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In 2024, All Saints’, Earls Barton, located in the Wellingborough Deanery, offered a creative and family focused interpretation of the nativity with ‘Experience Christmas’. Taking place during the first week of December the event welcomed over 360 adults and children to the church to share the story of Christmas in a new way.
Using resources produced by Gloucester Diocese Jumping Fish Publications, six stations were created around the church to tell the Christmas story: An Angel Visits Mary; The Kings Follow A Star; The Journey; The Shepherds’ Story; The Manger; Puppet Show.
During the week commencing 2 December, the story was shared with 150 local school children aged between 10 and 12 years. Hands-on activities were available at each station allowing the children to reflect on advent and the Christmas story. In the evenings youth groups from the village, including Brownie Guides, Beaver Scouts and Squirrel Scouts, attended and crafts were laid on. All the children took away a colouring sheet, peace tree bauble and a piece of cake depicting baby Jesus (in Jelly baby form!).
On Saturday 7 December the experience was open to the wider community. Crafts were available and puppet shows telling the story of advent were performed throughout the day. On the Sunday the stations were used as part of the main service of worship which was a fantastic opportunity for the congregation to look at the nativity story, a story so well known, a bit differently. Reflections included:
Why did the angels choose shepherds to be the first to visit the new king?
Do angels really look like the accepted image of church windows, works of art, Christmas cards?
Why was the future saviour of the world born in a smelly manger? (Focusing on smells was particularly enjoyed by the children!)
During the week commencing 8 December, the puppet show was taken into a local school and performed to 75 reception year children to really make the most of the resources!
Those who visited the Christmas Experience were keen to offer their thanks, sending letters and feedback. Isabel, one child who visited, wrote ‘My faviorte parts were when we got to read the scrolls and smell the frankinstein… everything you did was glorios and I am so glad you cared and belive in Jesus’.
Helen Winrow, Church Warden at Earls Barton said ‘over the entirety of the event the Christmas Experience was presented to over 360 adults and children with our, love, hope and prayers that we might have sown a seed, created a memory, and made a difference.’
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