Making it a Christ-centered Christmas is something we have to be intentional about in our Santa and present-crazed world!
One excellent way to do this is to have a nativity set on display for your Happy Home to enjoy each day leading up to Jesus’ birthday!
There are a ton of things you can do with a nativity set to bring the Christmas Story to life for your Happy Buddies.
Here are Happy Home Fairy’s TOP 7 Ideas for Fun with Christmas Nativities…
1. Fisher Price Nativity Set – Y’all. If you have a toddler and you do not own one of these, then I am going to pray that somehow you get one ASAP.
It is literally one of the most worshipful toys you could ever purchase. Sweet Mary has her arms raised in praise and there is a precious little angel that sits on top of the stable and sings “Away in a Manger.”
When the Happy Buddy played with this for the first time, his eyes were as big as Christmas ornaments.
Last year he liked to run around carrying the Baby Jesus saying, “Je! Je!”
It filled my heart with so much joy that our son recognized the One who is our greatest gift.
You can find a set to buy HERE or check your local Christian bookstore or Target.
2. Hide Baby Jesus – Many Happy Homes like to hide Baby Jesus until Christmas morning when they bring him out, sing Happy Birthday to him, and set him in his place of honor in the nativity set.
*Just don’t forget where you hid Him at the beginning of the month! :-)*
Another Happy Home I know uses Baby Jesus as a way to help their Happy Buddies stay in bed on Christmas morning until a reasonable hour.
The deal is – the kids are not allowed out of their bedrooms until they see the Baby Jesus in the hallway outside their doors.
When they see Baby Jesus (placed by Mom or Dad when they are ready for the fun to begin), that is the signal for the kids to come out.
Can’t you just see your Happy Buddies crowded at their bedroom doors, peeking every few seconds to see if Jesus has come yet???
And when they discover Him, a shout of, “He is HERE! Jesus is HERE!”
3. The 3 Wise Men Game – This is a fun way to help your Happy Buddies understand the story of the Three Wise Men who traveled many miles following a star to find the baby Jesus.
Place your 3 Wise Men figures in the farthest room of your house.
Each day in December, move the Kings a little closer to the place where the rest of the nativity is displayed.
When Christmas arrives, so do the 3 Kings. Isn’t that fun?!?!
4. What’s Missing from the Nativity Game – Play this fun game around the dinner table one night!
Place your nativity set in the center of the table. Have everyone look at it. Then have everyone close their eyes.
While eyes are closed, one person (It) removes a piece from the scene.
When everyone opens their eyes, the first person to discover which piece is missing, gets to be It, and then the game starts over again.
Click Image for Printable
5. Nativity Ding Dong Ditch – I found a great printable nativity set HERE that you can use as a way to bless your neighbors this month!
Simply print it out and put each piece in a different envelope.
Every day in December, knock on your neighbor’s door, leave the envelope, and run like the wind!
When they open the door each day they will find another piece to the nativity.
On the last day, bring a plate of treats when you knock, but don’t run away this time. Maybe your neighbors will show you their completed set – maybe hanging on the wall in their dining room??
What a fun way to fill your neighbors’ homes with the spirit of the season!
I also found this ADORABLE nativity printable HERE!
The Ding Dong Ditch idea can also be used with a real nativity set (just wrap carefully!).
Click to Buy
6. Christmas Cookie Nativity Cutters – Do you make sugar cookies with your Happy Buddies every year?
Use these cutters to decorate cookies that tell about Jesus’ birth. Go HERE if you want to order a set for your Happy Home.
Click Image for Instructions
7. Nativity I Spy Bottles -The amazingly talented gal from the website Spell Outloud, created these I Spy Bottles using plastic bottles filled with craft pellets or rice, and then dropped in small nativity figures.
Her Happy Buddies play with the bottle – shake it up, turn it around and around, and the little nativity figures appear- magic!
Go HERE to find her instructions on how to create one for your Happy Buddies. They are REALLY EASY TO MAKE!
Happy Nativity-ing! 🙂
For little ones it’s fun to use some blocks from a set you have and tape paper nativity figures (hand-drawn or printed out or cut from an inexpensive paperback book) to them. Use them to tell the story of Jesus’ birth, and then let the children reenact it themselves. Now that FIsher Price has come out with the Little People set we have that option for little hands, but if you don’t have that set, then this idea works great! (PS – you could do this to act out other stories, too–Thanksgiving, Easter, other Bible stories, and even nursery rhymes or fairy tales.)
You are a genius!!!!!!!!!
Oriental Trading has a puppet Nativity set! It’s a great way to have the whole family involved in acting out the Christmas story as a part of a Happy Birthday Jesus party! Oriental trading also has Nativity stamps, stickers, and much more for great prices!
WHAT FABULOUS TIPS! Thank you Ashley!!!!!
Thank you for linking your blog post to the Nativity Ideas!
In our house my dad would hide baby Jesus Christmas Eve after they had put out all the presents. Then Christmas morning after breakfast we would all try to find Him. Whoever found baby Jesus got to GIVE the first present.
That is a wonderful tradition! Thank you for sharing that with me!
What a great list of activities and traditions! I love the the idea of having the nativity as our table centerpiece to use during a meal!
Some great ideas here! I really like the DIng Dong Ditch idea 🙂 I had to throw away our nativity set last year as we had a teething baby and the ancient made in china plastic figures were all peeling paint. I need another kid friendly set and fast! Thanks for the tip about the fischer price set.
Happy Home Fairy, I absolutely adore your sight. You’re so precious and I love ALL of your ideas and have used lots already! Just a quick little note to tell you something I’ve found that most Christians don’t realize (and it goes along with the Wise Men Game) the Bible doesn’t say how many Wise Men there were – only that there were three different gifts. Could have been 2 or 100! Keep on helping us make our homes happy! Merry Christmas!
Something we started doing a couple of years ago that my kids love every year is this:
When we put up our decorations, I’ll set up JUST the stable in a place the kids can reach, and put Mary, Joseph, and a donkey across the room. Over the next few days, Mary and Joseph travel closer and closer until they reach the stable. As Christmas approaches, we gradually add the different characters, telling each one’s role. On Christmas, we bring out Baby Jesus. That night, we bring out the Wise Men, placing them across the room, and have them start traveling toward the star. Usually we have them reach the Baby around January 6th (Epiphany).
Awesome ideas!!! I have this same exact same set. We are studying the 3 Wise Men this week, so we played “following the star” to Bethlehem and even detoured to a block castle with King Herod. Loads of FUN! Love your doorbell ditch idea – I’m gonna do that!!! 🙂
~Bekah @SonshineTotSchool.blogspot.com
love your nativity ideas. i have included them on my Advent Countdown Collection. i linked back to you and gave you credit. let me know what you think and if there’s any reason you don’t wish to be included, feel free to tell me that too. and by the way i love your blog. if i only have time to read a few blog posts on my Google reader, yours is always one of the first i click my way through.
Kristalyn (learning is messy)
We have the Little People Nativity and I put the characters in the first 12 bags of our advent calendar. Each morning we get one of the pieces out and I tell a little more of the story! (1. Mary, 2. Angel, 3. Joseph, 4. Donkey, 5. cart & supplies, 6. barn animals, 7. Jesus, 8. shepherds, 9. sheep 10. second angel, 11. wise men, 12. camel) My boys get so excited! 🙂
We have the Playmobil nativity set. When my older daughter was only 2, we just left the tiny pieces in the box and let her play with the figures. It is still a favorite toy, 5 years later, and not only at Christmas time.