A Night in Bethlehem

In our church I serve on the Activities Committee. For our Christmas party this year we chose to do "A Night in Bethlehem" where we decorated, served food, and even dressed up as if we were in Bethlehem the night the Savior was born. The activity turned out amazing. I had several people say this was the best Christmas party they'd ever been to. The chair of our committee thought of every detail and really went above and beyond. I was in charge of all the advertising (I made posters, 1/4 sheet handouts to pass along to friends, and invitations on scrolls for each family-200+), the scribe shop (I ended up translating the whole ward list into Hebrew), toy shop (the kids played the dreidel game), sewing 200 drawstring bags, and decorations/ set up (I was at the church from 12-10:30pm the day of the activity). In retrospect I would only attempt to pull this off if you have a large committee. Ours is quite small so we have all been working for months to prepare for this. Even with all our preparations something things just took so much longer than I anticipated and luckily I have fabulous friends that stepped in to help out. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

Entry to Bethlehem

Paying taxes, signing the census, and collecting a coin purse (to "buy' dinner). Our tax collectors are accountants by trade.

Our Bishopric dressed as Roman soldiers

Our family all dressed up

The marketplace included:

Simon Pita's Falafel- We served falafel (with Israeli Salad and all the yummy sides- yogurt dip, humus, tahini, etc.) or chicken salad on homemade pitas. There was also a choice of roasted nut and fruit spread (PB & J for the kids).

Olive Branch Deli- We served a variety of appetizers including cubed cheese, carrots, crackers and a sun dried tomato/cream cheese spread, humus, and tabbouleh on lettuce wraps.

The Garden of Eden Fruit Stand- We used a pioneer handcart that Mike's uncle made a few years ago and it worked perfectly. Here you could find a variety of grapes, orange slices, olives, dates, prunes, dried cranberries, etc.

5 Loaves Bakery- You could find fresh bread cut by our bakers with butter, honey, and several jams.

Delilah's Delicacies- Yummy, yummy cookies were served here

The Weary Souls Inn- Tables and chairs as well as couches and lounge chairs were set up under this canopy for those that couldn't sit on the floor.

The Living Water Well- We had a woman at the well serving ice cold water.

Goliath's Toys- After dinner and before the program started kids could go here and play the traditional dreidel game with spinning tops.

Tablets of Stone Scribe Shop- This shop was also open after dinner for kids to go to and learn to write their name in Hebrew. It turns out Hebrew is not so simple to write so I ended up translating the whole ward list as well as the top 200 names by popularity into Hebrew. A big thanks to my wonderfully awesome husband and http://www.stars21.com/translator/english_to_hebrew.html for saving me hours of time.

As the program was about to begin Mary & Joseph began to wander through Bethlehem looking for a place to stay. Once they reached the Inn it was announced the program was beginning and Luke 2 was acted out by youth in the ward, a primary chorus, and Mike even sang a duet of "With Wondering Awe".