Happy Birthday Jesus Preschool Theme Crafts

by Aunt B

Copyright 2004-2006 Story Soup Kids, a division of Enchanted Corner

Happy Birthday Jesus Crafts for Kids

Jesus Birthday Present

Items you will need: 
Small Shoe Box
Wrapping Paper
Scissors 
Tape
Ribbon

Wrap and decorate the box like a present. Make a small slit in the top of the box. As you go through the Month of December, add money to this box. Encourage your children to put their money in as well. Perhaps their allowance or a small portion of the money they receive for Christmas from family. At the end of Christmas, have your child help you open the box and count the money you have. It is your gift to Jesus. Take that money and donate it to a good cause, and let your child help decide. This can be as simple as adding it to the offering plate at church or taking it down to a food bank. 
Be creative. Talk to your children about all the gifts Jesus gives us. Why not give him a gift back? 

Candy Cane Ornament

Items you will need:
Peppermints discs with wrappers removed
Cookie Sheet
Aluminum foil
Spatula
Oven
Optional: Ribbon

Preheat oven to 250º. Remove all the wrappers from the peppermints you want to use. Cover your cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Arrange the peppermints in the shape of a candy cane making sure the candy canes are touching. Place peppermints in oven of 3-5 minutes or until peppermints begin to melt together. Remove from oven and let cool slightly. Use spatula to remove wreath from aluminum foil. You can add your ribbon for decoration at this point. 
** If your candy cane cools too long before you remove it from the aluminum foil it may become stuck and hard to remove, thus breaking.** 

Give them away as a special gift. Wrap them carefully in some colored plastic wrap, tie with a bow and add this short poem.

Look at this Candy Cane,
What do you see?
Stripes that are red,
Like blood shed for me.

White is for my Savior
Who’s sinless and pure!
“J” is for Jesus my Lord, that’s for sure!

Turn it around
And a staff you will see
Jesus my Shepard 
Was born for me!

From: http://www.alighthouse.com/candycane.htm

Baby Jesus Ornament

Items you will need:
Half a Walnut Shell (cradle)
Cotton 
Small Baby Figure (to represent Jesus)
Thin Strip of Cloth
Pipe Cleaner (5 inch pieces)
Glue

Take your thin strip of cloth and wrap it around the baby figure for swaddling clothes. Make a hoop out of the pipe cleaner and glue the ends inside the walnut shell. Next glue the cotton into the walnut shell, for bedding. Glue the baby on top of the cotton. Set aside until dry. 

Recommended Books to read

The Crippled Lamb
Written by: Max Lucado
This little lamb has a special job, helping Jesus! 

Room for a Little One : A Christmas Tale
Written by: Martin Waddell
There is always room for a little one here. The animals are ready to welcome the Baby Jesus.

Jotham's Journey: A Storybook for Advent (Jotham's Journey Trilogy)
Written by: Arnold Ytreeide
A story of Advent, to be read every day.

Cooking with Kids

Special Birthday Cake for Jesus

Items you will need:
White Cake Mix
Pink Cake Mix
Yellow Cake Mix
Chocolate Cake Mix
White Icing
Green Gumdrops
Toasted Coconut
Small Baby Doll 
Votive or Tea Light Candles
Tube of decorating gel (for writing on cake)

(You can make a cake for your family and a cake to share the joy of Jesus birthday with another family.)

Mix up your cake mix’s as the directions say. You will need to make a single layer of each cake mix for ONE cake. 
Then tell this story as you decorate the cake with your family. Also retail the story when you share the 2nd cake with friends.

Here is a white cake, a pink cake, a yellow cake, a chocolate cake. These cakes symbolize the different colors of God’s people. Over the cake and between the layers goes a fluffy white icing to show how God’s love binds all God’s creatures to each other and to Him. Around the edge goes a wreath of green gumdrops. In the center we will make a manger bed for baby Jesus with toasted coconut to look like the straw in a manger. Then we will write Happy Birthday Jesus to celebrate His birthday. Here a candle. We don’t put the candle on the cake because God has no age to be counted. But we have it near to remind us that Christ is the Light of the world! Let us all sing Happy Birthday dear Jesus with candles lit. 

Alteration: This can be done individually by using cookies instead of cake. You would need cookies of all the same size but the colors mentioned above. Everything else would remain the same.