My Gift- Celebrating Epiphany

A few years ago, our parish family "Christmas" celebration actually took place on Epiphany, the celebration of the Wise Men visiting the Infant Christ.  Because time for rehearsing a play was out of the question, we instead did a kind of readers' theater with some of the older kids acting as readers.  It worked very well, was simple, and shared the message.  I think that it could be easily adapted for use with a smaller group or in a classroom.

Supplies Needed:

• Cards with each of the readers’ parts on them. (Script and card printables below)
• Song sheets or song books with the songs for all participants
• Eleven empty boxes wrapped with Christmas paper
• Something to use as a manger
• Strips of yellow paper
• Markers
• Costumes for the readers are optional

Here are some of the details for how we made it work: 

• Line up eleven readers- they don’t even have to practice ahead of time.  Give them their cards to look at and sit them in the order that they will speak.  I had them in a row of chairs with their wrapped present sitting underneath to keep things flowing smoothly.
• Have yellow strips of paper available with markers on all of the tables for kids and parents.  Before the intro, have them write down something that they did during Advent to prepare for Baby Jesus coming.  This part could also be done throughout Advent and collected during CCD/Sunday School/in the Classroom/at home.
• Have everyone face a central “stage”- a table with the manger on it, a stack of straw bales with the manger, etc.
• When each reader says MY GIFT, have them place a wrapped Christmas present near the manger, and then return to their seat during the song.
• We took the opportunity to pass out the CCD students’ gifts after the program, emphasizing the connection between our gift giving and the first gifts given to Jesus at Epiphany.

Click here for a copy of the supplies, instructions, and script, including the songs that we sang in between each reader.

When I did this, I simply cut up a script and glued it on index cards for the readers, but I decided to make it a little nicer for you. :)

Click here for the printable of the readers' cards:

Happy Epiphany!