By Alison Palmer

Scripture: 2 Nephi 25:26

Song: “I’m Trying to Be Like Jesus,” Children’s Songbook, 78

Preperation: Gather a Mason jar, shoe box, letter-size envelope, and several pieces of paper (colored is fun). Decorate small shoebox to look like manger. Cut up the papers into 2” strips and keep them in envelopes on a counter or on a shelf with the Mason jar.

Lesson:

As a family, talk about all the reasons you’re thankful Jesus came to live on earth, and why we celebrate those things at Christmas time.

Let each family member share their favorite story from Jesus Christ’s life and discuss what positive traits Jesus showed and what we can learn from Him as we try to live more like He did while He was on earth. Talk about ways your family is currently striving to bring the Savior into your lives and home. Remind them that even in the middle of all the worldly excitements about Christmas, Jesus Christ should still remain our main focus.

Show the family your manger shoe box and provide the family with a challenge to help you fill baby Jesus’ bed with soft “hay” during the Christmas season. Explain that over the coming weeks each member of the family should try to do two things:

First, they should make a special promise with Heavenly Father each morning during their prayers about one way they will serve the Savior, or be more like Him, that day.

Second, they should quietly watch the other members of their family and see if they can “catch” other people doing things that are Christ-like.

Next, show the family your prepared strips of paper and the jar. Each night before bed, everyone will use two paper strips to write down the one thing they did to be like Jesus that day and one thing that they saw a family member do that was Christ-like. These will be folded and placed inside Mason jar without being shared with anyone else at that time.

On Christmas Eve sit as a family, open each strip of paper and read through the things the family has done to remember and be like Christ during the Christmas season. After each paper is opened place it in the shoebox manger. After all the papers have been read, you can place a picture of the Savior in His “manger.”

Activity:

Conduct a “Seeking Jesus” scavenger hunt in your community.

Read Luke 2:8-16 as a family and discuss how eager the Shepherds were to go and see Jesus. Talk about the advice the angels gave on how they would know they had found the Savior. Remind the family that they have been discussing the same things in this family home evening: if you know what to look for, the Savior can still be found in many different ways every day.

Work together to create a list of ways you might be able to find Jesus in your community, think of things such as: a lawn nativity, a house with a star of David, someone putting money in a Salvation army bucket, someone holding the door open for another shopper, Christmas carolers singing a hymn or other Christ-oriented song, the first person to wish you a merry Christmas, anything that would speak of Christ and the real meaning of Christmas.

Make two copies of your gathered list and divide the family into two teams (armed with digital cameras if available). Explain that the two teams will compete to see who can “find Jesus” first by finding all the things on their list (taking pictures if you can).

The first team to find everything and make it back to the house wins; but, choose a time limit by which both teams should return whether their mission is complete or not.

Look at your pictures and talk about the things you saw, and how easy or hard it was to find them, while having refreshments.

Refreshments:

Hot chocolate and Christmas cookies.

Teach gospel lessons through the Primary songs with Alison Palmer’s latest book. Sharing Through Song: My Eternal Family, is now available in LDS bookstores everywhere.