Make sure to check out our Sacred Storytelling Guide for more details on how to invite your children to experience and wonder together about stories from the Bible. We hope you will use this as a starting point - but feel free to tweak our script to fit the age/stage of your children and your family’s culture. Find a downloadable PDF of the script at the end of this post.
We hope this helps your family continue to wonder together about the wonder of Jesus’ birth in this season of Epiphany.
MATERIALS
If you made the Advent storytelling materials, you can reuse many of those pieces here!
Peg people
Four large peg dolls (three wise men, Mary)
One small peg doll (Jesus)
Felt
Clothing for each peg doll (cloaks, crowns for each wise man)
House/stable for Mary and Jesus
Large star
Tiny stars
Scrolls (pieces of felt or other material rolled up)
String (to tie on clothing, tie up scrolls)
Small pouch (optional! A place to store gifts for the journey, this could be a repurposed jewelry pouch, or a piece of felt with the sides glued/sewn up)
Gifts (we used sparkly paper, other options could be felt, jewelry or rocks, just be aware of choking hazards. We also love the idea of adding Frankincense and Myrrh essential oils to the gifts to add another sensory element for kids).
A base fabric (we used a large piece of green felt, but a pillowcase or blanket could work too!)
Feel free to improvise these materials as you see fit - or based on what you already have on hand.
SCRIPT
Intro
God promises us in the Bible that one day the world will be all good and no bad, all happy and no sad. At Christmas we tell the story about what God has done to help make that promise come true.
(spread out green mat, set out stable, baby Jesus and Mary)
It all began with a baby named Jesus who was born in a town called Bethlehem. But our story today doesn’t start with Jesus. It starts far, far away from Jesus. (remove stable, baby Jesus and Mary)
The Star
There were wise men who studied the stars. They watched the stars move, night after night. (set out wise men, small stars)
God wanted the whole world to know the good news that Jesus was born. So, God decided to use the stars to send a message to the wise man. God made a bright, bright star appear in the sky. (set out large star)
The wise men, far away from where Jesus was, saw the bright star. They wondered what this could mean.
I wonder what you would think if you saw a bright, bright star in the sky?
I wonder how else God sends us messages?
The Journey
They weren’t sure what this message meant. They looked in their scrolls about stars (set out scrolls). They searched and searched to try and figure it out.
And one day, they found a scroll with part of the Bible and this had the answer they were looking for – the star meant a new king has been born. That king was Jesus!
This was big, big news! They wanted to go see this baby king. So they got ready for a long journey (set out travel pouch). They packed food. They packed tents. They packed clothes (mime adding to pouch). And then they needed something else. They needed birthday presents for the baby king!
I wonder what you would bring as a birthday gift for the baby Jesus?
They brought gifts that were beautiful, like gold. They brought gifts that smelled good, called frankincense and myrrh (set out gold, frankincense, myrrh, then pack in pouch, let kids smell if you added oils). These were very fancy gifts – gifts that would be good to give a king.
With everything ready for their trip, they set out on their camels. The whole long journey, they followed the bright star in the sky (move wise men and star as they journey along).
I wonder what it was like to travel on a camel that far?
Meeting Jesus
They followed the star until, finally, it stopped in the sky above a tiny house (set out house, Mary and Jesus). They were surprised. This wasn’t a palace, where a king would be! Why would the king be here? But there was the star. So they went and knocked on the door. Mary, Jesus’ mom, opened the door.
“Hello!” said the wise men, “we are here to see the king. We want to celebrate that he was born! Here, we brought gifts!”
So they went in to see the Jesus. Their journey was so long that Jesus wasn’t a baby anymore - he was already two years old! They knelt down and gave him the gifts (remove gifts from pouch).
I wonder if two-year-old Jesus liked the gifts from the wise men?
After they had seen Jesus and gave him gifts, they went back home. (move wise men away from stable.) All the way home they were so happy and sang songs to God because they had gotten to see Jesus. They were filled with joy that God’s plan had begun. Jesus, the king, was born!
I wonder what your favorite part of the story was?
Optional prayer: God, thank you for always being with us, and thank you for Jesus being born!
*This script has been adapted from Meredith Miller’s Great Big Story series. We highly recommend checking her out if you are looking for more stories to explore with your kids!*
Download a PDF of this script below.
