happy birthday, jesus! kids party

If you grew up in the Bible Belt, you may have grown up having Happy Birthday, Jesus parties in the kids’ wing at your church. I had never heard of one until I was in high school: My high school boyfriend’s mom owned an in-home day care. I went to their house after school one December afternoon, and she was cleaning up from a birthday party. I asked which child had a birthday so close to Christmas, and she said, “Jesus!” I thought it was the coolest thing that she had a party for Him! While I helped her clear the sprinkles off the white embroidered table cloth and cleaned up the scrunched dirty party napkins, she told me how each year she throws a party for Jesus with her daycare children.

After I had my first child, I knew I would start having these parties when my daughter was old enough, because I never forgot that afternoon at their house. That woman had a plan and a purpose to share the name of Jesus with who was in her life: her own six children and all those little ones she had each day. And although things didn’t work out with her son and I (answered prayer, trust me) SHE passed on her love of the Lord to me by how she poured into little ones in this specific way.

I have to also tell you that my experience in throwing a Happy Birthday, Jesus party has been pretty low-key. So if you’re thinking, “Omg I CANNOT add another ‘thing’ to my holiday season!”, I can assure you, it was pretty simple to execute. I focused on what message I wanted to get to the party guests (He’s the real reason for the season) and then focused on what I didn’t want to have a presence (Santa, reindeer, behavior). Then I made the decision to keep it simple. Yes, insert me refraining from fancy cupcakes, fruit and veggies trays, mixed desserts and treats, or intricate details…oh, and I kept a small guest list!

Early on I decided my flow: self-directed craft when kids arrived, storytime, parent-directed craft, game, pizza, cupcakes. And that’s it. This wasn’t a Pinterest party. It was a “come play and do some fun activities” playdate. I’m four years into this whole mom gig, and I’ve already learned that things can turn into more than what they need to be SO.QUICKLY. My focus was on Jesus and the children we invited. It’s as if basically I wanted the invitation to say, “Hey, it’s Christmastime! Wanna come hear about Jesus and play? I’ll provide dinner and cake. Mom-friends, no need to plan dinner or an afternoon activity. I got you!”

And guess what? It was so much fun!

I have everything linked for you throughout the post and at the very end 😉

I planned to have everything either in our dining room or in the living room. I set the table before the kids arrived with labeled placements and a self-directed craft I picked up at Target. Sure, you could get materials together for another activity, but these craft kits came with everything…no other supplies were needed! #easy I also purchased a grab-n-go balloon garland from my friend at Hip Hip Hooray Creative Events that I used for our holiday Moms Night Out earlier this month and repurposed it for this party, too! #winning (You can read about that fun here.)

When everyone had arrived, I moved them into the living room for story time. I had two books planned…the second book was added just in case the kids had the attention span for one more story. I knew I’d need to #readtheroom to see if we’d have time to read both books (and we did!). I love the What is Christmas book, because it addresses all the fun things about Christmas in our culture, but points back to Jesus. I’m not going to dismiss all of those things because they are fun. What I am going to do is have fun with them BUT make sure my family’s focus in actually on Jesus’ birth and what that means when celebrating Christmas; and that is the point of the book! The second book, The First Christmas Night, has incredible illustrations. This one is actually about the birth of Christ and that night in the manger. My favorite though is The Christmas Promise. This books talk about how Jesus is a King, but specifically a rescuing and forever King. When the children are older, I’ll go further into what specific scriptures say about the birth of Christ.

While I was reading, my amazing hubby swooped in the dining room and cleared the other craft supplies and put a pre-organized craft bundle at each place setting. This was for THE craft of the night. It’s so cute. Just wait and see…

You can find all the details on how to make these adorable baby Jesus ornaments by clicking here to read the post.

Next, I knew the kids probably wanted to move! We traveled to where I had a Nativity game set up, and we played “Pin the star on the nativity”. This was hilarious (it’s amazing how sneaky and clever kids can be!), and since it was a small group of kids, each got to go a few times.

We then went back to the dining room to enjoy pizza, followed by cupcakes! We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus then each child got to make a wish while they blew out their own candle on their individual cupcake.

I had kraft bags set up for the kids to put their goodies in for when it was time to go home. I had added some candy and these cute activity sets in there as well.

It was a great afternoon being together and sharing the name of Christ with our friends. Yes, I hope I can do it each year.

For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
    and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6 ESV

Merry Christmas everyone, and Happy Birthday, Jesus!