Unwrapping The True Meaning of Christmas Sequel

Because it was so successful last year and since this is my last Sunday I will be here this year (heading to Utah for Christmas!) I'm reviving the old "Unwrapping the True Meaning of Christmas" fun.  Of course I will make sure and keep things fun and reverent and each time we add a character to the nativity we talk about the importance of that character in the Christmas Story.  Make sure and pass around the bucket of treats at the end or hand them to teachers to hand out after church!  Let's have some fun this week!

Silent Night With Handbells

Thank you to anyone who scoured the internet and their files in search for an easy hand bell part . . .in the end  I buckled down and wrote a simple one any of  the kids could play along with for Silent Night!  Hand bells work amazing in Sr. Primary especially but the younger ones can do it with help from their teachers and older primary kids.  Make sure you teach them how to ring their bell with their wrist and then pull it close to their bodies to stop the sound.  It is an amazing activity that year after year has been a favorite among my primary kids!  Have fun with it!  I only had a simple 8 note handbell set so I color coded based on the bells color for the little kids.  The notes in parenthesis are what I call "advanced placement primary!) and can be played along with the main note for a wonderful full sound.  Good luck, I'd love to hear if anyone else is using instruments this season. Oh one more thing  the pink colored (C) are the highest C bell and the red colored ones are the lowest C bell. And last but not least if you want another primary song with a bell part check out my post from last year for the song "Once Within a Lowly Stable"
.  Silent Night Bells

Samuel Tells of the Baby Jesus

For the Christmas Sacrament Meeting Program our primary has been asked to sing "Samuel Tells of the Baby Jesus." It's a different sounding song, kind of worded interestingly but definitely could be a lot of fun. It also presents a wonderful opportunity to teach the story of Samuel the Lamanite and how that coordinates with the whole Christmas Story. Last week I just introduced the song to see really who knew it and here's what I did. I started out by showing this really cool picture of Samuel the Lamanite that I had purchased a few years ago . . .

Then I got one of the boys and had him come and walk through the story which I told with a lot of flair.  We talked about how it must have felt to be run out of the city of wicked NEPHITES and then to have to return knowing they wanted to kill you.  Then I had the boy stand on a chair like the wall in front of the primary.  Next I handed out lightly wadded up balls of paper to select individuals (ones that aren't going to be too out of control)  As we talked about the message he was sharing. . .that Christ would be born within 5 years and that if they continued to be wicked they would be destroyed some of the kids started tossing the papers at Samuel.  I of course played the role of  "the spirit of the Lord" that protected him and actually only got hit in the face with one wad of paper!  I then helped Samuel jump off the wall and escape into the woods.

Line by line I introduced the first verse and chorus of the song and the kids caught on really quickly. . .now what to do with verse two. . .hmmm?  It was a really great opportunity to talk to the kids about standing up for what you know is right and following the Lord no matter how scary the situation seems.