will use for each character in the story. Older Littles will have fun determining this step themselves!
You may have also noticed that we added one BELL bead near the end of the story so we could sing “Angels We Have Heard On High” together. You could also add the BELL bead when the star appears and the angel announces Jesus’s birth to the shepherds. Older Littles may enjoy adding extra beads/details to their own bracelets.
A Few Tips for Success!
Tip 1 - If you have Nativity figures available, as we did above, tell the story before you offer the beads and line the characters up in the order they appear in the story. Then, once the beads are introduced, your Little can follow that sequence to find and add each bead to the bracelet.
Tip 2 - With that said, YOU decide how many beads should be included in your young Little's bracelet. We added lots of beads but if we'd done this activity a year ago, our bracelet might have only had 5 or 6 beads that introduced a few of the characters from the story only (i.e. Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, the Angel and perhaps a Shepherd and/or Wiseman.). Meet your own Little where they are developmentally!
Tip 3 - Each time you add a new bead, retell the story up to that point, repeating the names of the characters introduced thus far. This repetition helps your Little sequence the story!
Tip 4 - We loved singing “Angels We Have Heard On High” - Little L especially loved singing “Glo - - - ria!” and I was equally thrilled to hear her voice as she belted it out! We also sang, “Jesus Loves Me!” and "Happy Birthday" to Jesus as special reminders of God's love for us all!
Tip 5 - DON’T WORRY IF THE BEADS GO ON IN A DIFFERENT SEQUENCE THAN PLANNED! Little L mixed up a few of the beads and an extra one (that happens to be her favorite color) made it onto the bracelet, too. Oh well! As long as she knows which bead goes with each character (or is her favorite color 😉), that’s what matters!
REMEMBER… As GRANDS we can plant seeds!
It's doubtful that Little L will remember this activity in years to come.
Rather, we know that with each experience provided,
we are nurturing faith
planting seeds year after year,
laying the foundation of God’s love in our Little's life!
What Littles will remember,
by making this bracelet or doing some of the activities shared in our earlier posts,
is some of the vocabulary talked about,
the characters that brought moments of fun,
the music that's been sung
and the bits of the Christmas story that's been told!
Most importantly, our Littles will recall the feeling of love and joy shared!
A precious gift for all involved!
Next week, Little L and her family are coming to visit
and I can’t wait to share my Nativity collection with her in person!
I’m sure we’ll be singing “Glo - - - -ria” over and over again and I can’t wait!
This project would be a fun one to do with Littles of all ages,
and would be a great addition to a Sunday School lesson,
as an Advent festival station,
over Winter Break when the Littles are at home
or during a Christmas family gathering!
We hope you agree!
PLEASE COMMENT and SHARE
if you have your own unique ways to share the Christmas story with Littles!
We always learn so much from you!
Please share in the comments section at the end of this post
or email us directly at ourgrandlives@gmail.com
THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
You can always find us by visiting our social media sites!
Just tap on any of the links above and we’ll take you there
where you’ll see new ideas regularly!
We invite you to follow us on these platforms, too!
We’ll be back TOMORROW when Laurie will share one of her annual faves…
Christmas Craft Day, 2024!
We hope you’ll stop by to check out this fun tradition!!
You can always subscribe here and that way
you’ll know when a new post is published!
💗 We are delighted to join the following link up parties and blog hops! 💗
MONTHLY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
I love this so much! Thank you for sharing with us at The Crazy Little Lovebirds link party #67. :)
Steph@CrazyLittleLovebirds
So interesting I have never heard of a nativity bracelet. Thanks for sharing at Create-it Link Party https://tryit-likeit.com/link-party-it/
I love the history and the story of your family navitity and how you've expanded it to include the children with the beaded activities over the years. Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and thanks for your support this year and for joining in with #pocolo
This is such a sweet idea. I am excited to share this post as a feature this week. #HomeMattersParty
What a cute idea and a wonderful way to share the story of Christmas. I love all your Christmas decor too!