Tips for Planning a Festival of Nativities
For several years in a row, I had the privilege of chairing our Church’s Festival of Nativities. It was a lot of work, but the end result was totally worth it. I know that many of you are planning similar Nativity Festivals (or Creche Festivals) and maybe looking for ideas for your event. Here are some of the details of our event. Hopefully, this will help you out as you plan your event.
I’m excited to share with you today the project I’ve been working on for the last 4 months. It’s the reason behind all the guest posts this month and the total lack of Christmas projects on this blog! This is the 2nd year that I was involved in our church’s Festival of Nativities and this year I was the chairman.
Most of the time I kept thinking “am I even old enough to be in charge of something like this?” ” They must have the wrong person”.
Hosting a Festival of Nativities
The Festival of Nativities was a giant undertaking with lots of moving parts. We had to make sure that all of the Nativity sets we borrowed would end up back with their original owners and that they would be all in one piece. We also had to figure out how to transform our church building into a space capable of displaying over 250 Nativity Sets.
My Nativity Festival committee was wonderful. I felt like the entire event was a true collaboration of everyone’s ideas. I did not do this without help These are NOT all my ideas, I just happen to be the one that is blogging about it.
The event consisted of people from our area from our church congregation and from other denominations, bringing nativity sets from their homes. Then lending them to us for the week to display. Everyone was then invited to come to view the nativity sets and eat some yummy refreshments. Attendees would also be able to listen to wonderful Christmas music. For the kids, we planned a children’s room complete with dress-up area and crafts.
To be honest, this was a lot of work for everyone involved. I got discouraged several times during the weeks leading up to the event and during the setup. When I got feeling overwhelmed I just reminded myself that doing this was my way of making a tiny contribution to preserving what I believe is the true meaning of Christmas.
On a personal note, my family and I celebrate Christmas. I realize that this blog reaches a worldwide audience, and not everyone celebrates as I do. If your family doesn’t celebrate Christmas hopefully you can find some other creative inspiration somewhere in this post.
Transforming the Gym; Church Christmas Party Decorating and Lighting Ideas
To set up the gym at church we arranged 8 round tables in the center clustered around a variety of Christmas trees. The star in the center was made with PVC pipe “shimmed” into the hole in the floor for the volleyball standard. We then strung lights down and in between the tables. A lit star topped off the whole arrangement.
On the center tables, we placed the larger nativity sets.
Additional Gym Layout Ideas:
We placed 4 sets of tables around the edges of the gym and organized the Nativity sets by color & style on the tables (we had a table of all wood nativity sets).
To help guide the visitor through the room we printed the Christmas Story from Matthew on foam boards around the room (they are just pinned to the cork boards at the church). The foam boards were made by applying vinyl onto simple white foam core boards that we purchased at the craft store. FYI: I don’t know the name of the font, or have the files I did not make the signs.
This year we added these stars dropped from the wire strung over the alcoves of the church. They were inexpensive and added a bit of charm to the gym.
Live Nativity Details & Christmas Music Venue:
I know the photo is terrible, I forgot to take a good one of the stage.
One of our committee members’ husbands built the most beautiful backdrop for us to use on the stage. Each piece is a 4×8 piece of MDF cut out with the silhouette of Old Jerusalem. The panels are all moveable so depending on how many people were on the stage we could rearrange them as necessary.
I bought the star (from Grandin Road) at the last minute (after Thanksgiving sale YES!!) – I think it added a nice touch to the stage.
On the stage, we hosted a live nativity and Christmas music. It rotated between musical acts and the live nativity all day.
More Fun Church Christmas Decorating Ideas:
Heather a committee member, had the ingenious idea of making door stops. She used empty boxes with bricks in them then wrapped them to look like presents.
Individual Rooms for Displaying Nativities:
Nativity Sets from Around the World:
In addition to the church gym, we had 5 smaller rooms decorated with themed nativity sets. We had international sets that came from all over the world. This was my favorite room by far and has inspired me to start collecting Nativity sets from around the world.
We also had rooms for Glass & Crystal nativity sets, White Nativity Sets, Handcrafted nativity sets, Village sets, and Children’s nativity sets.
I loved all of the smaller rooms because we asked people to decorate them and told them to do whatever they wanted. Each one of them knocked it out of the park. Seeing the individuality of each room was one of the highlights of the event.
Christmas Party Children’s Room Ideas:
here was also a room for children. All of that holding still and “not touching” wore them out a bit so we provided a room where they could “play”.
Nativity Photo Backdrop & Dress Up Area:
There was a dress-up corner, where they could dress up and pose for a photo. (I don’t know where the sheep came from, my Mother in law has had it for years, I think it’s from England). One of the members of our church had all of the nativity costumes.
Kids Nativity Play Set:
This year I took my little people nativity set over and set up a play table for the kids. We thought it would be okay if there was ONE nativity set they could touch!
Kids Nativity Craft Idea:
The kids also got to make a little craft. Brandi came up with this one last year and it was a big hit. It’s made from a toilet paper roll, a wooden doll, a paper towel, and some raffia. Each of the kids was able to craft their own baby Jesus in a manger to take home with them.
We also had Christmas cookies served as refreshments.
I’m so happy with how the event turned out and so grateful to every single person that helped us set this up and clean it up. It took a village.
For more photos of our Festival of Nativities in previous years, see THIS POST
