Nativity....

[lucysmam]

Do your kids understand what xmas is about?

I mean apart from the gifts & food & seeing relatives?

I was talking to my dp last night about maybe explaining to our almost 4yo dd about baby Jesus & the Christmas story.

He looked at me a bit

I'm not very religious and neither were my parents when I was growing up, but I still knew about it & enjoyed putting our little nativity scene together though & the story.

Anyone any ideas where I could get a story book about it to introduce it to my dd & also maybe a little nativity scene with moveable figures she'd be able to put in on the relevant days?

TIA & sorry if my post doesn't make much sense, my brain seems to be on strike so far today & everything's taking a lot more explaining than it should do

I don't know about a book tbh. Your church is bound to have copies (well mine does), is it worth asking and getting some dates for the child-friendly services like Christingle or dressing the crib or carols? If you want to I mean, sounds like you do but I don't want to be accused of pushing my own (very lax) brand of Christianity down your neck!

I have a family nativity so I haven't ever bought one but google "nativity set" and there are millions, from cute to African to made of pinecones! They are an excellent way to tell the story simply and good to play with, or bash the heads off in DD's case.

Thanks Tippy, I'm not sure where the nearest Catholic church is around here so will go hunting if it's not raining tomorrow.

Will also google nativity set, I just wondered if anyone knew where would be good to get one, save me trawling the interweb

I believe Oxfam sell some nice wooden ones - you can also get a lovely nativity advent calendar which 'builds' the scene right up to Christmas.

And yes, my DS certainly knew the real reason for christmas from a very young age.

Tippychoocks has a good idea in researching your local churches for some child friendly services at Christmas.

I wish I could do that but I'd send you all over, I am crap at finding things and at links . Someone clever will be along presently I am sure.........

Me too Tippy, that's why I asked! Takes me hours to find what I'm after & then my dp whines that I've been on t'internet all day

I'll see what I can find out about local churches tomorrow hopefully & take my dd along if they have a crib service.

It's not necessarily because I want her to be religious, it's her own choice, but I always enjoyed the lead up to Christmas at church & think she should really be aware of the real meaning of Christmas

Advent Nativity sounds like something like I'm after, will get googling ............

Someone on here explained a moving creche to me - a way of assembling the nativity a piece at a time on certain days. I just bung mine out at once but I keep meaning to investigate that idea.

I bought this book a few years ago for my dd - it has lovely illustrations and tells the story simply and clearly.

I'm also starting to keep an eye out for a nice nativity set so I will keep an eye on this thread

That's the kind of thing Tikkabilla, will bookmark for a closer look when kids are in bed.

Will investigate moving creche as well later on

We had an usborne one last year which was really nice, and had a cardboard nativity scene you coukd make. We are not christians, but I think it is important for children to understand the meaning of christmas.

Well, I've just googled catholic churches in my area & there are only 2 that I know the whereabouts of so I will ring them Monday once dd is at nursery. I'd do it now but feeling particularly lazy today & not really in the mood for being on the phone

& moving creche . . . . I came up with literally moving from one creche to another so will give up on that for the moment

My DD is 3 and I plan on telling her the story this year. I'm not overly religious (she is baptised though) but I think if you are going to celebrate any holiday you should know what you're celebrating. DD's dad is a bit too but like I told him, he doesn't have to listen to the story.