What matters most at Christmas?
Share the story of the birth of Jesus with the children. Present the children either with a selection of artefacts
and characters relating to Christmas on or use the illustrations given.
Count and learn: Ask the children to look at the items, then cover them over and see whether they can
remember all the items?
What links...?: Ask one child to suggest two of the items that belong together, and say why: ‘camel and
donkey are both used to ride on’/’you can light the Christingle and the candle’
In the story: Ask if the children can say what each one of these has to do with the story of the birth of Jesus
at Christmas. Ask the children if there are any that have nothing to do with the story? Use talk time to
reinforce the story and its meaning for Christians.
Take away one by one: Discuss with the children whether you can have Christmas without these things. It
is probably drew that without the birth of Jesus there is no Christmas so can the children remove everything
else and still have Christmas?
Most important?: Invite them to say which of the items might matter most to a Christian person or might
help them to remember the story of Jesus’ birth.
Ask children to use a paper plate divided into three to make three drawings of the things that matter most at
Christmas.
Choose sets of three pictures
Activity 1:
For each group of pictures, ask pupils to decide which picture is the Odd One Out and why.
You might get them to talk about the connections between the pictures first; then talk about similarities and
differences, before talking about which might be the odd one out. Of course, there are no right answer to the
odd one out, so pupils can be encouraged to offer their reasons for their ideas.
Activity 2:
For each group of pictures decide what each of these objects/characters might be saying or thinking.
You might narrow this down to given points in the narratives.
Activity 3:
For each group of pictures, ask pupils to decide which is the most important and why.
You might ask which is the most important
…to Christians
…to the narrative
…at the time of the events
…now
Activity 4:
For each group of pictures, ask pupils to decide which object/character you could do without and still keep
the meaning of Christmas for Christians.
This develops pupils’ thinking from Route 3 by evaluating the importance of the narratives and contemporary
beliefs and practices. Clearly the key answer is that Jesus is central to Christmas!