Cue cute sheep, glamorous wise men and a comfy looking manger under a brilliant star and you’ll deliver the expected, the predictable.

Read on if you’d like to:
-    Teach the Christmas story in a fresh way that will make your community listen again
-    Truly engage kids through enjoyable activities that are purposeful not just filling in time
-    Give parents talking points and even resources they can use to reinforce the Christmas story at home

Now let me apologise and say it is OK to go cute and predictable. Look at Carols in the Myer music bowl in Melbourne. Same-same every year. People love that sentimentality. People come back every year for that same singer, singing that same song at the same time on the same night for the past 20 years.

But here’s the downside. You might not be heard. You might just reinforce people’s comfort and artificial appropriation of Christianity for one night. Yep, just like the syncretistic Israelites in Solomon’s latter days, people will worship anything for a night if you don’t raise the stakes.

Want to do more than just entertain people for a night with sentimental memories of a bygone era and reinforce their attitudes that the Bible promotes an outdated faith?

Ofcourse you do.

So how do you take a fresh look at Christmas?

You can’t plumb the apocryphal gospels..or be creative with the truth. (by the way there’s not much useful material there anyway). But you can take a verse and see where it takes you. Sure some folks will expect to see a full story; like the wisemen’s journey from start to finish. You can’t please everyone though. Since many of us know the full story, why not just pick a verse and build up from that?

Doing the hard work pays off
It’s always been my goal to raise the bar on what’s available for kids that teaches them from the Bible. When I work up a show for Anton’s Antics live shows, I spend a lot of time on the text. I start with the original language (Koine Greek for New Testament) because it slows me down and forces me to consider details and how those details are developed in the book or the Bible as a whole. When I’ve got down to what I call the ‘kernel’ then I’m ready to build out the show for kids.

Mutton dressed as lamb?
You can’t just write for adults and package that message in kiddy wrap. That’s an easy mistake. I see that a lot. I’m even guilty of that on occasions. You have to keep checking yourself. You have to translate the idea into kid terms and wrap it up in a way that is consistent with those child friendly terms. There’s rarely any easy shortcut to this hard graft of writing and performing for kids. But I love it!

So where do I encourage you to forage this year? What verse?
Luke 2:1
Here’s that verse:
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

I’ll even save you the time and give you the kernel!

But you gotta be bold. You gotta be willing to take a risk. You gotta be willing to take people out of the comfort zone. So what is the kernel in this year’s Christmas?

Politics.

Say what!?

Don’t you get told never to talk politics, religion or sex…especially at the Christmas table?

Now politics is not a word we like to hear mostly ever. Especially not at Christmas. Plus, it’s not kid very friendly. So surely this idea fails at the doorfront, right? Wrong.

The key idea in Luke 2:1 is about being represented by a leader. Someone is counting you as being under their leadership. In Mary and Joseph’s case it was Caesar Augustus.

Kids can and do understand this idea of someone standing for them and leading them, counting them as being under their leadership.

Think soccer captain, netball coach, school teacher and even more importantly, mum or dad.

See, politics is right at the doorstep of kids experience, you just have to give them a relevant example.
The bonus part is we’ve just had the election bonanza of a lifetime: Trump Vs Clinton. Plus our own little, eye roll, do I even dare mention, how embarrassing is our politics in Australia, election in Oz not so long back this year.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a totally kickass leader who deserves every bit of respect from us?
Yes...please, please will someone step up...
Is there one?
Jesus.

And there you have it. Be counted by Jesus. Make sure you’re under his leadership. Make sure you sign up and be counted by the God who became man for us. Be counted under God’s king whose kingdom is eternal and who stands in our place to pay our debt.

Let me make Christmas even easier for you:
Feel free to work this idea up further for yourself using your own ideas and package it for kids. But did you know Anton’s Antics has already done all the work?

Save yourself the hassle and get the job sorted fast
Anton’s Antics has both a live show and a couple of beautiful resources that grab attention and teach the truth about this leader from heaven that is for everyone.
They’re called Who’s for You? Live show and sticker stories.

Who’s for You? Live show and sticker stories (school age and before school age) are the one stop go to solution that you can just plug in and play.

Ever feel like you’re a bit over Christmas events? Some mums I know feel this way about the annual ginger bread house building event. It works so we keep doing them…’but if I see another ginger bread house I’ll scream!!’

Seize the opportunity before you get stuck in the Christmas rut!
How?
-Get your hands on Anton’s Antics’ Who’s for You? sticker stories
-Hire Anton’s live shows for your Christmas (some dates still available)

Anton’s been publishing these sticker stories for the past 6 years. They’ve been used by all different denominations and churches around Australia for church services, school scripture and Christmas events. Plus they make wonderful devotional resources in the home.

Looking for a different solution to re-tell the Christmas story?
Check Anton’s store as we’ve got all the main narratives; yes, wise men, shepherds, angels covered by four different sticker stories. Each sticker story comes with a gorgeous set of eight full colour stickers and four pages of activities to complete.

Step up this Christmas and get your community re-engaged with the true meaning of Christmas with a live show from one and only Anton!

Buy your sticker stories now and get them in time for Christmas with FREE postage on all orders over $49! (Australia only)