Birthday Party For Jesus

Neighborhood children can be invited to this event held during the Christmas season. Someone dressed as one of the Christmas Wise Men talks to the children about the first Christmas, and then leads them to the altar where they deposit canned goods or other gifts to be given to the needy. The children then go to tables for crafts and snacks.

Script for the Wise Man:

Boys and girls, I’m here to tell you a wonderful story. Do you like stories? Well this story is a true story, not a fairy tale. It’s about the very first Christmas.

I used to belong to a group of men who spent their time studying the stars. And one night a bright star appeared that we had never seen before. We knew that this must mean that something special had happened, so we looked in some very old books about stars and guess what we found out. One of the books said that a star appearing like this meant that a baby had been born who would be the king of the Jews. Just think, a special star for a baby king. We had been studying stars for a long time and this had never happened before! We were so excited that some of us decided to follow that star and try to find this baby king. If we could just see Him! When you visit a king you usually bring him gifts. We could do that!

Well you wouldn’t believe the adventure we had! We traveled for several weeks and that star seemed to be leading us to the city of Jerusalem. That is where King Herod lived. We started asking people about where we could find the baby king, but would you believe it, no one seemed to know anything about him. Didn’t they know about the star? Pretty soon King Herod heard that we were in town and for some reason he got pretty upset about there being a baby king. So he got all of the Bible experts together and asked them if they could find out anything about it. Sure enough, it said right there in the Bible that the king would be born in Bethlehem. But I guess Herod didn’t want anyone to know about it so he secretly invited us to his palace. He asked when we had first seen the star and then told us to look for the baby king in Bethlehem. He said that after we found the baby we should come back and tell him so he could worship the baby too. Do you think he wanted to bring him presents too? We couldn’t figure out why he wanted to keep such a wonderful thing a secret.

The night we left the palace, we looked up and there was the star so we followed it again and were sure that it would not be long before we would find the baby king. And then one night, the star seemed to stop and shine right over a small house. Could this be the place? It didn’t look like a special place for a king – just a simple house. Do you think a baby king could be in a place like that? There was only one way to find out. We knocked on the door and a man named Joseph answered. We told him who we were and about the star. Then we asked him about the baby. He smiled and, would you believe it, he said, “You’re at the right place. Come on in if you want to see the baby.”

I wish you could have been there. As soon as we saw the baby king we all fell to our knees and worshiped Him. This was no ordinary baby. The star had led us to the baby king. We were so happy to have been able to find Him and actually be there at the time of His birth. We couldn’t wait to give Him the presents be brought.

We were planning to go back to Jerusalem to tell King Herod that we had found the baby king but, would you believe it , I had a dream the night before that warned us not to go back to Herod and tell him where the baby was. Maybe Herod didn’t want to worship the baby after all. God had also spoken to the baby’s mother, Mary, and to Joseph about the baby’s special birth, and now He was telling us to go home a different way.

Well, now you know my special story. I love to tell people about the star and the baby king. And today you are all here to celebrate His birthday. Can anyone here tell me what his name is?

When the Baby Jesus grew up he spent His life showing love to people and helping them. And we know that even today He loves us and wants to help us. Even though we can’t see Jesus today, like I did back in Bethlehem, He promised to be with us. It’s something like the air around us. Can you see it? But it’s still there. So Jesus is right here with us today. Did you bring a present for His birthday party? There is a way to give that present to Him today. Do you know how to do it?

Jesus said that if you give a present to someone who is poor and doesn’t have enough to eat or doesn’t have clothes or blankets, it’s the same as giving it to Him. So, get your presents and let’s pretend that this lazar light is a star like the one I followed at that first Christmas. Let’s get in line and follow the star to a place where we can give our presents to Jesus.

(Children follow the “star” around the building and up to the alter with “ We Three Kings of Orient Are” as background music. Their gifts are received with a thank you and a promise to distribute them to the poor.)

Note: To help keep the children’s attention, whenever the word “star” is mentioned in the story a child stands up with a picture of a star on a sign, then sits down and hands the sign to the next child. The same is done when the words “baby king” are mentioned - with a picture of the baby Jesus.

Craft ideas:
Make stars by wrapping wire or pipe cleaner around a form. Make a star mobile. Make a star by gluing toothpicks together. Put a star sticker on piece of dark blue poster board for a tree ornament.

Game ideas:
Follow the leader with the laser light. Magnet maze – get Wiseman to Baby Jesus

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