Who's Your Nativity Neighbor?

This is another one of my favorite activities that we do throughout the Christmas season.  I got the idea from The Adventure of Christmas: Helping Children Find Jesus in Our Holiday Traditions by Lisa Whelchel (otherwise known as Blaire from the Facts of Life).

We purchase an inexpensive nativity scene and secretly leave the pieces one at a time at a neighbor's house throughout the month. The number of pieces does not matter.  We had 25 pieces last year, and it was a challenge to deliver them each day.  This year, our set has 18 pieces.  We left a the following poem when we delivered the first piece last December.

We hope that you’re

excited about Christmas. 

We definitely are. 

Here is the manger scene.

Maybe tomorrow,

you’ll receive the star.

The kids "wrapped" each piece by decorating brown paper bags with stickers, markers and ribbon.

Here they are "sneaking" next door to deliver the first package.

They delivered baby Jesus on the last day in person.  He was wrapped in a box with gold wrapping paper.  Here is a picture of our neighbor with her complete nativity set.