Nativity 2012
16 Dec 2012 09:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
curiouswombatI don't have a picture... yet. I was so much in the middle of things that I didn't take one - but I know a couple of people who did :)
However - for your delectation - the write-up of this year's Nativity service.
After the lighting of the advent ring by a new little girl, an opening prayer, and the notices and so on, we swung into the Nativity proper.
One of the teenagers was the narrator and I was the go-fer! You'll see why we needed a go-fer when I explain that we began by getting the congregation to play pass-the-parcel. (I'm assuming this is a universally known party game...) Our church seating is in three blocks so we had a parcel for each block - and when the music stopped and the first people opened the parcels they found notes requesting them to take the parts of Mary, Joseph, and Gabriel... I invited them up to the Sanctuary and saw to their costumes etc. whilst the congregation sang a carol.
'Mary' was opened by a lady in her 70s who actually passed it to her neighbour - which was perfect as this was the Mum of a 10 month old baby boy and she brought him up with her! We draped a square of blue fabric around her shoulders and lo - she was 'in costume'.
Gabriel was a lovely, elegant, middle-aged lady who happily put the tinsel head-dress from her parcel on, and came up to the sanctuary - and Joseph was an 8 year old boy whose costume was achieved by giving him a proper head-dress.
As the readings at this stage were about Gabriel appearing to Mary and then to Joseph, I took baby Charlie and he helped me announce readers and the next carol until we reached the point in the story where the baby was born!
The second round of pass the parcel brought our shepherds to the sanctuary. They got chocolate sheep in their layer of parcel and then were given toy sheep when they arrived. One shepherd was another lady in her 70s - one was my sister - and the third was Little Miss Smile (the three year old whose picture you may have seen previously) - who came up complete with her Mum, and so we now had 6 adults, including me, two children, one teenager and a baby on the Sanctuary.
It was getting difficult for the narrator and the readers to reach the lectern! Fortunately the readers (adults and a couple more teenagers) came up, read, and then went back to their seats.
As the readers read, and we sang, my narrator and I realised we had missed one of her bits -I had inadvertently announced the next carol! She and I looked at it as everyone sang, worked out how to get back on track, and we went on as if nothing had gone awry at all.
Charlie had got fed-up sitting on his mother's knee by now, and was on the floor beside the manger - Miss Smile had finished eating her chocolate sheep and had joined him - they were happily feeding her toy sheep with the hay from the manger....
Then came the last round of parcel passing and our 'wise men' found themselves with shiny gift boxes to bring up to the baby. This gave us two more adult men (one new to the congregation, but he seemed to enjoy it all!) and an 11 year-old girl. They were given the fancy head-gear we have for Wise Men and told to share the contents of their gift boxes around later, as each one contained chocolate coins.
It was now even more cramped up there...
And then, as we knew there were one or two little girls who would have liked to be angels, I asked for volunteers to become a small heavenly host - so three more children joined us, and were given tinsel head-dresses from my stash behind the pulpit. And there was one more teenager to come up and lead a prayer - so the final count was 8 adults, 2 teenagers, 5 children and a baby, all on the sanctuary as well as a chair for Mary and a manger!
My narrator concluded by saying "Let us look at these people here at the front of the church. They didn’t know that they were going to be part of the Christmas Story today – just as the real Mary, and Joseph, shepherds or wise men had no idea that they were, either.
What is really important is that when the people so long ago were asked to take a part in that most important story, they did – just as the members of our congregation did – and just as we should all remember that God might have something special for us to do. We should always be ready to listen!"
The whole thing was such fun - people desperately trying to get, or not get, to unwrap a layer of the parcel, the 3 year old and the baby playing in the middle of it all... but you can see why it was difficult for me to get out my camera and take pictures!
Afterwards the oldest member of the congregation, a rather sombre Scotsman of about 90, came up and said it was the best telling of the story he had been to in a long time and it was wonderful, at his age, to experience it being told in a way that was new to him.
D-d was at church and came around later to help me put the tree up at home - which was lovely, and it is now sitting beside me looking very festive.
PS - short explanation of Pass-the-Parcel as it seems it is not universally played! For a children's party there is usually a 'prize' in the middle and then there would be lots and lots of layers to unwrap - you get to unwrap one if you have the parcel when the music stops. Sometimes there are small gifts and/or forfeits between some of the layers as well - hence the desperate urge to try to have the parcel when the music stops - if you think there might be a gift under this layer, or to get rid of it quickly before the music stops if you think there may be a forfeit.
This was a short version, with only three layers - a good 'parcel' can have 20 layers and provide entertainment for ages!
However - for your delectation - the write-up of this year's Nativity service.
After the lighting of the advent ring by a new little girl, an opening prayer, and the notices and so on, we swung into the Nativity proper.
One of the teenagers was the narrator and I was the go-fer! You'll see why we needed a go-fer when I explain that we began by getting the congregation to play pass-the-parcel. (I'm assuming this is a universally known party game...) Our church seating is in three blocks so we had a parcel for each block - and when the music stopped and the first people opened the parcels they found notes requesting them to take the parts of Mary, Joseph, and Gabriel... I invited them up to the Sanctuary and saw to their costumes etc. whilst the congregation sang a carol.
'Mary' was opened by a lady in her 70s who actually passed it to her neighbour - which was perfect as this was the Mum of a 10 month old baby boy and she brought him up with her! We draped a square of blue fabric around her shoulders and lo - she was 'in costume'.
Gabriel was a lovely, elegant, middle-aged lady who happily put the tinsel head-dress from her parcel on, and came up to the sanctuary - and Joseph was an 8 year old boy whose costume was achieved by giving him a proper head-dress.
As the readings at this stage were about Gabriel appearing to Mary and then to Joseph, I took baby Charlie and he helped me announce readers and the next carol until we reached the point in the story where the baby was born!
The second round of pass the parcel brought our shepherds to the sanctuary. They got chocolate sheep in their layer of parcel and then were given toy sheep when they arrived. One shepherd was another lady in her 70s - one was my sister - and the third was Little Miss Smile (the three year old whose picture you may have seen previously) - who came up complete with her Mum, and so we now had 6 adults, including me, two children, one teenager and a baby on the Sanctuary.
It was getting difficult for the narrator and the readers to reach the lectern! Fortunately the readers (adults and a couple more teenagers) came up, read, and then went back to their seats.
As the readers read, and we sang, my narrator and I realised we had missed one of her bits -I had inadvertently announced the next carol! She and I looked at it as everyone sang, worked out how to get back on track, and we went on as if nothing had gone awry at all.
Charlie had got fed-up sitting on his mother's knee by now, and was on the floor beside the manger - Miss Smile had finished eating her chocolate sheep and had joined him - they were happily feeding her toy sheep with the hay from the manger....
Then came the last round of parcel passing and our 'wise men' found themselves with shiny gift boxes to bring up to the baby. This gave us two more adult men (one new to the congregation, but he seemed to enjoy it all!) and an 11 year-old girl. They were given the fancy head-gear we have for Wise Men and told to share the contents of their gift boxes around later, as each one contained chocolate coins.
It was now even more cramped up there...
And then, as we knew there were one or two little girls who would have liked to be angels, I asked for volunteers to become a small heavenly host - so three more children joined us, and were given tinsel head-dresses from my stash behind the pulpit. And there was one more teenager to come up and lead a prayer - so the final count was 8 adults, 2 teenagers, 5 children and a baby, all on the sanctuary as well as a chair for Mary and a manger!
My narrator concluded by saying "Let us look at these people here at the front of the church. They didn’t know that they were going to be part of the Christmas Story today – just as the real Mary, and Joseph, shepherds or wise men had no idea that they were, either.
What is really important is that when the people so long ago were asked to take a part in that most important story, they did – just as the members of our congregation did – and just as we should all remember that God might have something special for us to do. We should always be ready to listen!"
The whole thing was such fun - people desperately trying to get, or not get, to unwrap a layer of the parcel, the 3 year old and the baby playing in the middle of it all... but you can see why it was difficult for me to get out my camera and take pictures!
Afterwards the oldest member of the congregation, a rather sombre Scotsman of about 90, came up and said it was the best telling of the story he had been to in a long time and it was wonderful, at his age, to experience it being told in a way that was new to him.
D-d was at church and came around later to help me put the tree up at home - which was lovely, and it is now sitting beside me looking very festive.
PS - short explanation of Pass-the-Parcel as it seems it is not universally played! For a children's party there is usually a 'prize' in the middle and then there would be lots and lots of layers to unwrap - you get to unwrap one if you have the parcel when the music stops. Sometimes there are small gifts and/or forfeits between some of the layers as well - hence the desperate urge to try to have the parcel when the music stops - if you think there might be a gift under this layer, or to get rid of it quickly before the music stops if you think there may be a forfeit.
This was a short version, with only three layers - a good 'parcel' can have 20 layers and provide entertainment for ages!
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no subject
Date: 16/12/2012 10:19 pm (UTC)That sounds like the most wonderful way to do a Nativity (and how perfect to have a new Mum to be Mary!) Especially with the message you had the Narrator give at the end - it's so easy to forget that none of those people, really (except Mary and Joseph, and they only in part) had any idea what a vast story they were in.
What always seems so lovely to me about the way you do it is that there's no rehearsal, the simplest of costumes - when you think of the stress that goes into lots of Nativity plays beforehand... and yet, of course, that's a lot of preparation and work for you beforehand to make it all go so smoothly. So well done, indeed.
no subject
Date: 16/12/2012 10:40 pm (UTC)We have had real babies a few times over the years - and they are, even as teenagers, rather proud of the fact. Charlie will doubtless be reminded of this when he gets older, too.
Doing it with so little rehearsal does mean it is a bit 'seat of the pants' - hence me managing to go on to a carol before Ealee had done the narration - but it is probably even more meaningful than the ones of Christmases past where they rehearsed for months!
But I must say that the point when we sit down to lunch at home after it is over is one of my favourite times of the festive season...
no subject
Date: 16/12/2012 10:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 16/12/2012 10:43 pm (UTC)Watching a grown man desperately trying to pass the parcel before the music stops is definitely unusual in church - but memorable!
no subject
Date: 16/12/2012 10:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 16/12/2012 10:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 16/12/2012 11:02 pm (UTC)It sounds really well done so yes, well done!
no subject
Date: 16/12/2012 11:09 pm (UTC)But the beauty of it is that the story was still there in the middle of it - just as it is every year. (Like the year we had snow and half the cast was missing, or the year the smallest shepherds towed their sheep along by their necks, or... you get the picture!)
no subject
Date: 16/12/2012 11:37 pm (UTC)Thank you so much for sharing...
- Erulisse (one L)
no subject
Date: 16/12/2012 11:54 pm (UTC)And it was a lovely service - the smallest shepherd certainly helped!
no subject
Date: 16/12/2012 11:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 16/12/2012 11:56 pm (UTC)The organist thought it was fun, too!
no subject
Date: 17/12/2012 12:18 am (UTC)What I loved most about your day - besides the idea of pass-the-parcel in church, which rocks! - is your oldest congregant saying it made the story new for him again. What a wonderful accolade.
My favourite Nativity memory is from when my girls were 3 and 5 years old. The chapel had a low stage where the pulpit was and the little choir sang, so they turned it into a stable setting complete with real hay, and cast my little darlings (still new to that Sunday School) as angels -- absolute mis-casting because while everything went on around them, they sat on the stage in their little white dresses and tinsel haloes and had a hay fight.
I had total strangers coming up to me after asking 'Are those your little girls?'
no subject
Date: 17/12/2012 08:36 am (UTC)And look how you got to talk to a whole lot of new people!
no subject
Date: 17/12/2012 02:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 17/12/2012 08:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 17/12/2012 05:38 am (UTC)experienced it through new eyes.
no subject
Date: 17/12/2012 08:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 17/12/2012 07:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 17/12/2012 08:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 17/12/2012 01:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 17/12/2012 05:54 pm (UTC)