I looked everywhere for one of these, and found some good value ones in TK Max. Make your own ‘fillers’, especially if you want something which helps children explore the Christmas story over the 24 or 25 days. I’ve made a set of Christmas story cards which tell the story one line a day or you can download the printable ones or just make your own ones. Here’s some ideas of what you could fill your pockets with (and don’t forget a chocolate might be nice too!):

• Copy or print the Bible passages from a child-friendly version of the Bible and cut into 24/25 sections. Roll these up and pop them into the pockets in order of how they should be read. This is what I did for my God-daughters this year.
• Find little play characters which relate to the different parts of the story and use them to build a little nativity scene, one piece each day. I’ve used our Play Mobil nativity set and also made ones from Benecol bottles.
• Draw, copy or scan in pictures of the Christmas story characters from a book or the internet and put these into your pockets. You could add a little bit of text to explain their role in the story, or get the children to guess/explain when they get out the pictures.

• Do the same as above, but using pictures from old Christmas cards.
• Buy or make out of Fimo/clay a nativity set with characters small enough to fit in the pockets. You will need 24 characters. Here’s a suggestion of what you could have:
  1. Mary
  2. Angel
  3. Joseph
  4. donkey
  5. inn keeper
  6. inn keeper’s wife
  7. shepherd 1
  8. sheep 1
  9. shepherd 2
  10. sheep 2
  11. shepherd 3
  12. sheep 3
  13. lots of angels
  14. star
  15. wise man 1
  16. camel 1
  17. wise man 2
  18. camel 2
  19. wise man 3
  20. camel 3
  21. gold
  22. frankincense
  23. myrrh
  24. manger
  25. Jesus

And don’t forget to use your nativity set to explore the Christmas story together!

For more ideas and Activities to explore at Christmas visit my 50 Faith at home ideas for Christmas here.