Church Walk Primary School

This morning I went to do the assembly at Church Walk Primary School it was the first of our Christmas assemblies.  After asking the children if they had had a good weekend and if they had put their Christmas tree and things up, I asked if they were feeling happy - this linked to Be Happy song.  After the song I showed the children a Christmas cracker and asked for two children to come out and help.  I explained that I was going to use the cracker to tell the story of Christmas.  To start with there is always a surprise inside the cracker which can remind us of the surprise that Mary had when she discovered that God was going to use her to give birth to his son Jesus.  Next I asked who likes loud bangs or who was scared of them I asked what else we get scared of - we had the dark, fireworks, loud drums. So as the children pulled the cracker and it make a small crack noise (I did ask the children to put their hands over their ears if they didn't like loud noise) I said could they imagine what it must of been like for some of the people in the Christmas story that got very frighten - I asked them who they thought that might be - the shepherds came the answer.  I explained that every time an angel is mentioned in the Bible it always says 'do not be afraid' so the shepherds seeing a host of angels must have been really scary.  Next we looked inside the cracker and found the hat - which is a crown so I asked who wears a crown - the queen and kings too came the reply.  I told the children that Jesus was and is the King of kings which means he is the king of everyone.  We removed the joke next as I told the joke I said that some times in crackers we get wise sayings as well - now in the Bible some wise people in the old testament foretold of the birth of Jesus hundreds of years before it happened.  Last of all we had the gift which reminds us of the gifts the wise men brought.  Who would have thought that a Christmas cracker could be used to tell the Christmas story I said.  To finish off I reminded the children of all the bits in the cracker before singing Rejoice with us.  As we closed the assembly I said a short prayer.