This year my children are really in to Lego, so I’m planning a way to explore the Christmas story using Lego.

You can buy a set online but, like this one, they’re not cheap and only feature a small number of the characters actually mentioned in the Bible story. So I’m planning a combination of these options:

1 Free build

Putting out the big bag of Lego on the table and inviting my children to create a scene as I read the story from the Bible (I may actually be using the mini-book which comes with the GodVenture Sticker Advent Calendar and with the Christmas edition of Faith at home, as it has the WHOLE Christmas story in it directly from the NIrV, and it’s split into ten stories which makes it even easier for me.) We’ll start the story with Zechariah and Elizabeth and baby John, and work through to the visit of the wise men and Simeon and Anna in the temple. This way I’m hoping we might end up with a huge ‘set’ where the Lego characters we have will be assigned different roles in the story and move from one scene to another as we build up the set and the story over time.You could also do free build after reading the whole story and invite everyone to make whichever part of the story they choose, or to work together to make a scene. You could print out 2 or 3 Lego nativity scenes from the internet to inspire them. Here are some of my favourites:  and here’s an amazing moving one!

2 Use instructions

There are loads of Lego nativity scenes online, some of which even have instructions on how to make them. I’ve downloaded some of these and am going to offer them alongside the free build option. Here’s some nice instructions I’ve found which include hand drawn instructions for Mary, Joseph and Jesus, the shepherds and wise men, sheep and camels! There’s plenty there to get even fairly serious Lego-heads engaged!

My children have enjoyed a combination of these, making the Mary, Joseph and Jesus from the instructions, and creating ad-lib sheep and a donkey and a house for them to stay in.

If you do have fun with this, I’d love to see your creations over on Instagram or Facebook where you’ll find me as @GodVenture