1-Day Christmas VBS in December
We did our Christmas VBS event last weekend. We had 18 kids registered (two did not show up--one was sick). We had 3 kids just show up--they had seen our banner at the corner (they had to take a bus from 2 suburbs over so it was a bit of work for them to get here). Of these 21 kids, 8 were not members of our church. Our pastor was at the event and had a chance to talk to some of these families--so we will see about that.
The kids seemed to have a good time and seemed to know the Christmas story better by the end of the afternoon. The volunteers had a great time--a number of them were saying things like "When we do this next year, we should...........". So I think that we will probably do it again. And we will check with Pastor to see if anything comes from the visitors.
Here is a brief overview of how the afternoon went (Here is the link to the specific lessons I have posted here). The time of our event was from 1-4 pm. We had a 15 minute opening (to give kids a chance to be dropped off). During the opening, they decorated gift bags--at each activity station they got an item to put into their bag. Then we had 5 activity stations (each 30 minutes long). There was a 15 minute closing session at the end where the kids could watch a video or color while waiting for their parents. We had the kids divided into 3 groups--each group had 2 youth group members serving as guides. Each activity station had a teacher and a helper. One of these 2 persons was the narrator--we told the Christmas story from the perspective of 5 different characters. Here is a brief overview:
| Station | Narrator | Activity Overview | Gift Bag Item |
| Opening | n/a | 15 minute gathering time. Tables with crayons and markers so that kids can decorate their gift bags | The gift bag! |
| Games | Mary | Go through an obstacle course--the various obstacles retell Mary's story | flyer about our church and Sunday School |
| Drama | Shepherd | Put on costumes and act out the story | Christmas tract--The Gift of Christmas |
| Cooking | Angel | Put together a snack mix--the ingredients help tell the story | Their left-over snack and the "recipe" (with the meanings) |
| Storytelling | Joseph | Scavenger hunt to find gift boxes (which have stickers relating to the Christmas story). Each child has a card stock Christmas tree that they decorate with these ornaments. | Their tree |
| Gift | Magi | They will put together a brownie mix (in a bag not a jar) as a gift. | The gift and the recipe |
