The Birth of Christ

 

The Life of Christ:

In the Manger

We've started the study of the Life of Christ.  And, even though it is after Christmas, you have to start at the beginning.

For our craft, we made Christmas ornaments that look like stained glass.  This is a time-intensive craft, but one that the kids will hopefully cherish for a long, long time.  I cut out the black silhouette of the manger scene:

 

You can find any silhouette by googling it and then cut it out.  I folded the black construction paper so that there would be a silhouette on each side.  It took about 6 minutes to cut out each frame... so with about 20 to cut out, it took around 2 hours to cut them out.  I did it while I was sitting in front of the TV.  

 

 Then, you take come tissue paper, like the kind you use in wrapping presents and cut up a bunch of little pieces for the kids to use for their stained glass.  The kids really love this craft.

I also made a sheet of little "banners" with each child's name on it to put above the manger scene with the name, church and year on it to make it a true heirloom for them.  I hope they will bring it out each Christmas and think back to the day they made them in Sunday School.  One thing!  You need to have the banner big enough so that the punch you make for the ribbon goes through not only the laminating paper, but also through that sheet of paper because the laminating paper isn't strong enough to hold the ribbon without the paper within.  It just tears.

The completed silhouette frame.

The sheet with the "banners" with each child's name, church name, and year.

Here's what several of them looked like cut out.