Christmas (and 'virgin') by Age
How to filter the story for the kid you have
Welcome to part 3 in our mini series on how to explore the Bible with kids. Each week we have focused on unpacking a key principle using the Christmas story as our example of how it works
Today: approaching the Bible by age.
Missed the first two parts? They’re here: Part 1: The Humans Aren’t the Heroes and Part 2: Don’t Bore Kids with the Bible. And the story guides for Christmas are at the end to download!
I didn’t know it a decade ago, but I love telling Bible stories to 2 year olds. When my older son joined the 2’s class at church I became a regular storyteller there. Turns out 2-year-olds are fun and great at stories.
Meanwhile, my husband was over teaching 1st graders most weeks, often with some silly voice to go with a character he was portraying. (We are Californians who lived in Chicagoland at the time, and when they wrote a series on the beach with a lifeguard character, he got lots of amazed compliments on how well he could do a California-surfer voice.)
From time to time he and I would chat about how different each of these ages felt from the ones we’d taught before, since I’d spent years with grades 4-6 (my very favorite) and he’d been with middle schoolers most.
We were in a learning intensive on how different ages and developmental seasons of childhood needed unique approaches to the Bible.
As kids grow, the way we tell Bible stories adjusts. And each has it’s own features and risks.
So here are some guidelines I use for each age range, with examples from the Christmas story.
The Bible By Age
Ages 1-4 - The Age When All the Stories Show God is Good
So with Christmas, the big idea for very young kids is simply this:
God is good because God gave us baby Jesus.
Tips:
1. Look for play-based entries into the story.
Play with baby dolls. Play with nativity pieces. Be a donkey and let them ride on your back. Play birthday party. Play play play.
2. To this point, use songs!
Here are three I love from an album called Jump for Joy by Singin’ Praise Tots.
Oh What A Special Night
He is Born!
Who was There That First Christmas Day?
3. The magic phrase for this age: Thank you God for baby Jesus!
This age is generally too young for “Jesus is God”, but “Jesus is here, God’s son!” works well too.
A risk to avoid
Be careful of making the story too big, such as talking about what Jesus would grow up to be and do. The bigger story is so important, but for Christmas, stay in this story about this baby. It’s important all to itself.
Ages 5-8 - The Story Sponge Age
The big idea for this age is:
Expand the story, introducing new details and characters to bring it to life in their imaginations and hearts.
Tips:
1. Break the story into smaller pieces.
This is a long story if you try to do it all, and around here, we do less on purpose. Try breaking the big Christmas story into 5 mini stories:
Angel visits Mary
Joseph’s Dream
Jesus is born
The Shepherds
Wise Men Visit Jesus
This might seem like a Captain Obvious moment, but when you do this, tell each of these stories with their own beginning, middle and end. Look for what each of these mini stories shows about who God is or what God’s like.
2. Share helpful background facts
Include cool context details and background information, like:
We don’t actually know Jesus’ real birthday, and that’s ok.
Jesus wasn’t born in a barn or cave, but most likely the ground floor of a house.
There would have been girl and boy shepherds in the fields.
The wisemen didn’t come on the scene until much later.
Sharing background facts does two big things:
This is an age that tends to enjoy trivia and
Starting young and normalizing these details now helps for future exploration. We don’t want a kid to learn them later and think we held out on them or tricked them about the Bible.
A risk to avoid
Be careful of telling the whole Christmas story in one go, especially on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, and expecting kids to be quiet listeners as you do. Remember, sometimes adults push for contemplation but kids want celebration. And celebration is a great response to Christmas.
9-12 The Age When They Lead the Way
The big idea with older childhood is:
Let their questions and observations drive the flow of conversation.
By older childhood, the Christmas story is often familiar. Some worry kids will then do the eye-roll “I know this already!” thing, but you can help avoid that if you:
Lean into how impossible this all seems and invite your kids to share ways they may feel unsure about the story. Space for questions and even doubts helps faith formation.
Lean into what the gospel writers are telling us about God and power. How does God use power? When might you expect God to use power, but They don’t? What humans have power in the story, or not? Why might that be important?
Lean into whatever strikes them. You can say outright, “I know you know this story, but pretend for a minute you don’t know what happens.” I often find this set up helpful as well: “Imagine you’re [pick a character]. What would you be thinking or feeling? What would you be wondering about God right about now?”
