13.12.2022
Christmas Unwrapped – Rathmichael Nativity Trail brings Christmas story to life
Talented and imaginative parishioners of Rathmichael brought the Christmas story to life in the grounds of their church on Saturday afternoon (December 10). Despite freezing weather, they welcomed almost 200 people to the ‘Christmas Unwrapped: Nativity Trail’.
The trail brought people through the whole story of Christmas, starting with Eve and the Prophets and continuing to the Angel Gabriel, the Inn Keepers, the Shepherds, the Three Wise Men, King Herod to the scene of the Nativity.
‘Trailing’ has become popular amongst churches as a way to engage children and families since Covid arrived. In Rathmichael they have enjoyed running trails over the last couple of years and with such positive responses to these, they decided to think about how we would approach one this Christmas that used the full space available – the church grounds as well as the church and its buildings.
“Around the same time, we were planning our Christmas services and events we wondered how we could approach them in a fresh, creative way so as to capture the wondrous and amazing message of the First Christmas, particularly for the younger members of our congregation,” explained Cherith Hanily who coordinated the trail. “The idea of our ‘Christmas Unwrapped: Nativity Trail’ began as we merged the idea of a trail and the familiar lessons read at our traditional Carol Service.”
“We constructed a trail to explain the Christmas story, with talented parishioners acting as characters from the Bible at each stop, interacting with participants to bring the story to life. The trail covered the grounds and church, breaking the story into memorable chunks as the children gathered stickers to complete their Nativity Passports. The trail concluded with a chance for families to enjoy refreshments together and partake in Nativity themed games and crafts before concluding with a choice of Christmas book to take away,” she said.
The Rector, the Revd Sean Hanily added that they were delighted with the response. “It was wonderful to welcome so many people and we were encouraged that people of all ages enjoyed engaging with the Christmas story in a new and captivating way,” he said.
