Nativity Plays, Christmas Wallpaper and a Baby Taking Centre Stage 

In last month’s blog my colleague Becky contrasted our two differing approaches to getting ready for Christmas. She is the equivalent of last minute.com and I am an advance planner who might have started planning in the summer holidays…. guilty as charged! One of Becky’s excuses was that when she tried to be organised, the first thing on her to do list was to put the school nativity dates in her diary. When the school didn’t publish the aforesaid dates on the given week in September on Becky’s plan…BOOM her organisation crumbled.

School nativity plays might have a lot to answer for, but I’m not sure a late date in the diary can be blamed for only having bought 4 Terry’s Chocolate Oranges by the beginning of November! Now, I have perhaps sat through more nativity plays than most people. I’ve been a teacher and was also a children and families lead in a church which involved supporting local schools. If you include the many rehearsals I had to endure, my nativity total one year was 23!

Don’t get me wrong, nativity plays are a fantastic mission opportunity; what parent doesn’t want to watch their little darling dressed up in a tea towel or an overload of tinsel and feathers? The queues of parents blocking the pavement on cold December days trying to get front row seats to watch their littles ones through their camera phones is testimony to this. School nativities were legendary in my house as we lost the Dyson for days! First it was needed to clear up the copious amounts of glitter and feathers in rehearsals (public service announcement…feathers do not hoover up well and I often had to resort to gaffa tape) and then the nativity picnics, as families seemed to eat their evening meal during performances …and leave enough on the floor for many a church mouse to have a feast afterwards!

However, what I learned from all of these nativity plays was that it wasn’t all about the tea towels, feathers and glitter. We expect shepherds (tea towels) and angels (feathers), but there were a plethora of other characters involved too. Now I know that nativity plays often don’t stick to the Biblical script (which itself doesn’t actually mention an innkeeper, donkey or how many magi there were); but who knew that the birth of Jesus also included mice, chickens and even aliens! With a vast array of characters, giving every child a part to play, it’s easy for the baby in the manger to be lost, overshadowed, swamped by everything else.


And it’s not just nativity plays. I think very often, our Christmas festivities have made the story of Jesus’ birth mere background wallpaper and cute set dressing for the spotlight on feasting, family, decorations and of course presents. So here’s my hope (no pun intended) for this year…let’s make Jesus, the baby in the manger, the main thing. Let’s bring Jesus centre stage and turn the spotlight on him. Let’s get the balance right between what’s wallpaper and set dressing, and what’s the main act.

So how do we do this? I’m reminded that 800 years before Jesus’ birth Isaiah announced that; ‘the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.’ (Isaiah 9:2). 800 years before Jesus’ birth, Isaiah writes in the past tense; so sure and certain is he that a light will come into the world. That’s faith. Just think about it for a minute, 800 years before Jesus was born, 800+ years before Jesus announced that he was and is the light of the world, Isaiah saw and accepted it. Wow! So surely, it’s easier for us who look back on the birth of Jesus and now are waiting for him to come again to put Jesus, the light of the world, in the spotlight this Christmas.

The world is looking for light; many people are walking in darkness. This Christmas will be hard for many, with the cost-of-living crisis, mounting mortgage costs, hospital waiting lists and mental health issues looming large at home, before we even look further afield to wars in Ukraine and Israel. Increasingly we are being told that people are beginning again to look for something ‘other:’ other to the temporal, imminent frame we live in where science and education are supposed to be able to explain and rationalise everything; but maybe are beginning to be found wanting.


So let’s point people to the ‘other’ this Christmas, to the light in the darkness, the baby in the manger who grew into the man who loved the broken world so much that he died and came back to life to fix it. This is what many churches and Christians will be doing over the weekend of 16-17 December. As part of the Shine Your Light campaign www.shineyourlight.org.uk Christians are being urged to take Christmas events, carols and nativities outside the building and into our communities. Jesus said that he was the light of the world but he also said that we are the light of the world (Matt 5:14) so let’s shine our light by sharing the good news of the baby in the manger with our communities through carols and story.

What’s more, the many Christian organisations involved in Shine Your Light have made it easy for us, with resources to download or buy; everything from invitations, posters and banners, to fully planned programmes (short, accessible for our communities) and follow up resources.

Here at Hope and Hope for Every Home we’re excited to be part of this. We want everyone everywhere to know Jesus, to have his light in the darkness. We want this light to shine on every street and in every home. So we have lots of resources to help you too. Lots of us send Christmas cards, so lets be intentional about them and send ones to our neighbours and friends which point them to Jesus, the light in the darkness. You can find all the following resources available from our shop, here.



This year we have an adult card, ‘Trust, Follow the Star’ designed by the artist Sara Sherwood which links people, via a QR code, with both Sara’s story of finding the light and our magazine.




 

Our magazine is a perfect conversation starter with non-Christian neighbours and friends with features on well known celebrities who gently share their faith as well as real life stories…a lady who walked into a church carol 

service and became a Christian!

Our gift book, ‘The Gift of Christmas’ which explains where much of our Christmas wallpaper comes from is the perfect giveaway at carol services and events.

We also have resources for families too. Our Happyland, Jesus to the Rescue book tells the Christmas story for under 5’s and comes with a free animation, action song, church service and toddler group resources.


 

This year we also have some Lego Christmas cards which tell the Christmas story and link (via a QR code) to a Lego Christmas story made by our friends at Go Chatter. You can even find the baby in the manger when you are out and about doing your Christmas shopping! We have partnered with The Entertainer Toyshop who are hosting a free Lego Christmas Story Family Trail in their toyshops across the UK. Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the shepherds and magi have got lost in the toyshop and we need people to find them. Hunt for the characters around the toyshop and when you find them use your phone to scan the QR code to watch an augmented reality version of their story. Maybe you have an Entertainer Toyshop near you and could invite families you know to take part! There are more details in our Hope magazine and also here

So, there’s the challenge, whether you are a lastminute.com or advanced planner, when it comes to Christmas preparations, let’s put the baby in the manger centre stage so that people who walk in darkness can see the light. Let’s be the light and shine our light as we intentionally share the good news about Jesus with our non-Christian neighbours and friends; and like Isaiah, let’s see with eyes of faith, believing that ‘the people who once walked in darkness have seen a great light.’

Happy Christmas! Emmanuel, God with us!