Introduction
How I started down the Appleseed Trail
Bear Hugs 3-6: God is Creator
Bear Hugs 7-10: God's Word is Truth
Christmas is always so exciting, and while I know that this post is.. .well... very late, I wanted to post about this now before I forget and never post at all.
The kids have most of December off from Awana as there are so many activities happening around that time of year with church and school plays, gatherings, and so on. So, for us this year, the last day of Cubbies was on December 9th, 2015. I wanted to do something for Christmas with the kids, but since we were working on Unit 2, God's Word is Truth, with the focus on the story of Adam and Eve, I wasn't quite sure how to fit it all in. I ended up doing the main lesson for bear hug 9 (I joined 9 and 10 as BH10 is review anyway and I had only 25 total Awana nights to fit in all 28 sections). The bear hug lesson ends with the sad story of Adam and Eve needing to leave the garden. It then goes on to tell the kids that God still loved them, and because He loves us, He sent His Son (remembering the Cubbies key verse of 1 John 4:10, God loved us and sent His Son). So, I used that portion of the lesson to add in a picture from the Christmas lesson (yes, there is a Christmas lesson. I'd love to do these extra lessons as well, but then I'd need 32 weeks). And with that, I told the kids about the fun activity we had planned.... Gingerbread Nativities!
Ok, ok... in reality they were graham cracker nativities (I didn't want to have to bake enough gingerbread for 20 houses). I found an awesome recipe for icing that was quite solid right away and worked really well for the project. I also cut the graham crackers so that each child needed 2 full crackers for their project. Otherwise, it was fairly simple.
I took one graham cracker and cut it at an angle to get the two side walls. The second cracker was cut in half for the roof, with the other half cut in half for the back wall, and then the last quarter was halved again to make the manger. It was all assembled on a paper plate (not the Styrofoam ones... they aren't as sturdy and the icing sticks better to these plates, even if they cost a little bit more. Plus, I had a craft in January that needed paper plates as the kids would be coloring on them with crayons. Styrofoam isn't as good for that, either).
I decided I didn't want too much sugar for the kiddos, so I bought gumdrops, some traditional candies, and then used mostly Froot Loops, pretzel sticks, and shredded wheat for added color, wood, and hay. I also found some gingerbread men at Walmart. We added a staff for good measure. Get some animal crackers and you are all set!
And helpers. You will need lots of helpers on the day the kids are decorating, especially for a preschool group. Ask parents a week or two before hand if they are able to assist during that time. One helper for every 2-3 kids is ideal.
I spent a lot of time prepping for this one! Two days before the event, it is a good idea to make a 'demo' version to make sure you have what you need. Make sure you cut all the pieces (and a few extra) at home, and get everything ready to bring down to the place you'll be making these. The day before the event, head there with all your stuff. Cover the workspace with paper for easy cleanup, take your bag of icing and all your plates and cut graham crackers, and start assembly! They really don't take too long. I found that once I was working on assembly, each nativity only took about one to two minutes.
On the day of, I had all my helpers use the icing bags (I made sure I had 6 bags of icing, but really should have had more... oh well, you live and learn I suppose), and the kids had fun using the goodies to decorate. You cannot see it in this picture, but I made sure each plate had equal amounts of the gingerbread men, the gumdrops, the traditional candies, and the animal crackers as I didn't have an 'unlimited quantity' of those. The rest of the ingredients went into bowls on each of the tables.
And now, because I can, I made a video of the process!! Yay!
Icing recipe
1 lb icing sugar (about 4 cups)
3 Tbsp meringue powder
4-6 Tbsp water.
Mix. Add water one Tbsp at a time. You want the mixture to be thick like toothpaste. If you run your knife through it, you need to see a trench where the knife was. But it still needs to flow through a piping bag.
Get enough bags for your leaders. Actual disposable piping bags are best, but if you don't have a shop that sells those near you, a ziplock with a hole cut in the corner will work nicely. Make sure they are a more sturdy bag (freezer bags will not break as easily), and seal the top (use rubber bands as extra insurance if needed... I didn't, but out of six bags, only one popped open). I needed twice this recipe for 20 houses, and could have probably done with more (and had more bags). I would suggest making a single batch, and then using it to assemble your houses prior to your Cubbies night. Make more and separate into bags prior to arriving.
Other needed items
for 20 nativities, I needed the following:
20 paper plates
2 boxes of Honeymaid graham crackers
1 box Froot Loops
1 bag pretzel sticks
1 box Shredded Wheat
at least 3 animal crackers per child
1 box little gingerbread men (from Walmart. There was not quite enough for each child to have 2, unfortunately)
some little candies of various sorts, separated per child.
two or three batches of above icing recipe
After all was said and done, it came out to about $2 per child, but with enough left over for more snacks (the Froot Loops were used in BH13, and the paper plates were used in BH12, and the pretzels were used for BH11)... so that is not bad considering the rest of the ingredients were used over another 3 weeks.
For more fun ideas, you can visit my pinterest page. Hope you all had a great Christmas... even if it was a month ago!
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